Product Reviews

It's exactly nine years since the first iMac made its way onto dealers' shelves, heralding a new era of the Mac and a period of almost unblemished success for Apple. Nearly a decade on and only the name remains the same. More than any previous model, this iMac symbolises a shift of positioning for Apple's desktop all-in-one computer. The iMac has finally completed the transition from consumer home computer to a machine for those professionals who don't need the flexibility of PCI Express slots.

The aluminium case, inclusion of a FireWire 800 port, and removal of the 17in model are all evidence of Apple's attempt to pitch the iMac to professional users. Yet many of the new features, like the glossy screen, are clearly aimed at the consumer market - glossy screens are great for watching movies and videos, but less good for work where accurate colour is required.

It's the screen, in fact, which is our only real bugbear with what is a fantastic, if relatively minor, upgrade to the iMac. While the glossy screen on the MacBook and MacBook Pro didn't us cause too much of a problem, this glass version is very reflective. If you're in a room with fluorescent lighting or have a window behind your chair, you may be distracted by the reflection. In a home environment, where lighting tends to be softer, this may not be such a problem, but you'll have to be careful where you site the iMac in an office. The effect is increased by the black border around the perimeter of the screen, which, because it's always black, is even more reflective than the screen itself. But it's not a deal breaker, so long as you can control the amount of light that hits it.

Aside from the glossiness, the only other thing that needs mention with respect to the screen is that the default 'iMac' colour profile makes images, particularly photographs, look washed out and lacking in punch, but changing the profile soon solves that.

The other major change is, of course, the keyboard.

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Apple's record in introducing keyboards isn't great. The original iMac's wasn't exactly popular, and opinion on its keyboards since has been at best, mixed. This one, however, is a triumph. It takes the best aspects of the keyboard in the portable line-up and puts them into a desktop format, complete with numeric keypad and additional function keys - it has 19 in total. The lower profile really makes a difference to your typing action if, like us, you rest your wrists on your desk when you type. And the action of the keys is smooth and responsive.

The keyboard's USB 2 ports are recessed underneath and there is very little clearance on the top and bottom. This makes them unsuitable for USB flash drives, which is a shame, because those are precisely the devices you're most likely to want to plug into a keyboard. There are three further USB ports on the back of the iMac, alongside a FireWire 400, FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, video out and audio input and output 3.5mm jacks, that carry both digital and analogue signals. While the inclusion of FireWire 800 support is welcome, we'd like to have seen an eSata port too. This interface is becoming more common on external hard drives, and, in particular, on Raid boxes. Part of the reason for eSata's popularity, in addition to speed improvements, is that it includes support for Smart (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology), providing a useful means of keeping tabs on a hard disk and anticipating failures.

Our test machine was a 2.4GHz 20in model, fitted with the standard 1GB of Ram and a 320GB hard drive. The graphics card in this iMac is the same as the one in the 24in model, an ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro with 256MB of graphics Ram. There's also an 8x Superdrive, support for 802.11n wifi and Bluetooth 2.0, and a built-in iSight.

Our test results were a little surprising, given the results obtained from the 24in model last issue, but the differences are negligible. Given that they're identical in every other way, the only decision to make if you're choosing between this and the 24in iMac is whether you need the larger screen.

If the additional screen space is more of a luxury than a necessity, you might be better off spending the extra £200 on adding more Ram, and perhaps more hard drive space - £200 is enough to buy two 2GB Dimms from Crucial and have enough change to add a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to your order. Don't, whatever you do, upgrade the Ram on the Apple Store, which will charge you £540 for the privilege, an astonishing £375 more than Crucial.