Apple today announced the first Retina desktop computer with the Retina 5K iMac. The new Retina 5K iMac will start at $2499 for the all-in-one desktop computer and begin shipping today. The base model Retina 5K iMac will include a 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, AMX Radeon R9 M290X graphics, 8GB RAM, and a 1TB Fusion Drive. Apple will continue to sell the non-Retina 27-inch iMac which starts at $1799 as well as the non-Retina 21.5-inch iMac starting at $1099.
Apple Introduces 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K Display
CUPERTINO, California—October 16, 2014—Apple® today unveiled the 27-inch iMac® with Retina® 5K display, featuring the world’s highest resolution display with a breathtaking 14.7 million pixels. At this amazing resolution, text appears sharper than ever, videos are unbelievably lifelike, and you can see new levels of detail in your photos. With the latest quad-core processors, high-performance graphics, Fusion Drive and Thunderbolt 2, iMac with Retina 5K display is the most powerful iMac ever made—it’s the ultimate display combined with the ultimate all-in-one.
“Thirty years after the first Mac changed the world, the new iMac with Retina 5K display running OS X Yosemite is the most insanely great Mac we have ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With a breathtaking 14.7 million pixel display, faster CPU and graphics, Fusion Drive, and Thunderbolt 2, it’s the most beautiful and powerful iMac ever.”
iMac with Retina 5K display delivers an amazingly immersive user experience. With a resolution of 5120 x 2880, iMac with Retina 5K display has four times more pixels than the standard 27-inch iMac and 67 percent more pixels than a 4K display. Text looks as sharp as it does on a printed page, and you can see more of your high-resolution photos with pixel-for-pixel detail. In apps like Final Cut Pro® X, you can view 4K video at full size while still leaving plenty of room for your assets and editing tools.
The display on the new 27-inch iMac has been engineered for performance, power efficiency and stunning visual quality. iMac with Retina 5K display uses a precisely manufactured oxide TFT-based panel to deliver vivid display brightness from corner to corner. A single supercharged Apple-designed timing controller (TCON), with four times the bandwidth, drives all 14.7 million pixels. iMac with Retina 5K display also uses highly efficient LEDs and organic passivation to improve image quality and reduce display power consumption by 30 percent, even while driving four times more pixels at the same brightness. To improve the contrast ratio, iMac with Retina 5K display uses a new photo alignment process and a compensation film to deliver blacker blacks and more vibrant colors from any viewing angle. In addition, every iMac with Retina 5K display is calibrated using three state-of-the-art spectroradiometers to ensure precise and accurate color.
Not only is iMac with Retina 5K display more beautiful on the outside, it is also more powerful on the inside. It comes with a 3.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, and for the first time can be configured with a 4 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 4.4 GHz. Every new iMac with Retina 5K display also comes with AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics and can be configured with AMD Radeon R9 M295X graphics, delivering up to 3.5 teraflops of computing power, the most powerful graphics ever offered on an iMac. iMac with Retina 5K display comes standard with 8GB of memory and a 1TB Fusion Drive for the first time. The new iMac can also be configured with up to 32GB of memory, a 3TB Fusion Drive, or up to 1TB of super-fast, PCIe-based flash storage. In addition, iMac with Retina 5K display includes two Thunderbolt 2 ports that deliver up to 20Gbps each, twice the bandwidth of the previous generation.
Every new Mac® comes with OS X® Yosemite, a powerful new version of OS X, redesigned and refined with a fresh, modern look, powerful new apps and amazing new Continuity features that make working across your Mac and iOS devices more fluid than ever. OS X Yosemite is also engineered to take full advantage of the iMac’s Retina 5K display, delivering stunning clarity across all your apps.
iMovie®, GarageBand® and the suite of iWork® apps come free with every new Mac. iMovie lets you easily create beautiful movies, and you can use GarageBand to make new music or learn to play piano or guitar. iWork productivity apps, Pages®, Numbers® and Keynote®, make it easy to create, edit and share stunning documents, spreadsheets and presentations. iWork has been redesigned with a new look, support for iCloud Drive℠ and a host of new features, including a new comments view in Pages. iWork for iCloud® beta lets you create your document on iPad®, edit it on your Mac and collaborate with friends, even if they’re on a PC.
Pricing & Availability
iMac with Retina 5K display begins shipping today with a 3.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics and a 1TB Fusion Drive for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US). Customers can order iMac with Retina 5K display through the Apple Online Store(www.apple.com).
Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options and accessories are available online at www.apple.com/imac.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
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Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iMac, Retina, Final Cut Pro, OS X, iMovie, GarageBand, iWork, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iCloud Drive, iCloud and iPad are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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Even with a fusion drive the $700 premium over the non retina model isn’t worth it to me. $2499 for a computer you can only update the ram is to much.
According to some the display alone is worth $2500. Where do you get this bizarre sense of superiority from?
Dell can charge $2500 for a monitor if they want.
$2499 for a non upgradable computer is to damn much. If your a video editor or high end photographer this might make some sense, but what happens when the performance doesn’t match your needs you are stuck making another $2500 purchase.
The average consumer will not be buying these in masses.
@tao
This is not a mainstream consumer laptop just to surf Safari on, so of course they won’t buy it in masses. Most of the masses can’t afford it anyway. That’s where the MBA & iPad come in.
For $2499 they couldn’t gave it 16 GB of ram?
You’re getting a one-of kind display, the highest resolution available at this size, at a steep discount, PLUS a nicely spec’ed Mac absolutely free.
5K is astonishing. It’s only currently avaliable in less then a few monitors today. This is a professional computer, created for a market that demands such unreal resolutions. $700 premium for a computer built with a 5K display is going appeal to plenty of people.
i, for one, is excited for this new model.. the display alone is worth much more :)
It’s $500 more, not $700. I think that’s a fair premium, but I think it’s totally unfair that you can’t buy a new 27″ iMac without it.
I would much rather have the $500 and I don’t have any use for a 5K display. I just want a good iMac, and now I have no choice. Fuck you Apple for taking away our choices, (and this time, the line about “less choice is better” doesn’t actually apply for those of you waiting to use it).
Base 27 inch $1799
Base retina 27 inch $2499
I wish they updated the chips in the other iMac’s guess have to wait to spring for Browdwell chips to get upgraded iMacs
Get a 28″ Dell 4K for $400 and a Mac Mini mount hardware in the back of monitor, you’ll have decent home-made iMac for less than half of the cost.
I don’t think you get the same graphics card or ram with the base model Mac Mini, the Dell still doesn’t have as many pixels as the 27 inch iMac. Give up on the Starbucks for a year and you’ll save up around $1000. I just read a survey that stated the average worker spends around $1092 per year on coffee but who are we kidding Americans love coffee.
AMD (Formerly ATI) RADEON R9, not AMX…
I just wanted the monitor to plug into my Macbook Pro. Wish they would of done that also
I could see a $1500 Cinema Display for Mac Pro’s or MacBook Pro’s.
I just don’t understand why anyone would pay $2500 for a computer you can only upgrade the ram.
I wish they updated the chips in the non retina iMac’s. It’s been over a year since they were updated. Guess we will have to wait for the spring when Intel finally releases Broadwell.