Apple M4 comes to the Mac with new iMac, starts with 16GB RAM

Apple is refreshing its 24-inch iMac, making it the first Mac the company is updating to its M4 lineup of processors. The M4 chips will vary, starting with an 8-core CPU (with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores) and an 8-core GPU and going up to 10-cores (4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores) and a 10-core GPU.

The entry-level model, which starts at $1,299, has two USB Type-C ports supporting Thunderbolt 4. The 10-core CPU models, starting at $1,499, have four Thunderbolt 4 ports.

With M4, Apple says that the iMac is 1.3 times faster than the M3 model and 1.7 times faster than M1 in Excel productivity.

In a welcome move, every single iMac now starts with 16GB of unified memory. This is likely due to the performance demands of Apple Intelligence, but it's nice to see Apple start to phase 8GB out. For $200, you can bump up to 24GB of RAM, while configuring to 32GB costs another $200. (32GB models are also only available with 512GB or more storage, though I can't imagine most people who want 32GB of RAM would deal with a 256GB drive).

Apple is pushing the iMac as a fresh proving ground for Apple Intelligence, referring to it as the "best all-in-one for AI." Today, Apple rolled out macOS Sequoia 15.1 to launch the feature on existing Macs.

Apple is also offering a new display option for its all-in-one: a "nano-texture" glass meant to reduce glare, which is a $200 upgrade on select models. In addition, the webcam has been bumped up to 12MP.

The iMac comes with a Magic keyboard and either a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad. These accessories have finally made the jump from Lightning to USB Type-C. Notably, Apple hasn't moved the charging port from the bottom of the Magic Mouse, leaving its most confounding engineering decision in many years, as you have to turn the mouse upside down to charge.

This time around, the iMac comes in new shades of blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, green, and silver. They're not all new colors, but they're the company suggests the hues are different this time around.

The new iMac is up for pre-order now and will be available in stores on November 8.

Apple first revealed the current iMac design with M1. While it skipped M2, it came back with M3, so this release seems to put it back on a yearly cadence.