Apple today launched, or more appropriately revamped its iMac lineup. There are still two sizes, both 21.5-inch and 27-inch models, but the minimum processor speed is now a 3.2GHz Core i3 processor.
On the Core i3 machines you can upgrade the processor to a 3.6GHz Core i5, for around £150 more. This is quite a nice offering if you want a smaller 21.5-inch screen with quite a speedy processor. With all models you get 4GB of RAM as standard and can go up to a maximum of 16GB internal memory.
The 27-inch models go all the way up to a 2.93GHz Core i7 processor. Most noteworthy though is the inclusion of space in there for both a 2TB SATA hard drive and a second SSD drive of 256GB capacity. Wow, that is a nice inclusion, this will mean super fast start up times if you put the OS and your applications on the SSD and keep the SATA hard drive for data. The other sideline update that impressed me was the SD slot accepts SDXC (=very high capacity) memory cards.
At the time of writing this I cannot comment on pricing, as the store was not playing fair with me. I could only gain access to educational pricing which starts at £938 for the base 21.5-inch model, up to £1,549 for the 2.8GHZ Core i7 27-inch model.
Update: The base model 21.5-inch iMac starts at £999 inc VAT.
