Thoughts on the new iMac

Today, Phil Schiller gave his keynote presentation at the Apple Expo in Paris, where he presented the brand-new iMac G5. The iMac G5 was expected as Apple publicly acknowledged its delay (uncharacteristically confirming its existence) at the last quarterly earnings meeting. As with all new Apple designs, this one again by Jonathan Ive, the new iMac G5 is being heavily scrutinized for form and function.

For starters, the form is very appealing. My first impression was a bit mixed, but upon closer inspection of the images from Apple’s web site and those from press outlets, I find the curves seductive. The ports are placed square in the back on one side for easier access than my current “lampshade” iMac. The integration of the power supply into the unit definitely adds some white space below the 17” or 20” monitor, but I think it is not as bad as some would say (opinions are opinions). The LCD has definitely lost a degree of freedom or two, as one can no longer adjust the height (nor rotate from side to side independent of the base), but this is a minor, if not trivial, concern for myself. I am sure others would disagree.

The specs are inline with my expectations—they could always be better, but Apple is looking for the best bang for the buck. Some deride its choice of the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics processor with 64MB of DDR SDRAM as too weak given todays penchant for games that ever push the limits of video processing power. Although weak and without much headroom, it is acceptable for now. I hope Apple does not stick with it for the life of this model, however. (Our favorite fruit company has a habit of not upgrading current models with better technology as it becomes available, instead opting to wait for the whole product line to refresh before implementing such upgrades.) I must express qualms with the meager 256 MB of RAM included with all models, even the “Best” configuration. 256 MB is a minimum these days and 512 should be standard. If I were to buy such a computer, 1 GB of RAM would be necessary. The lack of Firewire 800 and Bluetooth is disappointing given the shared components with the current PowerMac G5 lineup. Bluetooth is available as a built-to-order option.

All in all, a nice refresher to the otherwise stagnate line of computers from Apple.