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Halloween is known for both tricks and treats, but at Apple’s online-only “Scary Fast” special event, the technology giant only offered the latter. Three treats, to be specific, in the form of three new chips that represent the next generation of Apple Silicon, aka chips designed in-house, and three new Macs.
Alongside the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros in the effortlessly cool shade of “Space Black,” Apple is updating the colorful and ultra-thin iMac. It keeps the same starting price of $1,299 but triples down by swapping the M1 chip for the M3 chip. That means faster performance for nearly every possible task, and it keeps the redesigned look that can fit anywhere.
If you’re already sold—anybody rocking an aging Intel-based iMac or are pushing the M1 iMac to the wall—you don’t need to wait, as orders for the new iMac with M3 are open now. It’ll begin shipping next week, and you can still pick between seven colors.
- 24-inch iMac with M3 (8-core GPU), 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, $1,299 at Amazon
- 24-inch iMac with M3 (10-core GPU), 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, $1,499 at Amazon
24-inch iMac with M3: Everything to know
Considering that Apple debuted the 24-inch iMac in 2021 with a complete redesign, it isn’t much of a surprise that this modern and thin look is sticking around. Center to the iMac is the 24-inch 4.5K Retina display with over 11 million pixels, support for the P3 wide color gamut, a 60Hz refresh rate, and 500 nits of brightness. It’s still expansive enough to dive into just one application on a large scale or to multitask between various applications effortlessly. You’ll still find bezels all around it, as well.
Powering it all is Apple’s new M3 Chip, essentially the entry-level offering for the masses that was unveiled alongside the M3 Pro and M3 Max at the “Scary Fast” event. For the starting $1,299 model, you get the M3 chip outfitted with an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine. That might sound similar to the M2 or M1 chip, but with this generation of Apple Silicon, it’s more efficient and provides even more room for graphical performance. It’s also Apple’s first 3-nanometer chip for a computer and introduces Dynamic Caching, which allocates local memory in real-time to deliver more power based on the task.
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Compared to the 24-inch iMac with M1, the M3 can open applications up to 30% faster, which means quicker access to all your stuff, and it is up to two times faster than the M1 experience as a whole.
That is plenty of performance for most tasks, including memory-intensive productivity applications like Final Cut Pro and Figma, while countless others are open simultaneously. It means you will see an improvement over the M1 iMac, but you’ll see an even bigger improvement over an Intel iMac or Mac desktop. The M3 iMac is up to 2.5 times faster than the most powerful 27-inch iMac with Intel and up to four times faster than the 21.5-inch Intel iMac. If you’ve been holding out on upgrading, you’ll likely see a significant benefit with an upgrade now.
You can spend more at $1,499 to get the 24-inch iMac with a 10-core GPU. This will increase performance and more headroom for creative tasks, gaming, 3D rendering, and more. Though, we wouldn’t expect the standard 24-inch iMac to be a slouch with these. Out of the box, the latest iMac will be running macOS Sonoma, which not only deeply integrates with other Apple products like the iPhone for easy copy-and-paste syncing or AirDrop for file transfers, but also allows you to place widgets on the desktop. Those look especially great on this 24-inch display.
Additionally, the 24-inch iMac still packs a six-speaker sound system with support for Spatial Audio and “studio-quality” microphones, which come in handy for recording sessions and virtual meetings. You can also use the built-in 1080p HD FaceTime camera that supports Portrait Mode and Lighting to make you look your best in real-time, but you can also use reactions in real time like confetti or a thumbs up.
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The 24-inch iMac with M3 comes with up to four USB-C ports, though you’ll only get two on the standard model. You can pick between green, yellow, purple, pink, blue, orange, or silver for color. The iMac will have a color-matched Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse or Trackpad. Unlike AirPods Pro 2nd Gen and the iPhone, which made the switch to USB-C, these core Mac accessories still opt for a Lightning port as well.
Apple’s latest enhancements to the 24-inch iMac are about improved performance, and the M3 chip looks to double what the M1 chip started. It keeps the iMac as one of the best home or office computers, especially since it’s an all-in-one package with everything you need to set up quickly.
You can preorder Apple’s new 24-inch iMac with M3 in an 8-core GPU or 10-core GPU configuration, and it will begin shipping next week. Of course, if you’re after the iMac’s enhanced looks but don’t need the latest chip, you can also save on the M1 model while they’re in stock.
- 24-inch iMac with M3 (8-core GPU), 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, $1,299 at Amazon
- 24-inch iMac with M3 (10-core GPU), 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, $1,499 at Amazon
Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.
