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| 24" iMac in blue (but I got the silver one) |
I've been an Apple diehard for well over a decade - almost 15 years in fact. My first foray was a MacBook Pro laptop for my 50th birthday in *cough* 2009. It's still going strong and has been upgraded a few times although sadly no longer capable of running Apple's latest Mac operating system. Since then I've added numerous iPhones, iPads and in 2013 a 21" iMac desktop. That's served me well and again is still going strong. However, it also won't run the latest OS (in fact it's about 3 versions behind now), and I've also recently had cause to bemoan that it won't run a couple of bits of the latest versions of software I own/use.
Having summed and ached for almost a year I suppose, I've finally bitten the bullet and bought the newest version of the iMac. The smart (and even sleeker) 24" version running Apple's own silicon, the M1 chip.
First things first - the elephant in the room. Apple kit is ridiculously expensive. I could have bought three of four windows desktops for what I paid for his specific version of the iMac. But, and I appreciate this is a wholly subjective viewpoint, the Apple ecosystem is fabulous. It works for me and their kit is beautiful to look at, and I find very functional and easy to use. To paraphrase Steve Jobs, one of Apple's founders and now sadly deceased, "It just works".
I went for a model that had extra ports (the base model has only two Thunderbolt/USB ports - this ones 2 Thunderbolt and Two USB 4 ports. I also went for a version with an upgraded memory (16GB instead of the base 8GB), and an upgraded SSD (storage) up to 1TB from 256GB at the base end.
That all meant a substantial hike in price, but the one (potentially negative) thing about the iMacs is that they're not upgradeable after purchase. If you need extra memory/storage, you need to spec it up front. This should future proof my purchase, and I wanted the extra memory and storage primarily for my photos/processing. Yes I could get an external storage unit (in fact I have three external drives attached to my iMac), but I like plenty of onboard storage too.
The other key decision was colour. Once upon a time, all Macs came in beige. Then silver. Now there are 7 colours to choose from for the iMac (less for the base models). Many people get/got quite excited by this, and whilst I quite liked the blue model, 1) I'm not that fussed by colour on my computers, 2) I'm an Apple traditionalist so silver works fine for me, and 3) they only had the blue or silver in the configuration I wanted on the day. So silver it was.
It's a one box solution, and in keeping with Apple's beautiful design, even the box and packaging is cool.
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| The iMac in it's protective box |
Once out of the box, you get the computer until, a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and a USB4 to lightning cable to charge the two accessories and that's it.
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| Out of the box and ready to go |
Connecting everything up was a breeze and boom - we're away.
Back in the day, a new computer meant copying over all your files and reinstalling all the software. Today things are much easier, and a "migration assistant" basically lets you copy everything from the old Mac to the new one. You can do this wirelessly, via Ethernet cable or Thunderbolt/USB if you have the right cables. I opted for an ethernet cable. The whole process took around an hour, and as if by magic, my new iMac was a replica of my old iMac.
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| The migration assistant doing its thing |
It's worth checking your software for the latest updates. I found a few programs that needed updating, and a couple that needed some reconnecting (my backup programs for example knew that although I'd migrated everything, it was on a new computer and I needed to tell it that it was OK for the new box to "claim" the settings for use on this iMac.
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| Ready to rock and roll |
Generally, it was a painless exercise, completed pretty quickly until I got a message saying there was an update for the operating system. That took another hour or so, but installed without problem.
I'm very happy. The new screen is gorgeous (it's 10 years of technology advancements newer) and the unit runs fast, quiet and is a joy to look at.
NowI need to work out what to do with my old iMac. It's still perfectly functional.
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/simon_hiscocks/
Instagram: simon_hiscocks
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