The 27-inch, 5K retina iMac is a beautiful desktop computer, but it’s a bit too expensive for many people. This is about to change as the latest beta of OS X El Capitan tells us more about an upcoming iMac that features a smaller 21.5-inch display with a 4K resolution — an insane 4096 x 2304 display to be exact. Expect this new computer in the next few months.
With prices now starting at $1,999, the 27-inch, 5K iMac is much cheaper than when it first came out. When Apple announced the 5K iMac, it cost $2,499. But even at $1,999, you still have to spend a bit more money to get an SSD or fusion drive. Add another upgrade or two, and you could end up with a powerful yet expensive desktop computer.
French website Consomac spotted a few new images in the latest El Capitan beta. Two of them show a new 5K iMac, so Apple should update the existing 27-inch model with new specs in the near future.
But the third one is a brand new image. According to the image attributes, this image shows a new 21.5-inch iMac with a retina display. The native resolution will be 4096 x 2304, which is a bit more than twice the existing resolution. The current 21.5-inch iMac sports a 1920 x 1080 display. This new display means that you will be able to watch a 4K video in its native resolution, without having to scale it down — video professionals will love this.
The El Capitan icon also shows an iMac with the same design as before. It looks like Apple won’t be updating the design of its desktop computer this year.
The current 21.5-inch iMac starts at $1,099. The retina variant should be a bit more expensive than that, but still a lot cheaper than its bigger 27-inch brother. With this new iMac, Apple fills a hole in its lineup, as you had to choose between a 15-inch MacBook Pro with a retina display or a 27-inch iMac with a 5K display if you really wanted a retina display.
I’d also love to see a leak indicating that Apple is working on a new external display. Apple’s current external display was released in 2010 and updated in 2011 with a Thunderbolt connector. While it is a 27-inch display, it only has a resolution of 2560 × 1440. Even today’s leaked 21.5-inch iMac has a bigger resolution. With Thunderbolt 3 around the corner, a new retina display could be another great potential product update.
