Apple iMac 27-inch (Late 2012) Pro Reviews

The 27-inch iMac (late 2012) is in a class of its own when it comes to all-in-one desktop computing. It will cater to a wide range of users who are looking for more power and a larger display than can be delivered in a notebook. There are now a number of competing PC products on the market that have also added touchscreen capabilities thanks to the introduction of Windows 8. However, we are yet to be convinced of the value of a touchscreen in desktop environment and thus don’t view that as a downside of the new iMac. If you’re in the market for a Windows alternative, you can look to the Dell XPS One 27, the Vizio Touch PC and HP’s Omni 27. As is often the case in Mac versus Windows PC comparisons, the Windows machines generally offer better bang-for-your-buck, but they will not bring you the level of detail and refinement that comes with Apple’s new 27-inch iMac. Apple’s 27-inch iMac also caters to the pro-sumer market in a way that none of the Windows alternatives is able to challenge as it supports up to 32GB of RAM, has the fast hybrid Fusion drive or the option for 768GB SSD and an array of unparalleled high-speed connectivity options. We would like to see Apple drop its exorbitant prices for in-house RAM upgrades and we would also love to see a return reinstall media being presupplied.

Apple revisits its top-end iMac, and reasserts its position as the best all-in-one bar none

It’s beautiful and very powerful but the extra upgrades make this high-spec iMac rather too costly for most

The 27-inch 2012 iMac has real style, but it doesn't sacrifice function to form. Its screen is excellent, has lots of power under the hood and the Fusion Drive option is a great alternative to a speedy-but-expensive SSD or a capacitous-but-slow HDD. Some may bemoan the lack of an optical drive, but for our money, a portable solution is more than sufficient considering how little they're used nowadays. Overall, the new iMac is a triumph.

The new, thinner, 27-inch iMacs are strikingly designed, but the loss of two convenient features—internal optical drives and built-in FireWire ports—dampens my enthusiasm for the makeover. The new iMac’s drastically reduced glare and generous 8GB of RAM will benefit every user. Enhanced FaceTime cameras, better-sounding speakers, and faster processors sweeten the deal, and the optional Fusion Drive’s ability to offer an SSD’s speed with a hard drive’s capacity represents a breakthrough in storage. With only subtle differences in processor and graphics performance between the high- and low-end models, consider buying the $1799 iMac and putting the savings toward the optional 1TB Fusion Drive. That may offer the best bang for your buck.

While we had reservations about the 21.5-inch in the workplace, the 27-inch model offers enough beef to dispel those fears. It's a big, powerful, and thoroughly enjoyable machine to use and one with which you won't be disappointed. Obviously there is always the argument over whether or not you should opt for a laptop over a desktop, but the 27-inch iMac is such a different experience compared to the MacBook Pro that we never once felt there was a reason to go portable instead. This is definitely one to check out for the office, or a dedicated space at home, if portability isn't a requirement.

The 27in iMac us beautiful and expensive, and will appeal to both professional- and home users, being ideal for graphics and video work. Here's our 27in Apple iMac 27in review.

The Apple iMac 27-inch (Late 2012) all-in-one PC is the pinnacle of desktop design and manufacturing. It's not perfect, or cheap, but it's worth every penny.

If you're not content with the specifications of our $1,799 base model, the $1,999 version of the 27-inch iMac steps up to a 3.2GHz quad-core Core i5 CPU and 1GB GeForce GTX 675MX graphics. The truly power-crazed can upgrade that model to a 3.4GHz quad-core Core i7 with Hyper-Threading ($200) or top-of-the-line 2GB GeForce GTX 680MX ($150) or both. Storage options abound, including the step up from a 1TB to 3TB hard drive for $150 or replacement of the spinning hard drive with 768GB of all-solid-state storage for a painful $1,300. Perhaps the most significant option adds $250 to either the 1TB or 3TB hard drive, turning it into what Apple calls a Fusion Drive, as seen in the recently relaunched Mac Mini. This arrangement combines the hard drive with 128GB of faster flash storage. The latter holds the operating system and factory-installed software plus your most frequently accessed applications and documents, not simply caching but dynamically moving items between the hard and flash drives depending on how often you fetch them. The Fusion Drive is transparent to the user, appearing as a single 1.12TB or 3.12TB volume.

The new iMac is a beautiful piece of hardware, that’s clear to see. Apple’s clever construction techniques have enabled a stylish, distinctive all-in-one, but more importantly they’ve legitimately improved the user-experience, too. The full lamination process takes the same display pixels as from the previous generation iMac and makes them work harder and look better; you’ll appreciate the many pounds dropped from the overall weight of each system from the moment you lift it out of the box. With style comes a handful of compromises. As with Apple’s recent notebooks, there’s less room for user-upgrades: adding memory is basically the only thing that you can do, and even then that’s only an option on the 27-inch model. With both, then, it’s a case of digging deep when first ordering, particularly since having experienced the speeds on offer from FusionDrive, we’d seriously recommend that every buyer tick that option box. DIY enthusiasts may miss the upgrade possibilities, but everyone else will be enjoying an incredibly capable computer. With strong performance the 2012 iMac proves that beauty needn’t be merely skin-deep, and that all-in-one needn’t mean conceding speed. That, and Apple’s creative use of components and design, makes it our pick of the all-in-ones.

You might be alarmed by the fact that the design is the most interesting thing about the new iMac. A thin bezel is nice to look at, but it doesn't improve processing speed, workflow, or overall utility. Fortunately for Apple, it evolved that design from a computer with a strong technical foundation. It is the updates to that foundation, and a few points of polish along the way, that keep this iMac on elite footing. I'll suggest you line up behind the Blu-ray fans to those of you hoping Apple will someday add touch-screen input to the iMac. Instead, this is a computer for serious, performance-driven users, particularly those who need a high-resolution display, and fast graphics and disk performance.