2021 M1 24” iMac — Things to consider before you buy

It has been a tough year for me. I couldn’t write any blogs for a long time. Pandemic conditions hit my life quite bad. Anyway, I’m back, I will try to write more often as I intended to do so.

Apple’s April 2021 event triggered me to write about new iMac. I have some additional items to write about Apple, comparing it with Google and Open Source. But I will keep them for another post. In this one I will try to be more specific thoughts on new iMac.

Before going into details, let me express my standing point while criticizing an Apple product;

I’m in my mid 40’s, spend lots of money on tech products including Apple. Don’t think of me as one of those who are against Apple in any case. I read lots of reviews, critics about tech stuff. When it comes to Apple, there are some people who are most probably earning money out of advertising Apple products. They only mention pros not the cons. How fancy and how awesome and how smart to get one etc… And there is another category of people who are fanatically against Apple. I have an old friend as well in this category. You cannot hear any good comment about Apple from them. Whatever Apple does, it’s wrong, it’s against freedom, it’s robbery etc... I do not belong any of those groups. I love technology, I love to try new tech, I do appreciate advantages of Apple ecosystem. I love their designs, I appreciate their products how user friendly they are. But all of these come with a cost as we may easily guess or already experienced. I will go into details of the cost in another post. For now lets go into details for the iMac. I’m sure you have an idea about my point of view.

I will not buy one. Here are my objections.

I’m an owner of 2020 M1 Mac Mini. M1 devices are just beta products to trigger transition from x86 to Arm architecture for Apple.

Don’t worry this post will not turn out to be a review of M1 Mac Mini but I need to give reasoning for my concerns.

M1 chipset is struggling with WiFi and Bluetooth problems. To be honest I’m using my M1 Mac Mini with Apple products like Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad. I didn’t experience any Bluetooth issues so far. But I read a lot of problems about Bluetooth over internet. My experience; it’s quite bad with WiFi. I have a 2017 MacBook Pro 15”. From same spot it hits around 330~340 Mbits where as M1 Mac Mini is hitting max 110~120Mbits. It’s definitely a big problem where even my Linux mini pc with a AX210 WiFi card (When I’m writing this post still AX210 chipset is not properly properly supported with linux-firmware) is hitting same speeds. When I install Windows on same mini pc it hits 420~440Mbits. (I have a gigabit fiber optic connection)

Still WiFi cannot be a deal breaker for many of people in case they have cable connection for their iMac. By the way I really didn’t appreciate that they just support Ethernet port from power brick only in expensive models. It’s again dirty strategy of Apple but more about this later in another post. Otherwise I will not able to keep this post short.

Second item that needs to be considered is Thunderbolt ports. Apple is just using the term Thunderbolt. I couldn’t find a clear info about version of Thunderbolt used in M1. I think they are not 4th generation. They still use version 3. Which is also a problem for devices with the AMD Ryzen devices especially U series which can be compared with M1 devices. Thunderbolt is a propriety tech from Intel. Even though they are not keeping for themselves, non intel products seem to come with only 3rd version of Thunderbolt.

M1 chipset supports max 16GB memory. This is what the dealbreaker is. You can easily ask why I have purchased a M1 Mac Mini. I bought it just for being owner of a product which I believe will be remember as the beginning of new arm age. Eventually I find arm architecture much more meaningful with their power efficiency and staying cool. I was playing with a few raspberries before becoming owner of a M1 Mac Mini. Unless you have a specific reason for a high frequency need per core, It’s more wise to pay less per core with arm architecture. And stay power efficient while using it especially during idle times.

As a result if you are not targeting like me to be owner one of the game changer products just skip these first generation unless you have an urgent need of a computer. My assumption is when you buy a computer It should be future proof. 16GB can be considered well enough for nowadays but I bet I will not be in near future. I take place with people who are against people all the time when Apple acts like this. I cannot accept to sell a product with 8GB memory in 2021. Unless you have a specific need, you should definitely avoid buying a computer which will using swap. Thanks to new Web approach!!! We use mostly single page applications (SPAs) based on JavaScript which consumes insanely high amount of memory. Just an example most of us use Gmail within a browser right? Have you ever checked how much memory it consumes? It’s more than 300MB. Memory and Disk sizes are never enough I know but there is always a sweet spot. Which is meaningful to invest. Less can remind me the saying I’m not rich to buy cheap stuff. Even if you buy the max available option which is 16GB you will be sorry already if you edit photos or videos. I consider selling 8GB model as a disrespectful behavior to customers who are not capable for making assessment.

Since a Mac became my daily driver in 2017, another problem I started dealing with, is the need of a hub. A daily driver needs USB-A ports, I spend a few bucks on cables for my devices with USB-A cable but still SD card reader is a must. And you cannot know when and where you may need USB-A as well. Same goes for HDMI port also.

I didn’t check it but I want to mention a question that appeared in my mind just now while typing this post. Will we be able to use this iMac’s awesome screen with PS5 or XBox Series S? As far as I know HDMI 2.1 was recommended for PS5.

Final words; Apple offers awesome products with a well integrated ecosystem but you are still in need to be picky not to be fooled.