Being an Apple customer often leaves me feeling betrayed. Apple are the company for creatives, right? But nothing could drive a stake further into that heart than the new iMac M4.
I've recently had to ditch my old iMac because it was starting to struggle at times. It was an iMac 2020 with Intel Core i7 and I was convinced I needed it – and not just a single specced-out MacBook Pro and a monitor – partly out of common business sense (always have a backup) but mostly by the glorious 27-inch 5K Retina display which Apple proceeded to optimise a lot of their apps for.
Final Cut Pro – which I used for my drone work at the time – was and is a joy on that display. The first thing I did, though, with my new iMac was a joy not possible with the new devices, and not just because the new M4 iMacs don't have such a big and beautiful photographer & video-friendly monitor.
No. After getting the box home, unpeeling the screen protector (yes, in some ways it is like a giant iPhone) and admiring the design for a bit, I powered down and plugged in an extra 32GB of RAM into the spare memory slot next to the paltry 8GB Apple provided, for a total of 40 GB (yes, I know, not equal across slots, but financially efficient and still a lot faster than 8GB).
Yes, only a few years ago the beautifully sculpted iMac 2020 had a little door in the back so you could upgrade the memory when you wanted, like a grown-up computer. Plus the maximum memory was 128GB plus the graphics memory. The biggest you can specify the base M4 is 24MB! Laughable. If you push the boat out for the 10-core M4 variant you can at least specify up to 32GB, but that's the limit. (It's also very interesting that Apple isn't trying to palm you off with 8GB – I have views on that too!!)
In other words, I'm feeling a lot like the new iMacs – though very capable machines – are a big middle finger at Apple's traditional creator base.
It looks like Apple feel they have to keep making an iMac – perhaps they feel they must because Steve Jobs did – and so they target the 'bottom left' of his original consumer/pro desktop/laptop matrix (see video below) without thinking: "Do any consumers actually want or need a desktop unless they're taking things seriously?"
In other words, are Apple just making work for themselves with the iMac? Okay, perhaps not, there are plenty of possible customers – even just to have an aesthetically pleasing device in a field location for retailers and museums – but the 27-inch iMac did something else. It provided a decent amount of power and – crucially – a great display in a beautiful case.
The case for this with the smaller display is pretty thin – the $1,899 top spec iMac still only has 24GB "Unified Memory" and a 512GB SSD storage (or $2099 if you order 32GB specially). That's only 8GB or 16GB more unified memory and the same storage as you'd get with a MacBook Air 15-inch – a computer which is $200 less AND you can move around!
If you want something to edit like a pro, you'll need to provide your own display which, sadly, isn't as aesthetically pleasing. Though it might actually cost you less if you're prepared to tolerate an old 4K display. The tiny new Mac Mini M4 starts at $599 and gets to $999 with 24GB/512GB.
Now I still struggle to believe Apple feels this is a high-end spec in any category, but there is also an M4 Pro version or $1,399 if it's more processor cores you want (actually that's beating the iMac on power).
Of course, an issue with the Mini is that you don't even get a keyboard and Apple's own accessories are, frankly, immorally priced! The rule is tolerate non-Apple gear or face a steep price jump! Apple's 5K 'Retina' displays start at $1,599, by the way, so you can see why choosing any of the best 4K monitors will likely save you some cash!
The point is, this all just makes me really sad – I said goodbye to a computer I loved and a screen I did great work on and rather than the joy of a replacement I now have an ugly monitor to plug into a laptop.
I know Apple has indicated there is no likely replacement for the 27-inch iMac. There was an iMac 'Pro' too – what felt like an attempt to push the price point up for users on the cusp of premium like me, and I'd warrant a lot of photographers, for who screen real estate matters a lot, and power quite a bit (but slightly less than, say, a 3D rendering engineer).
It all feels like Apple want to categorise all serious pros in a $4,000 minimum spender zone when it comes to computers (if you're including monitors, keyboards and mice – which I'd argue are still reasonably essential) and I'm not sure the M4 is that far ahead!
More fool them – the upshot is that I now need one fewer Apple product (though admittedly am placing a bit more faith in a laptop, insurance, the best external SSD, and the cloud it it all goes wrong!)
If you're feeling uncertain, check our guides to the best MacBooks for photo editing and the best desktop computer for photo editing.
