Some of the raw computation improvement was down to Intel's brand new Santa Rosa platform and the faster processor.
The Mac Pro only showed its bigger muscles under very heavy workloads that could flex the extra cores and really work the stronger graphics card. In Xbench it scored 40% higher than a 15-inch 2.2GHz MacBook Pro with 2GB RAM, and was virtually neck and neck with a 2 x 2.66GHz Mac Pro 1GB in all but the raw computation tasks. Overall we recorded an average 18% increase in general performance for the aluminium 20-inch 2.4GHz iMac with 1GB of RAM compared with a white 24-inch 2.16GHz iMac with 2GB. The iMac can take 4GB of RAM and comes with 1GB as standard. Some benchmarking tests are RAM-dependent, so if you opt for more RAM than us the results will change. We then used Cinebench R10 and LCDtest to look closely at the graphics card and screen quality. We used Xbench 1.4 and Geekbench 2 to run general system benchmarking tests, and added in our own speed tests, such as copying a 1GB folder, iTunes encoding and startup and shutdown times. Changing the default colour settings in System Preferences from iMac to Wide Gamut RGB helped reduce this problem, though. We used LCDtest to drop the screen to solid colours and then swivelled the display to get different angles on the reds and blues and so on.Ĭolour distortion happens: this won't affect how any prints or designs output, and it doesn't occur when you sit directly in front of the screen, but if you frequently show off a design to colleagues crowded around your desktop then it may be a problem. We did find that some colours wash out on the iMac if you look at it from outside the direct viewing angle. Fortunately the screen is very bright indeed, which goes a long way to combating the reflection. Our view is that the displays do take some getting used to and a matte option would have been nice. Unlike the MacBook Pro, which you can buy with either a matte or glossy option, all iMacs only come with glossy displays, which has irked some. Because it's made of glass, it can act like a mirror when the display is dark or a uniform colour. The one occasional complaint was the reflectiveness of the new glossy screen. With it the family can make websites, movies and music with the latest Mac tools. More than anything, it was the inclusion of iLife '08 that appealed most. The family man was less bothered by the looks and found the iMac attractive for more practical reasons, such as the glass screen being easier to clean and more robust. There wasn't much love for the old white plastic of the iMac among the professionals, and the new aluminium and glass design struck them as more business-like. A black surround borders the display, and the grey Apple logo is now black. It's slightly thinner at the top and bottom but bulges slightly more in the middle around the back. The basic form is the same a computer in a screen that perches on one curved leg. We applaud that sentiment, while secretly harbouring the notion that Apple is just borrowing design elements from its hot-selling laptop range and trying to sprinkle some sales dust onto its mid-range desktop. The materials have a higher recycling potential and Apple is promoting the iMac as a green computer. Apple has plumped for a sleek aluminium front and sides, glass for the display cover and black plastic for the reverse cover. Performance has improved, but it's the new exterior that's the main talking point. Apple iMac 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo (20-inch) at Walmart for $20 (opens in new tab).Video out (mini-DVI) this allows for maximum resolution of 1920×1200 for 2nd display support either dual or mirroring your built-in 13.Optical digital audio in/out for connecting some external audio equipment like headphones and microphones.Two USB 2.0 ports are supplied for the connection of external keyboards, printers, external hard disks etc.One FireWire “400” port is provided allowing data transfer to and from external hard drives, video cameras and sound cards at speeds of up to 400 megabits per second.Gigabit Ethernet is provided for your Local Area Network (LAN) connections.