Last week Apple presented its M3 chips and the debut of these SoCs in the new 24-inch iMac and the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro. The renewal of these devices makes it inevitable to wonder which will be the next to adopt these chips, and now Apple gives us an interesting and, probably for some users, sad fact.
No 27-inch iMac. Speaking to The Verge, Apple representative Starlayne Meza has confirmed that Apple will not offer a 27-inch iMac with any of its Apple Silicon family chips. Instead, they say in Cupertino, they will focus on the colorful 24-inch iMac that they first launched in 2021 and which has just been updated with the Apple M3.
Goodbye to rumors? The rumor mill regarding a theoretical 27-inch iMac model and one of the most powerful variants of the Apple M has been circulating for some time, and in fact already in 2021 there was talk of this possible companion to the colorful 24-inch iMac.
Or maybe not. The truth is that although this model disappears from the pools, there is another that has replaced it with force in recent months. It would be a 32-inch iMac that would have an OLED screen and would probably integrate not the basic M3, but one of its most powerful variants launched a few days ago, the M3 Pro or the M3 Max.
The iMac falls short for many. This machine offers some interesting features due to its 4.5K resolution screen, but using a standard M3 and having limited features in areas such as connectivity – it only has four USB ports – makes it a model that is not very suitable for more demanding users. ambitious.
There are alternatives. In March 2022, Apple presented its Studio Display monitor, which has a 27-inch panel and 5K resolution. This monitor was precisely the way to resolve the issue at Apple, because if you wanted that hypothetical 27-inch iMac Pro, you could have it, only by combining the Studio Display screen with a Mac mini or better yet, with a Mac Studio.
But. The problem is that this monitor is not cheap at all—starting at 1,779 euros—and for that price one would expect to be able to have an OLED panel or at least better connectivity. Having a real alternative to that theoretical 27-inch iMac becomes an unaffordable exercise for somewhat tighter budgets, especially because the performance in terms of the screen is debatable. There is no complaint with the features of the Mac Studio, but they are not cheap equipment either.
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