Apple’s iMac has been the star of all-in-one desktop category ever since it made its debut in 1998. First it was white glossy plastic, then aluminium. This year, Apple brought to market a brand new iMac, one with 5mm thin bezels, an amazing laminated display which finally reduces of all of the glare and reflections of the screen and advancements in hard drive storage with the Fusion Drive. Even Apple’s packaging has got smaller, lighter and better.
Apple today began offering refurbished models of the current generation 27-inch iMac for the first time, roughly four months after the models initially launched. The two stock configurations of the 27-inch iMac is currently available at 15% discounts compared to brand new units, with the low end refurbished model priced at $1529 vs. $1799 new and the high-end refurbished model priced at $1699 vs. 1999 new. The iMac’s 2.9GHz Core i5 base model can be had for $1529, replete with 8GB of RAM, a 1TB HDD and that luxuriously large 2560 x 1440 display. Apple is also offering versions of the 3.2GHz model for $1699 and 3.4GHz Core i7 rigs for $1869 and $2199, depending on the configuration. Several higher priced custom configurations are also currently available as refurbished units, with all refurbished models listed as shipping in 1-3 business days.
The addition of refurbished 27 inch models comes nearly two months after Apple began offering refurbished 21.5 inch models, with supplies having remained tight for a number of months due to issues related to the thinner design of the new iMac. Apple is using a new lamination process for the display to achieve a thinner and more vivid screen, and that process reportedly was resulting in low yields, particularly for the larger 27 inch models.
Availability of new iMacs improved markedly in early March, with shipping estimates for new orders of all stock configurations improving to ‘withing 24 hours’ at that time. As always, it comes with a promise that the machines have gone through a rigorous restoration process, but offers a one year warranty to put the concerns of cautious buyers to rest.
Coming to the sleek design, the engineers have used friction-stir welding to join the front to the back. A technology called IPS (In-plane switching) brings a bright picture with excellent color clarity at all possible angles. LED backlights give instant-on, uniform brightness. The iMac is color calibrated using state of the art spectroradiometers to meet colors from around the world.
When you talk about performance, quad-core Intel Core i5 processor is on iMac with a clock speed of 3.2GHz. The next model is with quad-core Intel Core i7 with speed at up to 3.4GHz. Turbo Boost 2.0 increases the speed of the active cores allowing the processor to perform efficiently. iMac uses NVIDIA’s new Kepler Graphics architecture delivering 60% faster graphic performance. Super fast data transfer is possible with Thunderbolt. Fusion Drive brings hard drive and flash storage together.
