Apple iMac rumours and release date: Get ready for new iMacs

We’re just a few days away from Apple’s October event, and if you’ve been patiently waiting for a new iMac then you might just be in luck. The existence of two new iMac desktop models has been revealed by a device registration filing from the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC).

That might sound like a fairly bizarre source, but the EEC regulates the marketing of electronic products in Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and has form for inadvertently disclosing Apple products before the big reveal.

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Apple iMac 2018: When is it coming out?

A report by French website Consomac revealed that models A2115 and A2116 have been registered with the EEC, meaning that a release might not be far off. Apple’s 30 October event in New York is fast approaching, so there’s a very (very) strong likelihood that they’ll be officially revealed there.

Apple iMac 2018: How much will it cost?

There’s nothing concrete as yet, but the leaks and rumours of a new design could hint at an incoming price hike. Back in 2017, a purported Foxconn insider posting on Reddit said that there would be a design update, including “more glass and a dark black body”.

In all fairness, it’s about time the iMac had a bit of a makeover. And if the price hikes which accompanied Apple’s 2016 redesign of the MacBook Pro family are anything to go by, it won’t be any surprise to find that the new iMacs are a bit (read: significantly) spendier than previously.

Apple iMac 2018: Is it going to get a hardware upgrade?

There are other reasons why the price might go up, though. It’s guaranteed that the next iMac will see a hardware upgrade, and hexa- or even octa-core Intel Coffee Lake processors may make an appearance. If those high-end processors make a showing, then the top specifications will likely set you back a serious amount of cash. That said, octa-core processors could see the top-end iMacs infringe on the iMac Pro market though, so Apple is likely to stick with Intel’s six-core offering for now.

A Coffee Lake chip would also open the door to slightly faster RAM, and potentially remove the 16GB limitation on the 21.5in model. The current iMac maxes out at 2,400MHz, while Coffee Lake processors support DDR4 at up to 2,666MHz.

Apple iMac 2018: What about the display?

It wouldn’t be a new iMac without an upgrade to the display. We wouldn’t be surprised if Apple finally killed off the Full HD version of its 21.5in iMac and moved the range over exclusively to 4K and 5K displays, but in any case, we’d expect improved panels on the 2018 models to extend colour gamut and accuracy over the previous generation.

There’s also the possibility that Apple may make the move to proper 10-bit panels for improved colour depth, which would be good news for photo and video editing duties. We can also dream of OLED finally making its debut – but that feels like something which will be restricted to a ludicrously expensive new iMac Pro when it does finally happen. It’ll be a good few years yet before commonplace TV tech such as OLED, or even HDR support, arrives on an iMac near you.

Apple iMac 2018: Early verdict

This is all speculation at this point, but all the upgrades we’ve mentioned make logical sense. What we’re most certain about, after months of rumours, is that we’ll be testing the new iMac before the year’s end – and we’ll probably get our first glimpse of it even sooner.