A look at Apple's 27-inch 5K iMac (2019)

The 2019 27-inch 5K iMac is an interesting beast.

While Apple skipped the iMac's 20th birthday back in 2018 and didn't offer a hardware update to its still-pop all-in-i desktop, the tech giant has finally opted to give it a much-needed spec boost in 2019.

To be clear, this update is all about hardware and other technical specs. If yous were hoping Apple tree would finally change the iMac's design, you're unfortunately out of luck. The all-in-one desktop still features the same substantial bezels that are kickoff to expect rather dated. To put this in perspective, this is the longest Apple tree has ever stuck with the same design for any of its products.

That said, it'south not as if the desktop's design hasn't aged gracefully. The curved-filled aesthetic still looks great on a desk-bound, and the all-in-1's overall depression-profile helps information technology blend in with its surround. The iMac notwithstanding remains a great choice for minimalists. Still, it'southward impossible to deny that those bezels don't look huge, especially when compared to even Apple's own MacBook Pro.

Sticking with this trend, love it or detest information technology, the aforementioned wireless keyboard and mouse makes a return with the 2019 iMac, complete with the strangely placed Lightning charging port on the base of operations of the mouse.

27-inch iMac back

Regarding hardware, the new iMac features a ninth-generation Intel Java Lake processor, up to an AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 graphics menu and a faster 512GB SSD instead of the hybrid hard drives featured in previous versions of the desktop.

The ports offered in the 2019 iMac also remain the aforementioned as its 2017 counterpart. This means the desktop features 2 Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports, iv USB-A ports, an SD carte slot, a headphone jack (praise be), an Ethernet port and support for 1 external 5K brandish or 2 4K screens. This time around information technology'southward likewise worth noting that RAM is upgradable in the 27-inch version of the iMac, which is a welcome modify from previous versions of the all-in-1.

The particular iMac Apple sent over to the MobileSyrup office is the iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, three.6Ghz Intel Core i9, 16GB 2667MHz DDR5, Radeon Pro Vega 48 8GB configuration of the pricey figurer.

For me, as has been the instance with nearly every iMac I've used, it's really the desktop's brandish that truly shines. Despite its chunky frame, the display is by far one of the best I've encountered. With an aspect ratio of 16:10 and a 5K resolution of v,120 x 2,880, the screen is then precipitous that I can't fifty-fifty come across a pixel when I'm sitting close to the display. To be articulate, Apple isn't solitary in this space anymore, with the Surface Studio 2 being equally sharp, coming in at a iv,500 10 iii,000 pixel resolution with a 3:2 aspect ratio, along with the fact that its a touchscreen.

27-inch iMac bezels

That said, though I haven't spent much time with the Surface Studio 2, the 5K iMac edges out the competition in the colour vibrancy infinite thank you to its impressive color gamut. Yous're basically getting ane of the best-looking displays out at that place, with the bonus of reasonably powerful hardware inside.

It'southward likely that Apple has plans for a more radical iMac redesign when the tech giant moves the Mac to ARM-based processors, a shift that has been rumoured for a number of years now. Yet, it's unclear when that volition actually happen.

The 27-inch iMac starts at $ii,399 CAD for the 3.0GHz eighth-generation Intel Core i5, 8GB DDR4 RAM, Radeon Pro 570x with 4GB of GDDR5 retentivity and a 1TB Fusion hard drive.