[HN Gopher] Apple Says There Won't Be a 27-Inch iMac with Apple ...
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       Apple Says There Won't Be a 27-Inch iMac with Apple Silicon
        
       Author : andrewmcwatters
       Score  : 23 points
       Date   : 2023-11-06 15:46 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.macrumors.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.macrumors.com)
        
       | rogerkirkness wrote:
       | Realistically the screens are so information dense as it is, when
       | I have the 24 inch one I still end up shrinking windows and not
       | using the entire thing most of the time.
        
         | SomeoneFromCA wrote:
         | Well I am using 4k 32 inch now, at 75 cm distance and I like
         | it. Less eystrain than when keeping 27 at 60 cm.
        
           | heisgone wrote:
           | Which model of monitor do you use?
        
             | SomeoneFromCA wrote:
             | Cheap VA (Samsung S32A700), I use mostly as a TV though. I
             | always would get tired quickly previously from 32 inchers,
             | but recently I started liking them more than 27 inch; do
             | not get tired anymore.
        
           | duffyjp wrote:
           | This will unavoidably sound like one-upmanship, but I've been
           | using a 43" 4K screen in my home office for probably five or
           | six years now. I'm on my second panel. The first one was a
           | Hisense TV and the new one is an Aorus monitor.
           | 
           | It is absolutely fantastic. My eyes are around four feet from
           | the screen and I don't get that blurred vision you get from
           | extended near-work anymore. I could never go back.
        
             | SomeoneFromCA wrote:
             | Yea, I thought about it too, but my table is not as deep.
        
             | eyelidlessness wrote:
             | I also have a 43" 4K, which I still refer to as "comically
             | large". I very nearly decided it was a mistake, until I set
             | it as low as I could on my desk. Even so, as a computer
             | display I get more out of the vertical space than
             | horizontal (and tend to ignore at least a third of the
             | screen while at my desk). If it didn't also serve as my TV,
             | I'd probably be just as happy with a smaller screen in
             | vertical orientation.
        
           | pathartl wrote:
           | I don't understand why 5K @ 27" is so sought after. My
           | partner uses a 4K 32" display currently and if I'm at a
           | normal sitting distance, I couldn't tell the difference
           | between it and a 5K Studio Display. The 32" is 137ppi which
           | sounds low, but with your eyes at 25" away it's still
           | "retina".
           | 
           | As I sit at my desk now looking at my 27" 1440p (108ppi)
           | display at a distance of 23" I really cannot fathom having
           | double the pixel density. Could it be better? Sure! I chose
           | 144Hz over density, but double the amount of pixels? No way
           | in hell
        
         | mort96 wrote:
         | It's not about information density, it's about size. I upgraded
         | from a 27" screen to a 32" screen, and the 32" screen feels
         | much nicer to work with. Granted, a large part of that is about
         | going from a ~108 PPI TN panel to a ~137 PPI IPS panel, but I
         | also find that the physical size means I can comfortably have
         | physically larger text without anything feeling cramped.
        
           | KeplerBoy wrote:
           | That might be the sole reason why they're not releasing a 27"
           | iMac. Maybe they just discontinue the line and switch to 32"
           | iMacs.
        
           | tornadron wrote:
           | agreed, as a person getting a bit older...I'm now having to
           | (somewhat painfully) admit that physical screen size is more
           | important to me than pixel density...
           | 
           | ...don't get me started with text using tiny fonts on low
           | contrast backgrounds
        
       | michael1999 wrote:
       | Good? Ever since they got rid of target-mode, bonding a beautiful
       | and expensive screen that will last more than a decade with a
       | computer that will be EOLd in 5 years is just sad and wasteful.
       | 
       | This was justifiable when there was no practical way to run 5K
       | over standard connectors. But that time is over, and so is the
       | age of the 27" iMac.
        
         | mort96 wrote:
         | The main problem with that is that there are no decent 5K
         | monitors. The Apple Studio Display is literally the same price
         | as the iMac (so a Studio Display + Mac Mini/Studio is
         | ridiculously expensive). The 5K 27" LG UltraFine is not that
         | much cheaper, and people are saying it has pretty terrible
         | build quality (at least compared to an iMac). And those are
         | pretty much the only 5K monitors.
        
           | jseliger wrote:
           | Samsung now makes one: https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/m
           | onitors/5k/27-viewfini...
        
             | mort96 wrote:
             | Thanks, I didn't know that.
             | 
             | It seems to be even closer to the iMac in price, which I'm
             | guessing it makes up for in build quality but that means
             | separately buying the computer and monitor is still very
             | expensive compared to what a hypothetical 27" iMac would
             | cost, and the name "smart monitor" makes my skin crawl...
             | but it seems like a decent somewhat cheaper alternative to
             | the Studio Display.
             | 
             | Hopefully these 5K 27" monitors will get more widespread
             | and cheaper over time.
        
           | tshaddox wrote:
           | There's also the new Samsung 27" ViewFinity S9 5K. The list
           | price is $1600 but Amazon has it for $1300 in the U.S. I've
           | heard mixed reviews, particularly about how smoothly it works
           | with Macs.
        
             | pathartl wrote:
             | I'm not old, but things like this make me go "back in my
             | day we had a CRT with one input, VGA, and it just worked".
             | Obviously we don't have to worry too much about a monitor's
             | supported modes anymore (though that wasn't a problem at
             | the tail end of the CRT), but we're in a period where
             | plugging in a monitor doesn't guarantee that it'll work.
             | 
             | Signal integrity and all that sure, but really it's just a
             | freaking monitor.
        
               | vvillena wrote:
               | The VGA days were the times where a computer user could
               | kill a CRT screen because the analog data stream wasn't
               | what the monitor supported or expected. I don't miss
               | those days!
               | 
               | Plugging a monitor nowadays will always work. Of course,
               | buying a new monitor only to have it fall back to a
               | lower-quality compatible mode is unacceptable, but that's
               | what happens in today's world. Monitors are more varied
               | than ever. A 1080p60 monitor will work everywhere, and
               | all monitors will accept such a signal. But we all love
               | fancy toys.
        
           | reaperman wrote:
           | I'm partial to the $800 Huawei MateView 28". It's only 9.8
           | million pixels compared to the 14.7 million pixels of the
           | $1,300 5K UltraFine 27" and $1,300 5K Samsung ViewFinity 27"
           | (Standard 4K is 8.8 million pixels), but the MateView has a
           | 3:2 aspect ratio! So you get 20% more vertical real estate
           | than a standard 4K aspect ratio.
        
         | mikestew wrote:
         | I'm in the same boat. I'm looking at a 2019 27" iMac on my desk
         | right now, and it's been a great machine. But without target
         | display mode, I can't use it with the 13" MBP that work gave
         | me. So, what, stick _another_ 27 " display on my desk _just_
         | for the laptop? And when the CPU or MB fries, I 'll be stuck
         | with a nice display I can't use.
         | 
         | Next time it'll be a Mac Studio and a Studio Display, cost be
         | damned.
        
           | michael1999 wrote:
           | You're stuck with the lag of remote-desktop. Which isn't a
           | disaster over decent ethernet if you are just programming.
        
         | elteto wrote:
         | Honestly, why should I even worry about how they build the
         | machine? My 27in Intel iMac is 7-8 years old and I will
         | probably get 2-3 more years out of it. That's a whole decade
         | I'm getting out of the machine. Probably more than I would get
         | from a non-bonded monitor.
        
           | michael1999 wrote:
           | You stopped getting os updates, and will stop receiving even
           | high-priority security updates this year. I feel much safer
           | running a 10-year-old monitor than my 10-year-old laptop.
        
             | poulsbohemian wrote:
             | This is the issue pushing me to update, and I have to say
             | I'm disappointed in Apple... when I bought this iMac, it
             | was an absolute beast and even today it's very, very good
             | kit. But Apple has decided it's too old to update.
        
           | krabizzwainch wrote:
           | My issue was that my 2019 iMac got updates that made the
           | whole thing practically unusable. The storage became so slow
           | that it would take like 10ish minutes to become usable after
           | boot. I did have the version with a hdd instead of ssd, but
           | it was fine right when I purchased it. I ran whatever storage
           | tests that would show the drive wasn't dead/dying, so I was
           | never sure what the issue was.
           | 
           | My options were essentially to either trade it back to Apple
           | for $300, try to sell it myself for maybe $400 and pay a ton
           | to ship it, or try to take it apart myself to swap out the
           | hard drive for an ssd and risk breaking part of it and it
           | being worth $0. I caved and traded it in to Apple just so I
           | could stop looking at the box.
        
           | jollyllama wrote:
           | Indeed, because you could buy that one with base specs (2GB
           | ram) and slap 64 in it with zero screws or soldering.
        
         | Erratic6576 wrote:
         | There should be a way to reuse the screen opening the case and
         | plugging in anything else. What a waste otherwise
        
           | ender341341 wrote:
           | Or just an input on the back...
        
         | innagadadavida wrote:
         | Apple should release a Mac mini that can "dock" to a 5k monitor
         | with usb-c display and power. This will avoid power cable
         | clutter and enable a much nicer setup.
        
       | pram wrote:
       | If you look at the internals of the Studio Display it's pretty
       | obvious to me that _was_ the Apple Silicon 27 inch iMac. It has a
       | Mac Mini sized motherboard in it.
        
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       (page generated 2023-11-06 21:02 UTC)