georgeeo porgeeo

I upgraded from a 2011 27" iMac to the M1 24" iMac and found it to be a great computer aside that I had to upgrade my laser printer to a wireless laser that works great for me.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

You saw those videos, too.

I won't be using mine hard enough that I'll need the thermal pads.

DogFriend

I am looking to replace my Mac mini with another. So far the latest chips not available. I already have a couple of 23 inch monitors so I could put the money into hardware. The intel chips allow you to add memory cheaper than Apple sells it. I figure the monitor would wear out before the hardware.

BrHawkeye

I have the M1 iMac with 16gb of ram and a 1 terabyte drive, and I am quite happy with it. If you get that you'll need a dongle to handle input from cameras. It's cheaper to buy a 4 terabyte external drive than to go to 2 terabytes on the internal drive; so that's what I did. That's my setup and it works well. The new MacBook Pro sounds very good too, but it's more than I need for how I use my computer as is the upcoming iMac Pro.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Nor will I, Jerry! This thing's plenty fast enough for what I need for the foreseeable future. I admire the newest MacBook Pro laptops, but other life priorities beckon.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I have basically the same configuration in a MacBook Air with a 27" LG P3 color gamut monitor.

My outboard drives include a 2TB Samsung T7 for on-the-road backups and file storage.

I solved the dongle situation with this thing:

https://www.charjenpro.com/products/ultimatedock

Matt Granger recommended its predecessor in a video where he compared 20 different hubs/docks after testing them offscreen. The specs on this one are better than the one he tested, and so far (3 months), it's been excellent. The only thing I need is a dongle to connect my old Apple Superdrive (optical burner) directly to the M1 MBA, since it draws too much power for the CharJen Pro to handle it.

neillaubenthal

The M1 iMac like the other M1 models…is absurdly quick and plenty for LR and PS work even with the base model chip. The only reason to wait would be if you want more than 24 inch monitor…with last month’s release of the M1 Pro and M1 Max laptops we are likely to see a larger screen iMac in weeks to several months. I’m waiting on that because I want the larger display.

neillaubenthal

I would not buy an Intel iMac at this point…even the base 24 M1 model blows it away and is much more future proof…and we will see the larger one relatively soon from all reports and estimates…probably early 22.

grcolts

I was in your shoes earlier with deciding about how to upgrade my 11 year old Imac. After studying the situation with the new M1 Macs I was leery of their non-upgrades and repair. Being so new on the market long term life is not yet known. So, I looked at PC's and ended up going with an AMD HP PC which I just updated to Windows 11. So far I have really enjoyed it. Windows 11 is sort of Mac like upfront so it is easy to use. Most of my Mac software I was able to transfer to the Windows version w/o cost as well. I still have my old Mac and maybe at some point in the future when I feel more secure with the new Macs not being a throw-a-way I will get another. Until then I will enjoy my new PC.
GQR

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I have never had a Mac go belly-up before the operating system could not be upgraded, or before my software could no longer be upgraded.

The idea that these Macs are somehow "ALL new" is a bit of silly FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt). Apple has been engineering their own systems on a chip for over a DECADE. Those processors are in all their iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and Apple TVs since the iPhone 4 came out! The M1 series is an extension of the A14 processor. The M1 Pro and Max are extensions of the M1. They drastically reduce the parts count. They drastically increase processing power and speed. They draw around 1/3 the power that Intel computers take to achieve the same performance. Battery life is remarkable. Heat under normal loads is minimal.

There are repairability and upgradeability tradeoffs for this performance. It is not possible to achieve such performance with conventional modular, slotted motherboards, because the speed of electrons is the speed limit. When all the components are moved much closer together and SHARE the same bus and memory, in ONE integrated package, things get done more efficiently. The M1 Max has 57 BILLION transistors in it. It moves data on its internal bus at 400 MEGABYTES per second. Reviewers have had to try exceptionally hard to get it to heat up to the point of throttling.

The new computer designs, starting with the iMac 24", ARE a chance for Apple to reinvent the Mac's form factors. They've really listened over the past few years. First, they brought back the old scissor switch keyboards in the late 2020 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. The iMac brought better webcams, better speakers, better microphones, style, and performance upgrades. The 14" and 16" 2021 MacBook Pros brought back the MagSafe charging port, SDXC UHS II card slot, and added HDMI, along with three Thunderbolt 4/USB4 40 Gbps ports that can connect just about anything as fast as it can go.

With millions sold, the reports of failures are merely anecdotal. Despite a complete shift in architecture from Intel CISC x86 to Apple ARM-based RISC in their own silicon, the transition of the operating system and software has been fairly seamless. Most software is now fully universal or native to the M1 series. Apple is on their second version of the OS that supports the Apple Silicon architecture (and still supports Intel Macs to the limits of that hardware).

With the best support reputation in the business (check Consumer Reports), Apple is unlikely to have a major problem they don't fix. Their supply chain partners are manufacturing experts. Their product development and engineering has a rigid discipline to it. The process starts years and years before a product hits the shelves. At this point, they are at a pinnacle of their excellence. While not perfect, they're pretty darned good right now.

Intel and AMD and their manufacturing partners are learning from this... It will be good for the entire industry.

FredCM Loc: Central Illinois

Perhaps someone mentioned this, I didn't see it fi they did. The newer Mac operating systems are 64 bit, the old Photoshop programs are 32 bit... and never the twain shall meet. If you purchased PS several years ago, it won't work with the newer operating systems. I sprung for Photoshop Elements, 64 bit. Ditto iPhoto. Although I'm now at peace with Photos. Its latest iteration has pretty good editing processes. But no way to select portions of an image. (that I know of) Your editing and/or organization programs may not work on a new Mac.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

https://isapplesiliconready.com

Okay, so just keep your old Mac and get a new one. Update, upgrade, or find new software as needed.

The Adobe Photography Plan is ten bucks a month. Heck, you can't even buy a decent bottle of wine for ten bucks, let alone a fast food meal, or fancy coffee for two at Starbucks. The wine buzz lasts a few hours at best. The fast food winds up as fat. The coffee gives you the jitters. But the images you complete with great software are priceless.

If you hate subscriptions, the advanced raw processor, Gentlemen Coders' RAW POWER, is only $40, once. Serif Affinity Photo is $55, once. Both are great complements to Apple Photos.

wicook Loc: Alberta, Canada

I replaced my MacBook Pro 13" at the beginning of 2021 with the M1 version. I'm more than happy with the amazing performance! The specs for the newer M1Pro and M1Max chips suggest an even higher level of performance.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

57 BILLION transistors power the M1 Max SOC… That’s more processing oomph than the vast majority of us need.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I’ve been using a 27” iMac for processing for about 6 years. Upgraded to a new one some months ago. I wouldn’t use anything else.
—Bob