Best Apple iMac 27″ Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020:

Precursor of the all-in-one computer, the Apple iMac returns in 2017 in the shoes of the champion. But during the two years following the 2015 iteration, competitors have multiplied. The Dell XPS 27 , in particular, hunts on the apple lands with the same promises: large 27 “screen designed for creation software, clean lines and high-end performance. With its” 5K “definition, its graphics card Radeon Pro 570 and its 7th generation Intel Core i5 processor, the 2017 iMac 27 “will try to show that it is still the king.

Presentation

A simple update? For this 2017 vintage, Apple keeps the design of the previous iMacs, unchanged since 2012. Regarding the 27-inch 5K version (≈68.6 cm / 5,120 x 2,880 px), itself introduced in 2014, the changes are therefore to be sought on the side of the refresh of the processor and the graphics card. In our test configuration, the machine is sold for € 2,099.

Best Apple iMac 27″ Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020

1. Apple iMac MNE92LL/A 27 Inch, 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive, Silver (Renewed)

2. New Apple iMac (27-inch, 8GB RAM, 2TB Storage)

3. Apple iMac 27in Desktop Intel Core i5 3.20GHz 8GB RAM 1TB HDD MD096LL/A (A) – (Renewed)

4. Apple 27″ LED Thunderbolt Display MC914LL/A (Renewed)

5. Apple iMac Pro 27″ with 5K Retina Display; 3.0GHz 10-Core Intel Xeon W, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Radeon Pro Vega 64 (16GB HBM2)

Construction

This is not a revolution. The 2017 Apple iMac 27″ use the same design as the 2015 versions, themselves from the 2012 mold which had made the optical drive disappear. Soaring, therefore, the hopes of an edge-to-edge screen – a trend that happens massively among other all-in-ones and laptops. The iMac screen remains surrounded by large black borders of 2.6 cm. No mistake, however: we are faced with a timeless object, sober and distinguished at the same time, which will not spoil in a living room or an office.

But this choice in favor of the purity of the lines inevitably generates some ergonomic aberrations. The mouse cannot be charged and used at the same time, for example, and the keyboard is always without backlight. All of the connectors are housed at the rear of the screen: facing its machine, you will have to find the desired hole blindly. A small change has appeared with respect to 2015: the Thunderbolt ports are also USB-C. The idea is to be able to facilitate data transfer, power devices, or even connect peripherals. The rest of the connection is unchanged: headphone output, SDXC card reader, four USB-A 3.0 ports and one Ethernet port. Finally, the stand and the screen are almost fixed, where the Dell XPS 27 demonstrates great flexibility to adapt to uses.

Faced with its competitor, the iMac 27 “2017 is lighter: 9.5 kg, against more than 17 kg the Dell XPS 27. Equality, however, concerning the management of the heating, the iMac not exceeding 32.1 ° C on the screen and having only a peak at 41.2 ° C on the back, which is very suitable. As for noise, during demanding 3D simulations for example, it is not audible in an environment of classic work.

Screen

Apple iMac 27″ screens are traditionally good, and this generation lives up to that reputation. This is a 27 inch IPS panel (≈68.6 cm) with a definition of “5K” (5,120 x 2,880 px) specific to Apple, which provides a resolution of 218 ppi. In practice, the interface elements will be displayed with a Quad HD definition (2,560 x 1,440 px) and will therefore be doubled, since Quad HD corresponds exactly to half of the 5K. This setting can be changed using System Preferences> Monitors. The photos and videos will be displayed by the screen in their native size.

In fact, the screen of the 27-inch iMac is an undeniable success. There is good contrast (1070: 1) and very accurate color calibration (temperature at 6,819 K, excellent delta E at 1.6). An image professional will be able to rely with confidence on the colors displayed on the screen to work, and this, in all circumstances: the brightness rising to 541 cd / m² makes it possible to work even in bright environments.

Performances

Apple’s flagship argument to justify the 2017 version of its iMacs is the integration of the 7th generation of Intel processors . Since then, the 8th generation has been announced and begins to deploy on PCs , but the difference is primarily due to an increase in the number of cores. The processor here is an Intel Core i5-7500, with 4 cores with a base frequency of 3.40 GHz, and can go up to 3.80 GHz in turbo mode. This is the entry-level version of the 2017 27-inch iMacs; versions exist with 7th generation Intel Core i7s with a base frequency of 4.2 GHz. Our model also has 8 GB of RAM (DDR4-2666) and a 1 TB Fusion Drive (combination of an SSD and a hard drive). Remember that the Fusion Drive offers an advantage in terms of performance and responsiveness vis-à-vis a hard drive.

Overall, the performance of this Core i5 version is good. This configuration remains suitable for photo editing and video encoding. Its dedicated AMD Radeon Pro graphics card (see below) can also be beneficial for certain types of software capable of using hardware acceleration.

Graphic

The Apple iMac 27″ 2017 embeds the AMD Radeon Pro 570 graphics card, with 4 GB of dedicated memory. It is a mobile version of classic AMD cards and more precisely Radeon RX. 500, and based on a GPU Polaris, its graphics performance is quite satisfactory, far ahead of the Dell. XPS 27 (equipped with a Radeon R9 M470X), and up to other machines equipped with a GeForce GTX 1060. A dedicated all-in-one in gaming, such as the MSI Gaming 27 (released in early 2016), however, is still ahead.

These results underscore the versatility of the 2017 version of the iMac, in the wake of the MacBook Pro  : it is an excellent machine for working, using creation software and playing certain titles. Indeed, provided you set the definition to Full HD (instead of the original 5K), we reach 35 frames per second (maximum graphics settings, SSAA enabled) on Metro: Last Light , 46 fps on Rise of the Tomb Rider (maximum graphic graphics settings, FXAA activated) or 35 fps on The Witcher 3 (Specs Extreme, Hairworks x4). You can therefore count on the machine for long and pleasant games on its 27 “screen.

Audio

Combine the quality of sound with that of image: this has been. Apple’s motto for several generations of iMac, and this iteration is no exception. The headphone output is much higher than that of most computers. The power, above average, will power almost all helmets and is only accompanied by very little distortion (0.008%). The dynamics (sound amplitude between the so-called maximum level and the background noise) is also at the top of the basket, at 106 dB. Even crosstalk (separation of stereo channels) stands out, at -70 dB.

The speakers are, as usual, located on the bottom edge of the machine. The sound rendering is generally satisfactory for openings of this size. It focuses unsurprisingly on low mids and mediums; treble, on the other hand, is absent. Human voices will therefore be intelligible, but listening to music will be penalized by the lack of information on the treble. On this point, the 2017 Apple iMac 27″ is therefore set back vis-à-vis the Dell XPS 27, which made the visual and auditory bet of front speakers.

STRONG POINTS

  • Quality screen, fair colors.
  • Performances.
  • Quality graphics.
  • Quality of the game in Full HD.
  • Remarkable audio experience.

WEAK POINTS

  • Design and ergonomic options that don’t change.

CONCLUSION

The 2017 edition of the Apple iMac 27″ “reigns over the world of two-in-one computers: the precise and very well calibrated screen is in symbiosis with CPU and GPU performance. The fact remains that if Apple keeps this design and these choices competition, the competition will gain ground.

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