iMac 21 inch

[cbo111]

I am interested in getting the basic 21.xx inch iMac, currently on sale for about 1k. We mainly do surfing, email, and skype, no real gaming stuff. I have iphone and ipad and have seen flawless performance from Apple. This would be our first non-pc.
Anybody care to talk me out of it?

 

[Ian S]

I'm not an Apple fan but if you like your other Apple devices then, you'll probably like the iMac.

 

[mpeirce]

I am interested in getting the basic 21.xx inch iMac, currently on sale for about 1k. We mainly do surfing, email, and skype, no real gaming stuff. I have iphone and ipad and have seen flawless performance from Apple. This would be our first non-pc.
Anybody care to talk me out of it?

Nope.

I bought its big brother this summer (the 27" iMac) and it's the best Mac I've owned.

Make sure you get the one with the SSD in it. The Fusion drive is good, but with the pure SSD, the thing is blazing fast.

 

[KCGeezer]

I've had the 21" for 4 yrs. DW is a mac fanatic and has the 27". For general use it's been bulletproof. The 27" is nice is you have 3-4 windows open at same time. I'm not sure what you're used to with Skype but it was perfectly adequate for me while doing OMY 3 yrs ago.

 

[Midpack]

I am interested in getting the basic 21.xx inch iMac, currently on sale for about 1k. We mainly do surfing, email, and skype, no real gaming stuff. I have iphone and ipad and have seen flawless performance from Apple. This would be our first non-pc.
Anybody care to talk me out of it?

Not me. I’ve had nothing but PC’s as long as they’ve existed (back to MS-DOS), but I only bought my last Dell PC (about 5 years ago) because the equivalent iMac was quite a bit more expensive. We’ve had iPhones and iPads for years, I’d have ZERO qualms about owning an iMac.

 

[braumeister]

No reason not to buy it if that's what you're interested in.
About mid-way in the product cycle (released in June, and typically about a year between new models).

I was always a fan of the iMac, but eventually I realized that I could get the same power in a laptop (MacBook Pro) for a somewhat similar price. I use the MacBook at home with a cheap larger display monitor and it's the same as having a desktop. On the rare occasions when I want to bring it with me on a trip, it's easy.

Starting price is $1,300 for the iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pro

I would recommend looking carefully at the specs, deciding exactly how you'll use it, and buying accordingly.

I've been a Mac user since 1987, I used to w*rk for a custom Mac software developer, and I've been a consultant on contract to Apple, so I'm clearly biased.

OTOH, I've also developed custom software for Windows and UNIX, so I have a pretty good perspective. But I always come back to Apple.

 

[FIREd]

Just do it.

My iMac 27” is 6.5 years old and still purrs like a kitten.

 

[nash031]

I'm on my second IMac. First lasted 9 years. Upgrade the RAM, maybe. Do it.

 

[Ronstar]

I won't talk you out of it. My latest iMac is about 6 years old and runs great. Same with my MacBook Pro.

 

[socca]

Bought an Apple 27" iMac in June (mid-2017 model). Added lots of options - paid $3.3k. Haven't had any trouble with it. I use it with an external 22" monitor; still sometimes short of screen space (doing development work). I quickly replaced the horrible 'chiclet' keyboard with a Kinesis Freestyle 2 keyboard. The wireless mouse is starting to aggravate me (issues random mouse clicks even with all gestures turned off) so I'm thinking of going to a wired mouse. YMMV.

 

[audreyh1]

We prefer the trackpad to the mouse with our 27" 4K iMac

 

[target2019]

The problem I've encountered with iMac all-in-one is that upgrades are very difficult. After a few years Apple will not support the beast, so you're on your own to find someone who is qualified to open the case and replace failed components, or even a PRAM battery.

I recommend you max out memory for this reason.

 

[braumeister]

I recommend you max out memory for this reason.

Yes, I'm sorry I didn't mention this. Always get as much RAM as they will stuff in it. You might not need it now, but future OS versions will certainly need it and performance will suffer if it's not there.

 

[CitizenK]

Also very pleased with my 21" iMac. I concur with mpeirce... I would not get the very base model 21" iMac, which has an old-fashioned spinning hard drive. Spec it with either a SSD drive, or at least the Fusion drive which is a SSD-spinning drive hybrid.

 

[capjak]

I have an 21 inch iMac and it works great, I have iPhone and iPAD wife has Macbook Pro. We used to be PCs only.

The one thing I would suggest is to think about a Macbook also for portability. I believe you can get plug ins to use it with a large monitor if that is what you want while being able to take it with you when you travel. I find the iPAD lacking for regular use on the road.

 

[frayne]

Once you go Mac, you'll never go back. I couldn't imagine going back to the old regular PCs with MS Windows OS. I run a Mac mini and use a regular keyboard, mouse and monitor. Didn't really care for the Apple KB and mouse. If I were to upgrade I'd go with the Mac Daddy 27" iMac with all the bells and whistles.

 

[misshathaway]

I am interested in getting the basic 21.xx inch iMac, currently on sale for about 1k. We mainly do surfing, email, and skype, no real gaming stuff. I have iphone and ipad and have seen flawless performance from Apple. This would be our first non-pc.
Anybody care to talk me out of it?

I am biased since I've been all Apple for 30 years. One thing you might enjoy with the iMac is that you can set things up so that if the iPhone rings, it rings on the iMac too and you can take the call from there. Great if the phone got left in some distant place in the house.

 

[Ready]

I've been all Apple since 2012 and have been very pleased.

I would avoid the low end iMac with a magnetic hard drive though. Without an SSD drive it will be slow, especially after a few years as the operating system updates come out. I would upgrade to 16MB as well.

Look for discounts from places like Adorama and B&H Photo. Or, if eligible, buy through the Apple educational discount program.

 

[pj.mask]

It’s great for an always on computer. We’re at 6years? Bought refurbished for a bit less - larger screen size one.

Started to get a bit slow so added ram last year. If I could swap out SSD would last another 5 years. Only slow for restarts - but even then not bad.

Big fan of windows on some things but the Mac is much lower maintenance

 

[Rianne]

Love the iMac and AppleCare is awesome. They walk you through all issues without sounding pretentious. The ability to connect with iPhone is so convenient. I answer my cell calls from my Mac, update pictures, calendar, notes, and get my texts through my Mac. That way I don't have to run into the other room and get my cell for anything. I don't get a single ad on any website I visit, but you can do that with a PC. I only allow Mac downloads through App, so any weird download needs special password. No issues with security.

We had so many problems with PC's. Can't even go there.

 

[explanade]

Nope.

I bought its big brother this summer (the 27" iMac) and it's the best Mac I've owned.

Make sure you get the one with the SSD in it. The Fusion drive is good, but with the pure SSD, the thing is blazing fast.

I think the OP has a budget and the SSD upgrade would blow the budget, not to mention have less storage capacity.

I opted for the 3 TB Fusion drive, because I have a large library of DSLR photos. Photography was one of the reasons I upgraded from a 2013 iMac to a 2017 iMac a couple of months ago.

The old one was fine but I wanted that 5K screen.

No reason not to buy it if that's what you're interested in.
About mid-way in the product cycle (released in June, and typically about a year between new models).

I was always a fan of the iMac, but eventually I realized that I could get the same power in a laptop (MacBook Pro) for a somewhat similar price. I use the MacBook at home with a cheap larger display monitor and it's the same as having a desktop. On the rare occasions when I want to bring it with me on a trip, it's easy.

Starting price is $1,300 for the iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pro

I would recommend looking carefully at the specs, deciding exactly how you'll use it, and buying accordingly.

I've been a Mac user since 1987, I used to w*rk for a custom Mac software developer, and I've been a consultant on contract to Apple, so I'm clearly biased.

OTOH, I've also developed custom software for Windows and UNIX, so I have a pretty good perspective. But I always come back to Apple.

The 27-inch iMac will have that 5K screen. I think large, 4K or 5K standalone monitors are still pricey by themselves, at least 50% the price of an iMac 5K.

You will have a lot more storage on the iMac than you would on a comparably priced MacBook Pro.

Generally you get more bang for the buck with desktops, even iMac, compared to a premium laptop, which is what the MacBook and MacBook Pros are.

 

[explanade]

I am interested in getting the basic 21.xx inch iMac, currently on sale for about 1k. We mainly do surfing, email, and skype, no real gaming stuff. I have iphone and ipad and have seen flawless performance from Apple. This would be our first non-pc.
Anybody care to talk me out of it?

If you have friends and family with iPhones or other Apple products, you could use FaceTime instead of Skype.

It's for Apple products only so there are probably way more people with Skype accounts out there but FaceTime is more polished than Skype.

Another Apple-only software is iMessage, which is one reason many people stick with iPhones instead of going for something cheaper.

 

[Chuckanut]

My 2011 27 inch iMac works great since I attached a 400 GB SSD drive to the Thunderbolt port and started booting it and running the software from the SSD drive. Before that it took 3minutes to boot up, longer really since it was still very slow for a few minutes after that, and starting software like Lightroom or PhotoShop also took about 2 minutes. Now, it's all done in less than 60 seconds.

 

[explanade]

Bought an Apple 27" iMac in June (mid-2017 model). Added lots of options - paid $3.3k. Haven't had any trouble with it. I use it with an external 22" monitor; still sometimes short of screen space (doing development work). I quickly replaced the horrible 'chiclet' keyboard with a Kinesis Freestyle 2 keyboard. The wireless mouse is starting to aggravate me (issues random mouse clicks even with all gestures turned off) so I'm thinking of going to a wired mouse. YMMV.

What kind of external monitor?

Is it at least 4K?

I paid extra for the Magic Trackpad 2, which you can recharge with a Lightning cable.

I had also opted for Magic Trackpad with my previous iMac but that one required pretty frequent swapping of AA rechargeable batteries.

I'm also fine with the Apple keyboard (which again has built-in batteries). When I used to work, I did an ergonomic evaluation where I could have ordered a third-party keyboard.

But the ergonomic specialist showed me that if I have the table and monitor at the right height, the low profile of the Apple wireless keyboard actually did a good job of avoiding stress on my wrists.

I was also concerned about it being too narrow but when I'm touch-typing, my shoulders don't have to scrunch in together.

There might still be better keyboards out there but for me, this setup works well.

 

[cbo111]

Heading to the Apple Store this afternoon. I must admit to having a bit of anxiety similar to car shopping. I'm thinking the 21" iMac with SSD and 16GB Ram.