The iMac with

Apple silicon Apple silicon is a series of system on a chip (SoC) and system in a package (SiP) processors designed by Apple Inc., mainly using the ARM architecture. It is the basis of most new Mac computers as well as iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV, ...

, also known as the iMac M1, is a

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

all-in-one desktop computer designed, developed and marketed by

Apple Inc Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

. The first iMac with Apple silicon, a redesigned 24-inch model based on the

Apple M1 Apple M1 is a series of ARM-based systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) designed by Apple Inc. as a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) for its Mac desktops and notebooks, and the iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets. The M1 c ...

ARM-based system on a chip, was released on May 21, 2021.

Overview

On June 22, 2020, Apple CEO

Tim Cook Timothy Donald Cook (born November 1, 1960) is an American business executive who has been the chief executive officer of Apple Inc. since 2011. Cook previously served as the company's chief operating officer under its co-founder Steve Jobs ...

announced the Mac would shift from Intel processors to Apple's own in-house designed processors that use the

ARM64 AArch64 or ARM64 is the 64-bit extension of the ARM architecture family. It was first introduced with the Armv8-A architecture. Arm releases a new extension every year. ARMv8.x and ARMv9.x extensions and features Announced in October 2011, AR ...

architecture, branded as Apple silicon. On April 20, 2021, Apple announced a 24-inch iMac based on the

system on a chip A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memory ...

. The iMac with M1 features a 4480-by-2520 (4.5K) built-in display,

1080p 1080p (1920×1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen vert ...

FaceTime camera with an improved

image signal processor An image processor, also known as an image processing engine, image processing unit (IPU), or image signal processor (ISP), is a type of media processor or specialized digital signal processor (DSP) used for image processing, in digital cameras or ...

and three-microphone array, and a six-driver stereo speaker system with a pair of force-canceling woofers and a tweeter per side, that supports

Dolby Atmos Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels, allowing sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects with neither horizontal, nor verti ...

and

spatial audio Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers that surround the listener ( surround channels). Its first application was in movie theaters. Prior to su ...

. It also adds support for

Wi-Fi 6 IEEE 802.11ax, officially marketed by the Wi-Fi Alliance as (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) and (6 GHz), is an IEEE standard for wireless local-area networks (WLANs) and the successor of 802.11ac. It is also known as ''High Efficiency'' , fo ...

USB4 USB4 (aka: USB 4.0) is a specification by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), which was released in version 1.0 on 29 August 2019. The USB4 protocol is based on the Thunderbolt 3 protocol; the Thunderbolt 3 specification was donated to the US ...

Thunderbolt 3 Thunderbolt is the brand name of a hardware interface for the connection of external peripherals to a computer. It has been developed by Intel, in collaboration with Apple. It was initially marketed under the name Light Peak, and first sold as ...

, and 6K output to run the

Pro Display XDR The Pro Display XDR is a 32-inch flat panel computer monitor created by Apple, based on an LG supplied display, and released on December 10, 2019. It was announced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 3, 2019 along with the thir ...

. External display support is reduced to one display over

USB-C USB-C (properly known as USB Type-C) is a 24-pin USB connector system with a rotationally symmetrical connector. The designation C refers only to the connector's physical configuration or form factor and should not be confused with the conne ...

/Thunderbolt; the previous 21.5-inch Intel-based model could drive two 4K displays over USB-C/Thunderbolt. The models also include a magnetic power plug and external power supply that can be configured with a

Gigabit Ethernet In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use i ...

port. The iMac with M1 ships with a

Magic Mouse 2 Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

Magic Trackpad 2 The second-generation Magic Trackpad (initially marketed as Magic Trackpad 2) is a multi-touch and Force Touch trackpad produced by Apple Inc. It was announced on October 13, 2015 alongside the Magic Keyboard and second-generation Magic Mouse, ...

with a color-matching aluminum underside. It can be configured with one of three updated Magic Keyboards with rounded corners: a standard version, a version with a

Touch ID Touch ID is an electronic fingerprint recognition feature designed and released by Apple Inc. that allows users to unlock devices, make purchases in the various Apple digital media stores (iTunes Store, App Store, and Apple Books Store), and aut ...

sensor, and an extended layout version with a numeric keypad and Touch ID. The Magic Keyboards with Touch ID are compatible with other Mac computers with Apple silicon but only ship with the iMac.

Design

The iMac with M1 is the first iMac with a major redesign since 2012, with slimmer bezels, a flat back and seven color options; they are the same colors used in Apple's first official logo. It is the first iMac available in multiple colors since the

iMac G3 The iMac G3, originally released as the iMac, is a series of Macintosh personal computers sold by Apple Computer from 1998 to 2003. The iMac was the first major new product release for Apple under Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO and cofounder ...

. Jony Ive contributed to its design.

Specifications

References

{{Apple hardware IMac family Macintosh all-in-ones Computer-related introductions in 2021 ARM Macintosh computers