Apple Announces New 24″ iMac with M4 Chip

Apple is kicking off the new week with two announcements today: iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 are now available with a first set of Apple Intelligence features, and there’s also a new 24” iMac with an M4 chip and minor hardware changes.

Apple last refreshed its 24” iMac last year with its M3 chip, and this new model comes with the same M4 chip previously seen in the 2024 iPad Pro with up to 10 CPU cores and up to 10 GPU cores. This new M4 iMac also starts with 16GB of memory instead of 8GB (with a maximum of 32GB), and it’s getting a new nano-texture display option, a 12MP Center Stage camera with Desk View, and up to 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports.

“The expansive 24-inch 4.5K Retina display on iMac is its highest-rated feature, and for the first time, it’s available with a nano-texture glass option that drastically reduces reflections and glare, while maintaining outstanding image quality. With nano-texture glass, users can place iMac in even more spaces, such as a sun-drenched living room or bright storefront,” Apple said today.

While last year’s M3 chip was already plenty fast enough, the M4 offers a maximum of 10 CPU cores instead of 8 on the M3. Apple also bumped the memory bandwidth to 120GB/s on M4 iMacs compared to 100GB/s on M3 models.

In its press release, Apple chose to do performance comparisons with the the M1 iMac released in 2021: The company says its M4 chip provides up to 1.7x faster performance in apps like Excel and up to 1.5x faster browsing performance in Safari compared to the M1. Apple also promises up to 2.1x faster photo and video editing performance in apps like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro and up to 2x higher frame rates in games.

The new M4 iMac is available in seven different colors, and it starts at $1,299. You can pre-order it today and it will start shipping on Friday, November 8. Apple also updated its Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Keyboard accessories today with new USB-C ports for charging.

Apple is expected to announced other M4-powered Macs later this week, including new MacBook Pros and a redesigned Mac Mini. The latter should be much more interesting as it could be as small as the latest Apple TV 4K.