iMAC Kaby Lake (2017): The iMAC's Excellence Continues On

Apple has finally updated the iMac, so if you’re in the market for a new computer, now’s the time to do some shopping.

- Roman Loyola

It’s been nearly two years since Apple updated the iMac, which may not seem like such a big deal, especially for a desktop computer. So, understandably, if you bought an iMac in the past three or four years, maybe you aren’t looking for a new computer right now. But if your Mac is older than that, you’re probably looking to upgrade, and it’s hard to convince yourself to invest in a computer that was released so long ago.

Apple has finally updated the iMac, so if you’re in the market for a new computer, now’s the time to do some shopping. In this review, I take a close look at the high-end 21.5-inch iMac with a 3.4GHz Core i5 Kaby Lake processor, which sells for $1,499.

KABY LAKE UPGRADES, NEW GRAPHICS, RAM

The 2015 21.5-inch iMacs had Intel’s fifth-generation Core processor, code named Broadwell. The 2015 27-inch iMacs had Intel’s sixth-generation Skylake processors. The new 2017 iMacs have Intel’s seventh-generation processor, called Kaby Lake. The 21.5-inch Macs have dual-core Core i5 Kaby Lake processors, while the 27-inch iMacs have quad-core Core i5’s. (Apple offers customization options to a Core i7 processor in some models.) The processor in our $1,499 iMac review unit is clocked at 3.4GHz, and it has Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz.

Apple also improved the graphics hardware. The $1,499 iMac in this review has a 4GB Radeon Pro 560, and all of the new iMacs except for the $1,099 entry-level model now use Radeon Pro graphics. The 2015 21.5-inch iMacs used Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200, while the older 27-inch models used older Radeon cards. The new $1,099 iMac uses Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640.