Although the 27” iMac with 5K Retina Display has been a new and recently refreshed product line, the rest of the iMac range has gone untouched for almost 2 years.
However, recent code in the Beta format of El Capitan suggests that a new 4K Retina Display 21.5” iMac could be in the offering.
Both Macrumours and Apple Insider have published articles in the past week that report that a new iMac could be with us by the end of September. If correct a 4K Retina Display would provide users with a native resolution of 4096 x 2304 compared to the current 1920 x 1080.
There is also a lot of discussion about which processor Apple will put into the new iMac. In 2013 the 21.5” iMacs received the Intel Haswell processor and since June the Broadwell processors have been available. However, latter on this year Intel will be launching their very latest processor which is called Skylake. These will almost certainly make it into the 27” iMac and the 15” MacBook Pros but will Apple delay refreshing the smaller iMac for these processors? Unlikely, seems to be the general consensus.
In addition to the improved display and processors, expect to see the graphics performance increased on the lower end models from the current Intel HD 5000 to the latest Intel HD6100 graphics.
At the higher end of the range Apple have switched from NVIDIA to AMD to power the 27” iMac with 5K Retina Display, so a change to AMD maybe on the cards here. This will certainly be a key factor for many of our pro customers who like the compactness of the 21.5” machine but don’t want a consumer led graphics solution.
The only other possible changes could be a move toward a Fusion Drive to improve performance of the machines.
As with all Apple rumours it is possible to argue a case for either side. The general feeling is that Apple will not wait for the Skylake processors and introduce a new 21.5” iMac with 4K Retina Display by the end of September. With the right graphics capability and a Fusion Drive as standard we could really see this machine further strengthening its appeal to our lease customers.
