A new 24" iMac with an M3 would be very nice. If it’s only the M2, I will be disappointed.
As our elderly 27" iMac with a fusion drive seems to slow, we’ve been watching, had hoped for a new 27", but may have to drop back to the 24" unless a rumored 32" is announced… so far it’s OK, a shame to kill off the 27" screen…
patience…
I have a 27" Intel iMac, 2019 Retina 5K 3.6 GHz 8 core i9, 40 GB RAM, and all my main drives are now SSDs. My MBP is an M1. The iMac still feels more than fast enough for me, so I’m not in the mood to upgrade it. Besides, it self-upgraded to Sonoma, anyway.
The thing is, this may be the last time this iMac will be supported with a macos upgrade, so even though I like to wait for at least a .1 or .2 update, the clock is likely ticking.
It would be a huge pity to lose the 27" (or larger?) screen, though. Overall, this has been the best Mac I’ve ever owned, and the big screen is a major contributor.
-awlabrador
I appreciate the simplicity of the iMac line, but the idea of being locked into the monitor would bug me no end.
I’ve never used anything Apple larger than an iPad, I’m a Windows guy going back to DOS booting from diskettes. I am a strong advocate of a really good screen, and my 34" extra wide (2560X1080) LG monitor qualifies nicely. It used to be plugged into a tower case. My last computer upgrade was radical for me - I bought a laptop - and the monitor works with that now.
That’s why I like the Mac mini. I can buy whatever screen I want and keep it however long I like. The current lineup has the base M1 iMac at $1299 and the base M2 mini at $599. They have the same storage and memory while the mini has more ports. The rumored new iMac will change the comparison but I’ll still get another mini when my 5 year-old one dies.
That’s where I am after retiring my 2012 Mac Pro, M2 Mini, and I still use my 32" Dell monitor with it…
If there were a way to use the iMac 27" screen, it would be nice, but all it’s drivers are in the internal motherboard, not a easy access in any case… An older one had a bad GPU card, sold it for a fair price to SellYourMac, and they likely swapped it out, resold it… I looked into opening it up, but it got real complicated real quick, I still have the screen removal suction cups n tools, but they are getting dusty…
So we’ll see what comes along for DW… No panic yet…
BTW, the 2012 MacPro is still here, has a 24" HP monitor on it, in case I need to fire it up, but it’s been months now, makes a good support for my desk extension, price is right… Solid as ever, but stuck back in Mojave… Cooling its heels…
weco
I was like that for a very long time, since the days of the Power Macs, all the way to the Intel Mac mini, all of which had external monitors. I made a couple of side trips to the Bondi Blue iMac and the G4 iMac, but I didn’t stay with those long. It wasn’t until the 2015 27" flat panel iMac and my current 2019 27" iMac that the all-in-one iMac aesthetic really grabbed me.
I did the Mac mini and external monitor thing for a few years, and for whatever reason, it’s just not the same for me.
-awlabrador