Apple iMac M4 Review

Introduction

When Apple launched the iMac M1 in 2021 it signalled a new direction for the iconic desktop. Gone was the industrial aluminium, with fresh pastel colours the way forward. Now we’ve got the iMac M4 – so what’s changed?

Apple launched the iMac M4 alongside the MacBook Pro M4 and Mac Mini M4. Two very good Macs that I was thoroughly impressed with.

The iMac M4 is a slightly different proposition. This isn’t a machine for Pros, and it’s not filling a gap as the dinky new M4 Mac Mini does. Instead, it’s a desktop for a very specific type of person who values design and the overall look, as much as performance.

Design

• Limited stand adjustment
• Updated colour options
• Limited ports

Even a few years after its big redesign, the latest edition of the iMac still looks wonderful. This is tech design at its most fun, with a clear focus on fitting into people’s lives rather than standing out. It looks great nestled in a lounge, or the work surface of a kitchen – you can’t say that about most tech.

The screen is ridiculously thin, barely a centimetre, and there’s no bulbous rear like the older Intel iMacs – just a flat surface. It’s incredibly light too, and can easily be moved around. Some might prefer a smaller ‘chin’ under the screen but I am not one of them. This is what an iMac should look like.

The iMac M4 comes in a range of colours, all of which can be chosen with whichever spec option is required. I’ve got the green model here but there’s yellow, pink, orange, white and purple too.

The lack of a black option is odd. Originally, I suspected this might have been to save that colourway for an inevitable Pro model, but that hasn’t materialised.

You’ll want to choose your colour wisely, as it’s a big part of the iMac M4. The hue on the front is a little more subtle, while it pops more around the back for a nice contrast. All models have a white border around the screen, and the colour slinks across to the keyboard and mouse too. It looks like a very complete package.

The overall design is simple. The 24-inch screen is held up by an aluminium stand which can be titled slightly forwards and backwards. You can’t adjust the height though. To combat this I had to put the iMac on a pile of books to help it hit the perfect height.

Around the back, there are either two or four USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, a magnetic attachment for the braided power port and an on/off button. There is a port to plug in headphones too, positioned on the side. Some versions also have a very cleverly placed Gigabit Ethernet port in the power brick, however the base model I have here lacks this.

This is a bit of a meagre selection, especially if you plump for the base model with just the duo of USB 4 ports. An SD card reader would have been a great addition.

Screen and Audio

• Sharp 4.5K resolution panel with nano-texture option
• 24-inch size could be an issue for some
• Good audio

The screen on the iMac M4 is great – even if It’s still one of the machine’s most limiting factors.

By only offering a single 24-inch size, the market for this machine is cut instantly. For many, myself included, the size is just too small, with 27-inch and 32-inch being far more comfortable sizes for multitasking.

However, this isn’t a computer aimed at the pro market or the kind of people who long for a huge canvas for daily work or photo and video editing. For many, this is a good size for a family machine. It’s not so big it’ll look out of place in a lounge or kitchen, but it’s an upgrade over the 13-inch screen on a MacBook Air.

An easy way to combat this would have been to offer two sizes, something that was common on previous iMac ranges.

Size aside, this is a great screen. The 4480 x 2520 resolution makes for a seriously sharp picture that’s a joy to scroll through photos or stream movies on. There’s no fancy tech here, just a standard 60Hz IPS panel without any true HDR support, but it ticks all the boxes for a communal machine. It also gets nice and bright, around 500 nits in my tests, and viewing angles are very good.

New for the M4 model is an optional nano-texture glass finish that adds a matte finish to the otherwise glossy screen, for an extra £200/$200. If you work in a bright room where the sunlight often reflects on a screen, this option is a great way of reducing that glare.

I love this addition on the MacBook Pro M4 and it works extremely well, so it’s great to see it on the consumer-friendly iMac too. Just note that you can’t add this to the low-end model, you need the model with the four rear ports – which starts from £1499/$1499.

Finally, the speakers and microphones are worthy of mention too. The speakers pump out good audio, with a surprising amount of bass for such a slim machine. The mics are good too, ideal for video calls.

Performance

• All versions powered by the M4 chip
• 2TB SSD and 32GB memory options
• Capable machine for various tests

The 2024 edition of the iMac comes with a single chip choice – the M4. Whereas the Mac Mini and the MacBook Pro can be specced out with the M4 Pro for some extra grunt, the iMac doesn’t get such an option. That’s a shame, but it plays into the feeling I have noticed a lot with this machine that it’s very much aimed at basic everyday use, rather than anything else.

There are still decisions to make when buying the iMac M4. The base mode – which I have here – is the most limited of the bunch. It has just two ports on the back, no ethernet and a version of the M4 chip with an 8-core CPU and 8-core CPU. This makes it the most entry-level chip in the M4 range. The good news is that all modes come with at least 16GB of memory, rather than the previous base of 8GB.

The £1499/£1499 option is the better buy. This adds two more ports (Thunderbolt 4 ones) and ups the chip to a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. You need to then pay another £200/$200 to move from the base 256GB storage to 512GB. The top-end model (£1899/$1899) has 24GB memory and 512GB storage.

In typical Apple fashion, there are upgrades available. These need to be made at the time of purchase and are pricey. Jumping from 16GB memory to 32GB is £400/$400, while a 2TB SSD is £600/$600.

The sweet spot for me is the £1499/$1499 option. I’d dismiss the base model simply as it sacrifices too much, and if you want more storage then just get an external drive – this isn’t a portable machine after all. I’d also say 16GB memory is enough, especially for the sort of tasks this is designed for.

When it comes to performance, the iMac M4 is a capable machine. It lacks the multi core prowess of a Mac with a Pro/Ultra or Max chip but for everyday tasks the M4 is great. It can handle photo editing, light editing of 4K video (like that shot with an iPhone) and having far too many tabs open in Chrome.

There’s wider support for gaming on Mac now, with titles like Control and Cyberpunk 2077 arriving this year. The M4 chip is capable of running something like Shadow of the Tomb Raider at between 28fps and 30fps, so how those titles will run remains to be seen. More CPU-intensive games, like Football Manager 2024, run fantastically well.

In our usual array of benchmarking tests, the iMac M4 scores just about with the same as with other M4 machines. There’s a notable upgrade over the iMac M1 performance, although less of a jump over the M3. In single core tests, the M4 chip outperforms previous flagship chips like M3 Max and M2 Ultra.

This is a quiet machine that stays silent under load and rarely lags or really makes you think about speed at all. Apple has done such a good job with these M-series machines that it almost removes the need to think about performance.

Elsewhere, there’s a very good 12MP webcam on the front with Center Stage for keeping a face in the frame, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

Another benefit of the M4 chip is that is has full support for Apple Intelligence. MacOS Sequoia has features like notification summaries, genAI image creation and the ability to remove errant objects in Photos. None of these AI features feel downright vital yet, but this is the start of Apple’s AI push.

Accessories

• The keyboard and mouse finally have USB-C
• The base model lacks TouchID
• Go for the trackpad over the mouse

The biggest change for the included iMac M4 peripherals is the port used to charge them. Gone is Lightning, with USB-C taking its place. That’s it.

Those hoping for a dramatic Magic Mouse redesign that shifts the connector from the underside are out of luck. I would swap the mouse for the Magic Trackpad anyway (an extra £50/$50) as the experience of swiping around a massive glass pad is far superior. Oddly, you can’t get both the mouse and trackpad for a discount this time, so you have to pick one.

The keyboard is perfectly fine. The keys are chiclet-style, with fairly minimal travel to keep the board as slim as possible. Still, the typing experience is nice and clicky – plus the colour matches the iMac.

If you plump for the very base £1299/$1299 iMac M4, the keyboard eschews the TouchID fingerprint sensor. That’s worth noting, as it removes the only biometric unlocking solution from the setup. It’s a shame the front camera doesn’t have face unlocking skills, like the iPhone 16.

Should you buy it?