Any iMac owners here?

I didn't get any activity with a similar thread over at DesktopReview, and since all-in-ones are kind of halfway in between notebooks and traditional desktops, I thought it might be kosher to ask here too.

My wife and I were considering getting an iMac (the $1199 base model) as a family machine (watching DVDs, managing family photos on iPhoto with a Time Machine backup, surfing the internet) to complement my Vaio F (which I mainly use for work and gaming) and her hand-me-down 2008 MacBook Pro (which she uses for all-around use). Although we both have good computers, having a third around would be handy often (right now we're using my ancient PowerBook G4 for that role, but the thing barely runs anymore). My wife insists on an OSX machine, and honestly, for managing and backing up family photos, I've learned that I prefer iPhoto and Time Machine to PC equivalents like Picasa and Windows Backup. And there's no large-screened-but-inexpensive Apple MacBook Pros/Airs, so the iMac seemed like the best way to go.

So for owners: how good is the screen? The speakers? The keyboard and mouse that it's bundled with? Anything else you like or don't like about it?

 

I have a 27" i7 iMac, late 2009. I love love love it. The thing about the iMacs is they get so underrated for what they offer and it might be because not everybody truly knows the iMac's capabilities.
First, this thing is really fast and powerful. Apple generally puts a lot more into the iMac than they do their top of the line Macbook Pro. For a late 2009 model it gets a Geekbench score of 9800+.
The screen is an IPS with 1000:1 contrast ratio. It has a desktop-class Intel CPU and hard drive and generally a much better GPU than what you would get in the MBP.
The speakers are down-firing and sound very decent but I wouldn't throw a party and use just the iMac's built-in speakers.
The iMacs generally have a more ports than the MBP so it wins hands down on connectivity.
So yes, for a low-clutter desktop Mac it offers a lot for the money.

 

Yeah, I don't need the speakers to be fill-the-room big, but my wife and I sometimes watch streaming TV shows on our computers (Amazon Prime plus some channel-specific streaming shows from ABC or Bravo or whatever), so we wanted speakers good enough for an audience of one or two to enjoy a TV show. Sounds like it meets that qualification.

I did see that the $1199 model packed a desktop-class CPU and the same GPU as a $1800 MBP, but I didn't know that the screen was IPS or that it had a 1000-to-1 contrast ratio. That's great news; my Vaio screen has similar contrast and it's gorgeous.

As for ports...good point. Even the cheap iMac has four USB 2.0 plus Thunderbolt...for comparison, my MBP (which cost nearly twice as much in 2008) has two USB 2.0.

 

I don't own an iMac, but have used them extensively back in high school not too long ago (iMac computer lab...lol). The screen is fairly decent, it's typical for your average desktop setup. Viewing at an angle might be an issue, but then again that's just a problem with TN panels in general.

As for performance, I can't say for sure due to school policy not letting me run whatever I wanted, but I'm sure it'll be similar to a similarly-spec'ed laptop.

 

Okay, we've got one person saying it's IPS and another saying it's TN. This is the model I'm looking at...does anyone know for sure which it is?

 

the 27" imac is really amazing. the 21.5" is ok but you really loose the wow factor of that ultra high res/big screen. but at this point without an SSD standard or at the very least user upgradable(without dissembling the entire front end), its really hard to justify a big purchase like that.

 

Apple - iMac - Read about the features of the new iMac.

It says it's IPS.

 

Sweetness.

And while the 27" might be cooler, it's also 50% more expensive. I think the 21.5" makes more sense for us.

 

Why not get a refurb'd 27" from Apple outlet?

They come with the same warranty for tad less.

 

The part in red that I bold-faced says it all. The iMac does not have a TN screen, all the models since 2009 have had an IPS screen. For an IPS screen with 1000:1 contrast ratio it's more than "fairly decent".

 

I got my i3 imac 27" for 1350 new. too bad prices went up so much (even though they are way more powerful)

 

I've historically been wary of refurbs. I mean, if they were flawless machines, most wouldn't have been returned, right?

And with electronics, it's sometimes hard to say "we've checked it over and it's fine." I've had to lemon law a car for intermittent electronics gremlins, and the manufacturer and the dealer maintained until the dead end that it seemed fine to them and it passed all their diagnostics.

 

Okay,

I'll chime in here. I love my iMac. The 27" screen is an IPS screen as had previosly been mentioned. Thank god, mine is pre-thunderbolt, as I can use a mini displayport to displayport cable and power that 27" screen with a blue ray player, and an Alienware M11x-R1, not at the same time of course.

The CPU handles anything that I can throw at it, and the GPU is decent. It runs my virtual machines almost as fast as a native machine.

Good luck.

 

I'd like to add one more nicety about the iMac. It natively accepts up to 16GB ram. I just maxed my 27" out to 16GB. Got it cheap at J&R so why not?

 

You can't go wrong with the iMac. It is easily the best AIO on the market.

If there is a downside, and this is based on preference, it doesn't have a touch screen like many other AIOs. I imagine Apple may eventually add that.

Anyway, the screen is tops. The sound is excellent. The wireless keyboard and mouse are top notch and has virtually no lag. The magic touchpad is a nice option which you might enjoy. Especially coming from a laptop.

Also, it runs Windows in bootcamp excellently.

 

You got that right. I did the same to my 21.5 a couple months ago. My first iMac was a 20" 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, and I really liked it, but sold it to a buddy of mine on the cheap and then got the mid 2011 base model. I thought about getting the 27", but its just way too big

 

Okay, I'm biased.

Once you go big, everything else is just puny.

Especially when gaming or watching videos.

One nice feature that is only available on the 27" is the ability to use the display in "target display mode."

Regardless, pretty neat machine; and no other manufacturer even comes close in fit and finish.