Apple 21.5-inch iMac review (late 2015) – still the all-in-one standard

Peripherals

The 2015 iMac includes the Magic Keyboard 2 and Magic Mouse as standard. The new keyboard is wedge-shaped, with a slightly clickier and more responsive keypress action. The F-buttons, which also have multimedia controls, are larger than the previous model, which is especially handy when reaching for the play/pause and mute buttons. It’s perfectly decent for office use and general typing, but the compact size and lack of a number pad may limit its appeal among those that do a lot of number crunching. It now uses a rechargeable battery, rather than AAs like the old model, and you should get around a month of use between charges.

I’ve never been particularly fond of Apple’s Magic Mouse; it always feels a bit stodgy when compared to the firm’s excellent touchpads, but the multitouch-sensitive touch surface is much more useful than a scroll wheel – particularly in OS X, which is designed with four-way swipe gestures in mind. It too gets a rechargeable battery instead of AAs. The Lightning port is on the bottom of the mouse, so you can’t use it while it’s charging, but you should get around a month between charges and you should get around nine hours’ of use from a little over two minutes of being plugged in, so this shouldn’t be a major problem.

^The Magic Trackpad 2 and Magic Keyboard 2 line up satisfyingly well

Apple also sent a Magic Trackpad 2 with our review unit. Fans of the old Magic Trackpad might be slightly dismayed at the white coating, which looks like a dirt-attracting nightmare, but they’ll probably be won over by the impressive Force Touch integration. There’s no physical click action any more; attempting to do so when the Trackpad is switched off and nothing will happen. The clicking action is controlled by software, sensing the pressure of your touch and creating an artificial clicking action that’s indistinguishable from a real click. Press a little harder and you’ll get a Force Click, which activates secondary functions, like a conventional right or middle click.

The number of built-in Force Click functions in OS X was limited at the time of writing, although still useful. Force Click on a hyperlink in Safari and you’ll get a preview of the linked page in a small box. Force Click on a word in a document or on a web page and you’ll be given dictionary definitions. There are also functions built-in to third-party software, but its integration is still limited. If you want the Magic Trackpad 2 instead of the Magic Mouse 2, you’ll pay an extra £44.

Conclusion

The 1TB hard disk is more than a little disappointing, as is the fairly significant cost of upgrading to a Fusion Drive and a Magic Trackpad 2, and don’t get me started on the placement of those ports, but the cheapest 21.5in iMac is a capable and well-built machine. It doesn’t offer the outright performance of its more expensive siblings, but it’s a fantastic way to get yourself an all-in-one with decent software and performance. Alternatively, check out the Mac Mini if you’re happy to provide your own display.