Now that the reviews of the new iMacs are starting to show up, let’s see what the verdict is. I mean, we know there isn’t going to be anything but awesome about the new iMac, but it wouldn’t hurt to hear it from some of the top sites in the tech world.
“New iMac screen is ‘stunning’” →
Computerworld’s Ken Mingis:
Don’t take my word for it. That’s based on the cluster of techie-types and graphic designers who popped into my office last week to get a gander at the newest all-in-one Mac from Apple.
CNET Reviews the 27 inch iMac →
CNET does an extensive review including benchmarks against some ‘sort of’ competing machines:
The Gateway boasts a few features the iMac doesn’t have, namely a TV tuner, a solid-state hard drive, more video memory, and a quad-core CPU. It also costs $300 less than the iMac. In Apple’s favor, the iMac has the larger screen, and a fast 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo chip. The iMac was faster on almost every application performance test, which leaves the Gateway with only a TV tuner, a lower price tag, and marginally better gaming performance. The Gateway might have an argument to make against the smaller $1,199 iMac, but with better performance and its expansive screen, we find that the $1,699 iMac provides sufficient benefits over its Windows-based competition to justify its cost.
Marco Arment muses over the curious pricing of 27″ iMac →
Marco Arment also had some thoughts on the new ‘screen with a computer attached to it’:
It has an IPS panel. IPS is the best and most expensive LCD type, giving the best viewing angle and the least color- and brightness-shifting as the angle increases in any direction. Nearly every panel on the market, including every laptop panel, is the cheap TN type. (TN panels wash out as soon as you move your head slightly, especially vertically, which is why it’s so hard to find a good viewing angle for your laptop lid while watching a dark movie.) Other 27” TN panels exist (only at the lower 1920×1080 resolution), but I can’t find any other 27” IPS panels. It’s also LED-backlit.
[…] And, for the time being, it’s a desktop with absolutely no equivalent in the PC world.
Tests confirm Apple’s 27″ iMac only supports DisplayPort input →
On the flipside, hopes of using that giant iMac with your existing hardware vanish, as AppleInsider reports on a test that claims the new iMac only accepts DisplayPort inputs:
The results of the testing indicate that Apple’s stated specifications for the iMac were correct; while video input worked as expected with a 13″ MacBook Pro equipped with Mini DisplayPort, all attempts to use a physical adapter dongle to supply alternative video signals to the new 27″ iMac failed.[…]
This prevents the new iMac from serving as an HDTV-style output source for older DVI-based computers or HDMI-output devices such as the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Apple TV, or standard DVD and Blu-Ray players. Future devices that support the DisplayPort standard will work, of course.
