It’s time for Apple to give us a larger iMac.
The company first launched a 27-inch iMac in 2009. Following on from earlier 17-, 20-, 21.5- and 24-inch models, it seemed huge at the time!
But it’s not 2009 anymore. We now live in a world where 34-inch monitors are commonplace, 40-inch ones are not unusual – and there are even 49-inch models around, from Dell, LG , and Samsung. Alongside these, the iMac display, impressive as it is in terms of resolution, looks cramped …
Search Amazon for widescreen monitors and you’ll get over 2,000 hits. Some of them are for 27-inch monitors, and some are for even smaller ones. But start browsing them, and you soon see that there are plenty of 32-inch and 34-inch models.
I’d argue that while 27-inch was once considered a large monitor, these days it’s just a very typical size. When it comes to ‘large’ monitors, that now means 32-inch plus.
Now, we have to acknowledge that the current 27-inch iMacs use much higher-resolution panels than those found in most monitors from competitors. Go out and buy a 34-inch monitor from Dell, LG or Samsung and you’ll typically get a resolution of 3440×1440.
Apple’s current 27-inc iMac displays are 5120×2880. Those extra pixels don’t deliver extra real-estate – you’ll normally run a 5K iMac or iMac Pro at 2560×1440 – but they do provide a notably smoother display, at least when viewed up close.
So sure, I’m not saying that an Apple 32- or 34-inch iMac is going to be possible at the same price-point as today. But Apple has a lot of buying power, so I don’t think that creating at least the option of a larger iMac at an AFA (Acceptable For Apple) price point is an unreasonable ask.
We do have some small encouragement for Thinking Different Bigger. We’ve already seen the 15-inch Mac Pro grow into a 16-inch one, and a report yesterday suggests that the 13-inch model will become a 14-incher.
According to Kuo, the 14.1-inch MacBook Pro will replace the 13-inch model in Apple’s lineup. This comes after Apple replaced the 15-inch MacBook Pro with a 16-inch version last year. In addition to the mini-LED panel, we can also expect the 14-inch MacBook Pro to feature Apple’s new scissor switch Magic Keyboard.
The same report suggests we’ll be seeing a new iMac Pro, but there’s no such encouraging news when it comes to screen size.
But the 14-inch MacBook Pro is said to be just one of the mini-LED products Apple will release in 2020. The others include a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, a 27-inch iMac Pro, a 16-inch MacBook Pro, a 10.2-inch iPad, and a 7.9-inch iPad mini.
That, to my mind, would be a missed opportunity. There’s no doubt that there’s demand for larger models.
32 inch iMac Pro would be siiiiiick https://t.co/yb2gGr3x0o
— Seth Weintraub (@llsethj) March 3, 2020
And the more 32-inch plus monitors we see out there, the smaller that new 27-inch iMac is going to look. Some 11 years after the first 27-inch iMac, it’s time for Apple to Think Bigger and deliver a larger iMac.
That’s my view; what’s yours? Please take our poll, and share your thoughts in the comments.
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