Apple Updates iMac Line-up; Features Thunderbolt and FaceTime HD

Apple this week has rolled out its long-awaited iMac updates, and there are a couple of notable additions and upgrades to talk about. First is the fact that the CPUs have been upgraded to Intel’s Sandy Bridge, and as referenced on the iMac product page, they can make a rather substantial improvement in most workstation tasks – up to 1.7x. In addition, and as expected, FaceTime HD has also been introduced.

Another interesting addition, though something neither Apple or Intel have been up-front about, is that the latest iMac uses Intel’s soon-to-be-released Z68 chipset. That’s right… a product that Intel has yet to announce, can be found inside of the latest iMac (thanks to iFixit for discovering it). This move is interesting because A) It’s an unreleased product, and B) None of the advanced features Z68 include seem to be utilized on the iMac (SSD caching, QuickSync, etc).

Four flavors of the iMac have been launched; two at 21.5″ ($1,199 and $1,499) and the other two at 27″ ($1,699 and $1,999). The 21.5″ model features a screen resolution of 1920×1080, while the bigger brother skyrockets that up to 2560×1440 – on par with Dell’s 27″ UltraSharp U2711. Given that Dell display retails for $1,000, the fact that the iMac 27″ begins at $1,699 makes it hard to mutter “Apple tax”. I am already going through withdrawals!

All of the base models of the latest iMac utilize Core i5 processors, though the higher-end of the two sizes can be upgraded to a Core i7 if desired. Likewise, AMD’s latest Radeon mobile chips are used, with the $1,199 iMac coming equipped with the HD 6750M; the mid-range models featuring the HD 6770M, and the highest-end $1,999 model coming with the HD 6970M (which is quite capable of handling the latest games, though not quite at 2560×1440).

Overall, this iMac release is a little more interesting that I first gave it credit, I do wonder when will we finally see Thunderbolt on non-Apple platforms, though. Do want!

New quad-core Intel Core i5 processors are standard on the new iMac. Choose a 21.5-inch iMac with a 2.5GHz or 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5. Or expand your view with a 27-inch iMac featuring a 2.7GHz or 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5. You can even configure iMac with the fastest quad-core processor available — the Intel Core i7. All models use Intel’s recently refined chipsets. That means the new iMac performs nearly twice as fast as the previous generation,1 adding a new dimension of speed to everything you do. And since Mac OS X is designed to take advantage of each core, it captures every last bit of performance from the processor.