The 27″ iMac is a great addition to the Apple range of iMacs. Even though introduced in October of 2009, it hasn’t been a hugely advertised product. The original version starting off with a simple Core 2 Duo chip, you can now pickup a Quad Core monster powered by an Intel i5 chip with 4GB of DDR3 ram.
We had the opportunity to review one of these for two weeks, you can check out our findings after the break.
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Score:
8.5 / 10
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The Good:
Core i5, Lots of screen space, Gigabit Ethernet
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The Bad:
No 5.1 sound, No BluRay, Small amount of ports
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Bottom Line:
A great computer if you need lots of screen space.
Hardware
We received the top of the range 27″ iMac model. Featuring a Intel Core i5 2.8GHz, 4GB of DDR3 ram, 1TB SATAII hard drive, ATI Radeon HD 5750 with 1GB of graphics ram and a 8x super drive. The screen is a huge 27″ LED backlit display and as always, it is absolutely beautiful. You can almost view the picture on the screen from almost any angle due to the IPS screen. The body of the iMac is Apple’s Unibody, which is their all in one design. It’s build quality its stunning, very solid and sturdy, however, in saying that, it’s also very heavy.
On the back of the computer, you will find a standard amount of ports from Apple. Four USB 2.0 ports, One Firewire 800 port, One 10/100/1000 Ethernet port, a Mini Display port and of course, a headphone and microphone port. Unfortunately, the iMac doesn’t sport 5.1 surround sound output – so if your thinking of whacking this in your home theatre or have a love for high quality audio then you will need an external card. Also, another downside to the iMac is it doesn’t have BluRay support. With a screen as beautiful as it is, you can’t play BluRay DVD’s – huge disadvantage as many competing products now have BluRay.
The iMac comes with a wireless bluetooth keyboard and the Magic Mouse as standard. The keyboard is fine and I love Apple keyboards, however, I did dislike the Magic Mouse. It is two small and curved for my hand and wasn’t heavy enough – however, i’m used to huge, ergonomic, heavy mice. I just plugged in a USB mouse and that was fixed.
Performance
I didn’t really time the performance of the machine as that’s not really my area of expertise. However, it did boot up quickly, it was extremely fast and it did everything you wanted it to do. As expected with a Intel Core i5. It came preinstalled with Final Cut Studio, which includes Final Cut Pro, Motion etc and they all ran extremely speedy and rendered clips very quickly. The standard install applications like iMovie and iPhoto where also extremely fast. Making a movie and having it need to render is nearly a thing of the past with the power of iMovie and the Core i5.
Conclusion
The iMac 27″ may look huge and intimidating at first look but once you get to use it, you will love it for everything it can do. Unfortunately, I had to go back to my 23″ LCD screen after using the 27″ and I wish I could have the 27″.