We have the new 24” iMacs with their new design and power efficient M1 chips. The Mid-tier
model starts at $1499 and you bump the storage to 512gb for an extra $200 totaling $1699.
This is the mid-tier 2020 27” iMac that you can get refurbished directly from Apple
with the same 512Gb of storage and at the same price of $1699. So let’s do an Apples
to Apples comparison.
Hey, Im Jerry and yes, these 2 iMacs look a bit different and the new 24” model is
not supposed to be a direct replacement for the 27” iMac, but when they are the same
price it’s an interesting comparison. And I just want to say that buying refurbished
form Apple is essentially buying a brand new computer for a full warranty and Apple replaces
any defective issues and cases so it is going to look brand new. So let’s just start off
with the design differences between the mid tier iMacs.
Both of these iMacs are pretty similar from the front with a big display being the main
focus surrounded by some bezels and a chin. The New 24” iMac has a more modern design
with slightly smaller chin and of course the slimmer bezels in white.
The 27” iMac is similar to other iMacs in the past 9 years with a tapered edge and more
bulbous back where as the 24” has a uniform thickness….or thinness. …….The 24”
is a smaller, lighter device all around.
The 27” iMac only comes in silver where as the 24” comes in blue green pink silver
yellow orange purple. In person the colors actually look pretty good and the backs really
pop. But silver really goes with anything.
Each iMac comes with a keyboard and mouse or trackpad but the 24” comes with color
matched accessories and the mid-tier comes with that Magic Keyboard with Touch ID making
unlocking and authenticating on your Mac so much more convenient.
The 27” iMac comes with more built in ports than the 24” including Ethernet, 2 Thunderbolt
ports, 4 usb-a ports, an SD card reader and headphone out..……the mid-tier 24” iMac
comes with 2 thunderbolt ports, 2 usb-c ports and a headphone out along with the added Ethernet
port on the color matched power adapter.
Spec-wise, the 24” iMac comes with the 8-core M1 that has 4 high performance cores and 4
efficiency cores with a built in 8-core GPU and 8GB of unified memory…………..The
Mid-tier 27” iMac comes with a 6 core, 12 thread i5 processor with 8gb of ram. It also
comes with a Radeon Pro 5300 graphics processor with 4gb of dedicated memory.
For CPU performance these 2 mid-range iMacs trade jabs back and forth with the 24” coming
out ahead in Geekbench tests with single-core score of 1747 and multi-core score of 7717
vs the 27” i5 at 1215 and 6291.
The 27”; however, comes out on top with a Cinebench mult-core result of 9077 vs the
7792 on the 24”.
During the Cinebench tests the fans on both of these iMacs spun up. I mentioned on a previous
video that the fans on the new iMacs have a bit of a different sound to them and almost
sound like tv static or an over amplified speaker, but here is what each one sounded
like doing the cinebench test……………..
When we look at graphics performance the Radeon Pro 5300 wins out over the M1 with a Metal
score of 37137 vs 21788.
I know not everyone edits video but exporting video is still a good test because it really
pushes CPU and GPU and I really want to make it hurt so I am exporting this video at better
quality settings on these 2 machines.
The 24” exported this video in 15m and 24 second which was a bit slower than the 27”
at 13m and 56s.
In Unigine Heaven benchmarks I used Extreme settings except anti aliasing set to x2 with
the 27” getting an overall score of 73fps and the 24” getting 34 FPS.
And in Minecraft with the graphics set to fancy, Vsync off and frame rate set to unlimited
we get about 80fps on the 24” and on the 27” we get about double that.
When it comes to the displays, both iMacs have retina displays at 218 Pixels per inch
which looks nice and sharp. Everything from buttons and icons looks the same size on these
screens but you can get more on the larger 27” display. Both displays get up to 500
nits of brightness, are true tone enabled for auto white balance, and have P3 wide color
gamut for gorgeous colors.
The 27”; however, is the only of these 2 iMacs that has HDR output capability allowing
for a higher dynamic range when watching videos or editing photos.
The 24” iMac has a brand new 1080p camera, imaging processing and a new mic array so
lets compare them side by side.
……. The camera on the 24” is definitely
brighter and I think most people will prefer that but I think I would be happy with either
one if I wasn’t comparing them side by side.
As far as speakers, I had weird mixed results at first with the 24” where sometimes they
sounded as loud as the 27” and sometimes much quieter. Here is a test from today with
both iMacs volume all the way up. …….
The 27” iMac has more volume for sure and much more base compared to the 24”. As for
clarity they both sound good to me.
If you want to upgrade the new 24” iMac or Refurb 27” iMac after you have bought
them you have a couple of options. To expand the limited number of ports on the 24” you
can add something like Thunderbolt or USB-C docks and hubs and get back the missing USB-A
ports or SD card reader. Ram can be expanded on the 27” iMac up to 128GB using third
party ram like this 64gb kit I got from OWC…….
You can also add external storage to either iMac as needed and if you want the fastest
Thunderbolt storage for your new iMac check out this video up top to see which one is
best for Intel and M1, because its actually not the same.
So, for $1699 these 2 iMacs actually compete very well. Depending on the workload one may
be better than the other like how the 27” does a much better job for graphics intensive
tasks. The 24” goes head-to-head in most CPU tasks and can actually best the 27”
in some.
The 27” iMac running an Intel i5 has more compatibility with legacy applications, especially
specialized apps like Adobe or 3d-rendering, but the M1 can actually keep up with the help
of Rosetta translation for non-optimized apps and more apps are being updated for the M1
each day.
The 24” iMac comes with that great new magic keyboard with touch id making authentication
easier and faster but the 27” has more of the built-in ports you probably need.
Both of these iMacs actually work extremely well for me and my needs. I could jump on
either one and get my work and videos done without issue, even without any upgrades to
storage or ram. So, for me, it simply comes down to the size and I prefer the 27” display
over the 24”: display. If feels less cramped and I can get things done a little bit faster
with more things on the screen at once……..
So what do you guys think? Are you in the market for a new iMac and having trouble deciding
between the 24 and 27”? Drop any questions you have below, and I’ll see if I can help.
If you know you are going for a 24” iMac and wondering between the base model and an
upgraded model I have the video for you right over here. Hit the thumbs up button if you
liked it, hit subscribe if you want and I’ll see you next time.