Apple iMac 27-inch (Mid 2011) Pro Reviews

The new 27in iMac might be great fun but is it really worth £1,600+? That kind of money could buy you a damn hot 3D games machine, a pretty decent workstation, a touchscreen marvel… or even a mid-range MacBook Pro. But factor in the beautiful screen, superb performance, top-quality input devices and (let’s face it) minimal support downtime, this 27in 3.1GHz iMac is the ideal affordable workstation for the creative professional. Frankly, if you’re in the market for a home computer, forget it – it’s too good for you.

Every year I review the iMac, and every year my conclusion is the same: the iMac remains the single best all-in-one computer available. The 27-inch model is virtually the only machine of its class on the market, and it's hard to argue with its $1,699 entry price given that a similar IPS display alone costs nearly $1,000. There's far more competition for the 21.5-inch model, but nothing that blows it away: the $1,049 HP TouchSmart 610xt and $1,099 Lenovo A700 offer 23-inch touchscreens with the same 1920 x 1080 resolution as the iMac, but both feature only a 2.66GHz dual-core mobile Core i5 and slower Radeon at that price, while the $1,099 Sony VAIO L has a 24-inch 1920 x 1080 touchscreen display but struggles along with a 2.3GHz dual-core mobile Core i5 and Intel integrated graphics. I'd call that matchup in Apple's favor, especially given the near-useless state of Windows 7 touch overlays. That's not to say that the iMac is perfect: it's still frustrating that Apple ships such beautiful displays but doesn't offer a Blu-ray drive, which is the best way for the average consumer to watch high-quality 1080p content. (And iTunes movies are still 720p!) The potential for tragedy remains high as long as the SD and DVD slots share such intimate quarters. And we're pretty sure Apple's displays get glossier every year. But these are the same faults the iMac has had for years now, while the positives have gotten substantially better. It's a winning formula that's thus far eluded Apple's competitors -- and we imagine the company will eventually decide to change the equation entirely.

A lot of this discussion is a mind dump about trends in computing and ideas for the future, but if you're looking for a conclusion it's this: I like LG's 27-inch panel that Apple uses, I like Sandy Bridge and thus I like the 2011 iMac. If I lived a different life it'd probably be my desktop of choice, and that's something I never thought I'd say.

Apple's newest iMac is an outstanding all-in-one, but its high price and limited performance improvement mean it's not worth upgrading from a recent model.

The price is high – for most people one of the cheaper models such as the £1,399 27in one will be better value – but if you want the best all-in-one computer around, this is pretty much it.

This top-of-the-range, 27-inch 2011 Apple iMac with a 3.4GHz Core i7 processor added as a custom option is an incredible machine, but it might be more than you actually need. Creative professionals might welcome the larger screen and extra power, but for the average home user, a sub-£1,000 21.5-inch iMac could well prove more than good enough.

No other PC we’ve reviewed has offered the screen quality, hardware/software integration and cool, quiet operation of the Apple iMac. The processor and graphics upgrade now brings the line up to and beyond state-of-the-art in Windows PC terms. If it had arrived in time for this month’s £1001+ PC charts, the Apple iMac would be awarded Best Buy.

With super-charged components and a best-in-class screen, this top-of-the line iMac provides an excellent platform for digital-graphics-focused users.

Overall the iMac hangs on to its lead position as a powerful and highly desirable all-in-one.

It’s hard not to be charmed by the 2011 iMac’s combination of swift processors and capable graphics. The aesthetic may not have changed in a generation or two but is still arguably well ahead of the plastic PC pack, and the price – although in the premium space – reflects the components, the quality of the display and, yes, the Apple cachet. This isn’t the all-in-one for buyers on a budget, and shopping around for regular desktops may find you equal or greater performance for your money, but the 2011 iMac is a polished update to one of the best machines on the market today.

A few flaws remain, but Sandy Bridge and a superb screen put it way ahead of every other all-in-one PC we’ve seen

For those looking for a larger display, the $1699 27-inch 2.7GHz Core i5 iMac is the better value, since its overall performance isn’t that much slower than the high-end $1999 27-inch 3.1GHz Core i5 iMac. However, the $1999 iMac offers much better graphics performance if you’re into gaming or do a lot of video or 3D work. It also can be upgraded to a 3.4GHz Core i7 quad core processor ($200).

We recommend Apple's new 27-inch iMac to digital media editors and others with serious performance needs on the strength of its impressive speed, its connected device potential, and its market-leading 27-inch display.

It's pricey, has a huge screen, and is as powerful as an Asgardian thunder god. If you need a graphics PC for your business, the new Apple iMac 27-inch (Thunderbolt) will rival the huge tower workstations currently available. For the rest of us who don't live and die by deliverable deadlines, however, other recent all-in-one PCs out-innovate the Aluminum beast.

Compared to a recent six-core 3.33GHz Xeon Westmere Mac Pro with 8GB of RAM, the Mac Pro was about 15 percent faster overall than the new iMac. The iMac was a little faster in the graphics tests and iTunes encode tests, but considerably slower in most tasks, especially MathematicaMark and Cinebench CPU tests.