(bouncy music)
- The 2020 iMac is the last of its kind
and that's kind of sad.
Since the 2012 iMac was announced,
Apple has been making steady improvements
year over year to the internals of the iMac
while keeping the outside almost the same.
I've been using this iMac for the last two months
and how well has it held up?
Let's see.
Hey, I'm Jerry and when I unboxed this iMac
two months ago, it was after a long saga
of personal back and forth.
Waiting for a redesigned iMac.
Then buying a refurbished iMac.
Then returning it because it died.
And then buying another refurbished iMac.
And then after a week, after my return period expired,
the new 2020 iMac was announced.
And before all of that, I had a refurbished 16 inch
MacBook Pro which I also recommend.
But I returned it all for this mid range 2020 iMac.
Why?
Because the big display and all in one design,
10th gen Intel performance, upgradability,
and a few other minor things.
There's no getting past the most obvious part of the iMac
and that's this 27 inch 5K display.
Yeah, not full HD, not quad HD, not 4K but 5K.
That's a whole nother K compared to your 4K TV
and twice as many Ks as I have subscribers.
This thing is gorgeous, from everything
I've seen about the 5k displays, they are
close to color accurate, right?
At 500 nits and just great to use.
Now, most people probably will not care if the display
is more color accurate than a $99 monitor on Amazon.
And I'm no photo or video professional,
and my eyes are not really trained to discern
the subtle differences.
But the fact that I can be pretty accurate
with color correction or photo touch-ups,
without needing to calibrate my monitor
or worry about how others will see them is nice.
And new for the 2020 iMac is True Tone.
So if you really don't care about color accuracy
or you'd rather have a viewing experience
that is more comfortable for your eyes.
Then True Tone will shift the white balance
of the display based on the ambient light.
So if you're in a lot of sunlight during the day
the screen will be cooler and if you used soft white light
bulbs at night then your color will be warmer.
Being an all-in-one computer means that the display
is hugged on all sides by a full computer.
That's the display, CPU, memory, cooling speakers
and video camera.
When I decided to switch back to the Mac
after seven years on Windows, I bought a
refurbished 16 inch MacBook Pro
and liked almost everything about it.
It was fast, it was portable.
It had a great screen, but I wanted to use it as a desktop.
So I started looking at monitors and speakers
and other things that I would need for a desktop setup.
I decided that I just wanted a nice, simple, clean setup.
So that's why I returned it all for one iMac.
And I love the simplicity.
The peripherals or extras or whatever you want to call it
of the 2020 iMac had been upgraded this year as well.
Apple said that the addition of the T2 chip
allowed for a better sound and bass response
and the new 10 ADP FaceTime camera.
As well as faster HEVC encoding and storage controller.
And they were right.
Listen to the sound test.
They did comparing the 2020 iMac to the 2019 iMac speakers.
(upbeat music)
(high-energy music)
I'm sure that was harder for you to hear
when recording from a microphone and then
listening through whatever speakers you have.
But there actually was a decent improvement
in clarity in the 2020 iMac audio.
(bouncy music)
I've watched many hours now of Live TV
and YouTube and other videos on this iMac now,
and never once thought that the speakers
were not loud enough or clear enough or good enough.
The 1080P cameras in the new iMacs have a much
needed improved clarity and low-light performance.
With webcams being more important than ever,
it was nice that we finally saw an improvement
over the standard potato cams that have been
in computers for years.
Before I had this iMac, I would only do
video calls on my iPad or iPhone,
because the cameras were so much better.
Now, if I'm using the iMac and I need to join a video call
I will not hesitate just firing up the software
on this guy, instead of reaching for my iPad.
This years iMac also has upgraded
10th gen Intel Core processors with options
for I5, I7, and I9 variations.
The refurbish 2019 iMac I had was the
core I9 version with 16 threads.
So I was a little hesitant going with the
mid range core I5 for the 2020 iMac with
12 threads for things like video editing.
Once I got it and actually started using it,
I found that the performance was just fine for my workloads.
For those that are interested in comparing against
other systems, I get a Cinebench of around 3300.
In Geekbench Single-Core scores I get about 1100
and Multi-Core scores around 5600.
(upbeat music)
I usually get some questions about how games run
on a device, and I'm not a big gamer.
But I did download and run some games,
including Apple arcade games,
app store games, and even Fortnight.
In Fortnight, I was getting about 90 frames
per second with mostly high settings.
And in my experience, the mid-level iMac with I5
and with the Radeon 5300 seemed to have no issues.
Since I've seen no issues with performance
for my workflows, one of the biggest benefits
of going with the I5 over the I7 or I9,
is fan noise or lack thereof.
The fans in this iMac are virtually silent all the time.
I only hear them ramp up at the end of a Cinebench test.
Or at the end of a ten minute video export
and final cut or premiere.
When I had the I9 iMac, I would hear the fans
on a regular basis without doing what
I would consider a heavy workload.
Just even Apple's default apps like Safari
and notes would spin the fan up for no discernible reason.
So I'm really glad that the I5
does not seem to have that issue.
Another great thing about this 27 inch 2020 iMac
is that you can still upgrade the memory.
It's as simple as it could be.
Pop open the backdoor, add the memory,
close the door and boot.
I added 32 gigabytes of OWC memory
to the eight gigabytes included with the iMac
for a total of 40 gigabytes.
And I should be set for awhile with that
for what I use the computer for.
Now, we do need to talk about the
Apple Silicon elephant in the room.
(trumpeting elephant)
There were rumors of a new design iMac coming this year
and that didn't happen.
Apple also announced the Apple Silicon Macs
were coming this year.
While I do not think that we will see Apple Silicon
iMacs this year, you might be wondering
should you wait instead of buying an Intel 2020 iMac.
Like always you'll see it everywhere.
If you need something now you should buy it now.
If you have specialized software that you need to work well,
you should buy an Intel iMac.
Because you do not know how well it's going to run
or not run on Apple's new hardware.
Or how long it's going to take for
that third-party to update their apps.
If you want to be able to save money
and upgrade your memory with third-party, like OWC.
You should buy an iMac now, because we do not know
if it will be able to have the ability
to add additional memory to Apple Silicon Macs.
If you want a tried and true architecture,
that will be supported probably for more years
than you actually own the computer.
You should not hesitate to buy an Intel iMac.
And if you need to boot into windows for any reason
for a specific app, for specific games,
you should buy an Intel iMac.
So with all of that said, the improvements
to the iMac for 2020 are pretty good.
If you want a computer with a great display,
all the components you need like speakers and a camera,
and great performance that will be supported for many years.
If you want the cleanest desktop experience
without a mess of cords, there is no better
all in one desktop then the iMac.
And it comes with everything you need right
in the box to get started computing stuff.
But it can always be better.
You can always add something like storage
or extra USB ports or memory.
And if you're interested in seeing something about that
you can check out this video over here
about my iMac accessories.
Hit the thumbs up button if you liked it.
Hit subscribe if you want to.
And I'll see you next time.