New Apple iMac specs, price and release date announced

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Posted on 23 Oct 2012 at 18:29, by Chris Finnamore

In a surprise move at tonight's "One more thing" event, Apple unveiled a revised iMac desktop - its thinnest ever. Just 5mm at its thinnest point, the new iMac jettisons an optical drive and switches to a fully laminated display - where there's no air gap between the panel and glass - to save space.

Laminated display technology isn't anything new - we've already seen it in Google's Nexus 7 and on the Kindle Fire HD, but this is the first time the technology has been applied to a 27in screen.

There are both 21.5in and 27in models, and, as with last year's models, both screens are IPS versions with 2,560x1,440 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions.

It's certainly thinner than the last model, but there's no optical drive

No surprises on the processor and graphics chipsets; the 21.5in version will have a 2.7GHz or 2.9GHz Intel Core i5 processor and Nvidia GeForce GT 640M or GT 650M graphics, while the 27in model will have a 2.9GHz or 3.2GHz Core i5 and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M or GTX 675MX.

Continuing its illustrious history of claiming credit for other people's inventions, Apple also announced something called the Fusion Drive. This looks to us like good old hybrid storage, where an SSD is used alongside a standard hard disk to speed up access to frequently-used files. This has been available on Windows PCs for over a year, though.

Intel and Nvidia provide processor and graphics power

Finally, there was a quick dig at those Luddites who insist on still using optical media. The iMac may no longer have an optical drive, but if you're "stuck in the past" and insist on playing back your DVD collection or making photo discs for your grandma, you can buy an external drive for the iMac.

Both the 21.5in and 27in models will begin shipping in November, from £1,099 inc VAT for the 21.5in model and £1,499 for the 27in.

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