Apple iMac 27 inch (Spring 2011) Review

For: Design, Performance ability, and Thunderbolt capability, large screen.

Against: Still a bit expensive, SD card slot closer to the optical drive, Lack of Blu-ray option

Apple unveiled its iMac with a new AMD Radeon HD graphics cards, quad-core Intel Sandy Bridge processors, and solid-state storage options, all designed to a simple thing: Faster

The latest iMacs are naturally speediest yet, but with the right configuration they are quick. Faster Thunderbolt ports on the outside turn are supposed to be friendly device into an unassuming powerhouse that might be just quick enough for professional users. So the question here is whether this $1,999 device is really good for you.

Hardware

Apple boosts a full 27-inch size, features a Core i5 processor at 3.1GHz and the users can expand it to 3.4GHz Core i7 by spending $200 more. Anyways it come with 4GB of 1333MHz, DDR3 RAM, installed as two 2GB DIMMs, 1TB HDD with 7,200 RPM SATA drive. The 27-inch screen boosts 2,560*1,440 resolution IPS panel is an AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics card with 1GB GDDR5 memory. It got dual thunderbolt ports on the back, gives users a ability to power a lot external displays. The LED backlit monitor here is more than spacious enough for most use and is certainly bright. The same design that Apples been hawking for years still looks good, modern and understand styling matching your modern life. The SD card slot is still close to the DVD-ROM slot, and it still not upgraded to Blu-ray discs. The power button is exactly the right spot to confound new users and frustrate experienced ones as they accidentally hit it every time they try to tilt the display back. It got some hyper-glossy display which makes a heck of a good mirror when turned off. They got the patent out for its looks like a touchable iMac and the disappointment here is they didnt come to fruition here-we hate to smudge up that surface.

Performance

The gaming selection is still limited here, but Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 played full resolution without a hitch. 1080p clips loads quickly and cycles just fine. We are able to export a 720p clip in 30 seconds and 20 seconds from iMovie and a 1080p clip takes less than a minute

For:

Design, Performance ability, and Thunderbolt capability, large screen.

Against:

Still a bit expensive, SD card slot closer to the optical drive, Lack of Blu-ray option

Conclusion

Finally, for the professional users and users spending their time in Photoshop or Premiere or REDCINE will be happy with this device. You can add an internal SSD for additional $500 option for 256GB and high speed external storage through Thunderbolt. The huge 27-inch display is still a good plus to this device, and overall performance of the device is good as iMac is always hard to blame and ignore.