iMac - the love affair explained

[@mrtrevormjohnson]

I remember getting the original Bondi Blue iMac. We really didn't have the money in my single mom household but she made it happen. I still remember how screaming fast that G3 was. It's been a year since she passed, she was an amazing mom.

[@Warped9]

I had a 2001/2002 G3 iMac in Indigo blue. I freaking loved that computer! That said the thing was heavy. 😆

[@infinite_vortex]

I'm actually at a strange time in my "tech journey" so to speak. I am in the process of going back to Android with a Pixel 8, have a brand new Pixelbook Go (which I'm posting this comment from) that I LOVE, it's my favorite laptop ever, and will soon be parting with my iPad, since I haven't touched it in months really. I may hold on to my m1 Macbook Air but, I don't know. That leaves me with the m1 iMac that I have. I will not be parting with it. I love how it looks in my house. I seldom use it...literally, maybe once a month at most! But it's good to have a desktop, which is why I am keeping it. This video solidifies the love I have for that machine. Love your videos, and a proud new sub, keep up the amazing work and discussions.

[@jimjamarch]

I love your videos. They are real. And they don’t follow the KZbinr script that so many reviews seem to do. Your efforts are very much appreciated.

[@DavidLewisTech]

Thank you so much 😊 I've worked hard to find my flow...but I think I'm getting there and it's the old truism - just be yourself! New video this week as per 🤛🏻

[@JH-lf1kf]

Love my M1 iMac in green.

[@DavidLewisTech]

yup - they've nailed the colours on these iMacs

[@sharonb.9128]

Great video. I believed for the longest time that Apple would bring a bigger, more powerful version of the iMac. When they only released the M3 iMac I finally gave up on the dream. You are so right, I watched a discussion on desktops in general and the panel talked about the decline in all-in-one sales, not just the iMac. It’s good they still continue to make the consumer device.

[@Jackbambrick]

I like the simplicity of use as well. In addition, when it comes to photo editing, it is nothing short of superb!

[@thomasbundgaard665]

Thank you. You are doing great videos. I've been watching this on my 2014 iMac 27 5K 32 GB - it's my daily driver, and I still love it. Of course the amazing 5K monitor, but also the design, almost silent alle the time, my clean table (one cable) etc. I just love it!!! Been looking at the new ones - but I need the ram. I'm a musician and I use sample libraries. AND my old iMac is still fast enough! That's the thing. I don't do a lot of video editing - mostly audio recording and mixing, and an old i7 4 GHz, 32 gb ram and Nvme SSD is stille fine. That's why I love the iMac. Keep up the good work. Love your videos. Best form Denmark.

[@thomasbundgaard665]

Sorry for all the typing mistakes, Autocorrect to Danish.:( By the way: I was in Paris at the Apple Expo, when the first G5 iMac was released, and I remember thinking: "If I get one of these, I'll never need another computer". LOL!

[@DavidLewisTech]

hi Thomas - great to hear from you, and no need to apologise for the typos...😋 Yeah, I've seen some music editors at work and those sample libraries can be pretty chunky but those i7 were great iMacs and you still see plenty of them being used in studios today as if to prove the point. Everything about iMacs is great - the design, display and clean all-in-one approach too. I bet being at the Expo was a pretty cool experience too. 🤛🏻 Thanks for getting involved.

[@developerfriendly]

great video, I still keep my imac 2011. I love it

[@DavidLewisTech]

...man - says it all - 2011 and still pumping out work...amazing...thanks for getting in touch and chuffed you liked the video too 👍🏻

[@leebeeskee]

Great video David. I enjoyed it! I enjoy using my M3 iMac because it looks good on my desk, is blazingly fast and never lags or feels slow, Sonoma is a fantastic and solid OS, and it's such a clean setup. I don't see any wires and it feels so uncluttered.

[@DavidLewisTech]

hey there - yup...I could not agree with you more. The best all-in-one desktop by a mile! No contenders in my opinion and the OS this year is great - fast and stable. Cheers - D 👍🏻

[@JWOY-h5h]

great video! I always check to see if you have a new iMac video. I also went from the M1 to M2 MacBook Air then back to the M3 iMac missed it to much. love, love the iMac and its always special for what it stands for being an all in one. After the M1 I went back to it with the M3 because of the Retina display of course selling the m2 MacBook Air. I do love the 24" size just overall I feel it's a great deal compared to the starting price of the older 27 inch and the power you get is not comparable with apple silicone.

[@Warped9]

From the beginning an iMac has been something you’re not embarrassed to have on your desk or table, unlike so many boring grey, beige or black plastic desktop towers. It’s almost a piece of art in of itself. It looks properly futuristic in a clean, not over-designed and non-industrial sort of way. And it makes any workplace look clean, organized and uncluttered. I LOVE its all-in-one configuration. And I’ve enjoyed very much using my iMacs over the years. They’re also very well made. My current computer is a 2011 21.5 iMac that I’ve upgraded over the years to the point that while I’m stuck at High Sierra it still actually runs better than new. I have never had any issue with it since I bought it new twelve years ago. Even when I finally get my spec’d M3 iMac I will probably still keep my 2011 21.5.

[@DavidLewisTech]

hi there - the fact you are using a 2011 iMac and it's still working well says it all, doesn't it. These things are not just pretty they are built like tanks too!! Great to hear from you - thank you 🙏🏻

[@jart0m]

Love The simplicity of having a computer without the hassle of wires everywhere. Have had an imac since 2013. Love it. Planning on Upgrading to m3 iMac in the next few months. Hopefully with 16 or maybe 24 unified memory

[@shameermulji]

"Love The simplicity of having a computer without the hassle of wires everywhere." Exactly this, and not to mention that it's beautiful to look at.

[@DavidLewisTech]

I have been wondering just how good the 24 GB model would be compared to my 8 GB model...could be an interesting comparison. They are such lovely Macs 🤛🏻

[@DavidLewisTech]

...oh they are a thing of beauty make no mistake

[@shameermulji]

@@DavidLewisTech would love to see the comparison between an 8GB & 24GB version.

[@DavidLewisTech]

hi there - yeah, I had thought about that comparison myself...

[@darylhoshide4796]

I am interested in getting into video editing. Would you suggest Final Cut Pro as I live in the Apple universe? Or is there a particular reason you use Premiere?

[@DavidLewisTech]

I use Premiere as am a huge Adobe lover so it made sense. I already pay for Creative Cloud and use Audition - but if I were starting fresh, as an Apple user I'd go the FCP route. For me though, the time to re-learn Final Cut makes no sense

[@JP1050x]

I got my first iMac recently. I now understand why people like it so much. 🖥️ Blue M3, 24GB, 1TB ssd.

[@leebeeskee]

Nice specs. Should be set for a long time! I got Blue M3, 8/10 16/512

[@DavidLewisTech]

my favourite colour and that is a great spec as well. I bet you must love working on it!

[@JP1050x]

@@DavidLewisTech yep! Its rad!

[@JP1050x]

@@leebeeskee I hope it lasts awhile. 😁 It’s replacing an old 10 year old Mac Mini. I couldn’t watch the new Heic iPhone file formats with my Mac Mini, so I needed to upgrade for compatibility. The difference upgrading to the new M3 iMac is incredible!

[@DavidLewisTech]

👌🏻

[@darylhoshide4796]

I love Apple products and started with the Apple 2e in the 1980’s. My 2017 iMac 27 Pro is my baby and have had 3 iPads current one is the 12.9 pro. I do photo editing on my MacBook M1 Pro Max with 64 ram and 4TB. My new iMac M3 arrives this week and maxed out the specs with 24 ram and 2TB. I want to add the Apple Studio Display but only if I can add it to the iMac M3 as a second monitor. Is that possible? If so, can you explain the setup? Just a single thunderbolt? Reason for the concern is some internet searches suggest that it requires an adapter of some sort or worse a docking station configuration. Would appreciate your input. Thank you so much!

[@DavidLewisTech]

your new iMac sounds amazing... I have not tried connecting my SD to the M3 iMac, but it should be possible

[@teresababer5310]

Well, it truly is a love affair with Apple, isn’t it 😂 I can’t even recall how far back my 1st iPhone was but I still have my 2004 U2 special edition iPod 😂😂😂 I still have my 1st iMac which was 2008 - my husband is using that - a hand me down when I got my 2010 MacBook Pro - which I cleared and gave to our Grandson almost 2 years ago for his 10th birthday….he still is using it even though it’s way past being able to be updated. I also have the 27” iMac 2015 which was still Intel back then. I’m a photographer using Adobe among other software programs and the 2015 Mac just can’t keep up so I am clearing that off and giving it to my Husband and we will recycle the 2008. I am super excited about my new M3 iMac. Should be delivered in about 2 weeks. And I’m counting on Apple support (always great) to help me get everything on all these Macs in working order ❤❤❤

[@DavidLewisTech]

hi there Teresa - great to hear from you again... and the countdown is on for your new Mac. Geez, your husband is a lucky man with all the hand-me-downs he gets!! As you probably know I am a huge Adobe user and I can tell you all the apps work brilliantly on iMacs - even my 8 GB model...and yes, Apple support is second to none! 👌🏻 Keep me posted on your Mac...

[@teresababer5310]

@@DavidLewisTech I’m currently working on cleaning up the 27” so that I don’t migrate all the unnecessary stuff onto the new machine - what a chore🥹

[@TheDanEdwards]

Would not say I "love" my iMac, but it has just proven so damn useful in such a convenient package, as I expected when I bought it in 2008. Am interested in a new one, but alas the lack of vertical height adjustment on the iMac has now become a stumbling block for me.

[@DavidLewisTech]

hi - I have never felt that the height was an issue - would you possibly consider using a riser? I am sure you'd love these new iMacs...

[@mendodsoregonbackroads6632]

At the moment I have a 15” M2 MacBook Air sitting on my left, an M1 iMac in the middle, and an A12X iPad Pro with the magic keyboard on the right. I really like the iMac and the iPad. The M2 Air is a “nice to have” and is really useful.

[@DavidLewisTech]

hi there - similar to me. I have the M1 Max MBP on one side, a Studio Display in the middle and an M2 MBA 13-inch model...with the iPhone 15 PM on the desk too. I have never owned an iPad Pro but I am thinking of trying one this year...thanks for watching and commenting - truly appreciated 🤛🏻

[@guillermocastilla6305]

love my 2008 and 2009 imac next imac m4pro

[@DavidLewisTech]

amazing - 2008 AND 2009....these iMacs are sure as hell built to last!!

[@Vagabondo-fs6qu]

Hello David; so I just finished watching your most recent video on the 15 Pro Max phone and thought this question even though off topic would be better along with a computer video so . . . Currently I have an iPhone 12 and a very old MacBook Pro and I have a Windows 10 PC. I need to replace my laptop probably with an M chip. I may look at replacing my PC and was weighing up going for an iMac or a Mini or Studio with M chip. Have you ever run Windows on your Mac?

[@DavidLewisTech]

hi there - great to hear from you - yes, I did run Parallels a long time ago on a Mac - but only briefly and as I say, a very long time ago. All I can say is that every M series Mac I've used I've been impressed by. My M2 MacBook Air for instance is just brilliant and so capable. d

[@zoganje]

Hi there David. My Late 2015 21.5" Retina 4K iMac is still going strong. It is slow (due to the Fusion Drive) and outdated but it still serves me well. It also developed a pink hue around the edges of the display but this does not bother me at all. However, at this very moment I spotted a quite nice deal regarding a M1 iMac (base model) on a used market. I think I will bite.

[@jimjamarch]

I’m in the same position. I have a late 2014 iMac retina with 4 cores and 32gb RAM. It works really well, but the screen has some shadowing at times and the hard drive is making lightroom a little slow. I suspect I will need to upgrade soon, and this video was really encouraging about how much difference I’ll see when I do. So many KZbinrs talk about their disappointment with the machine, but the benchmarks are way ahead of my high price office PC from Microsoft. So I reckon I’ll ignore others and just listen to David.

[@teresababer5310]

I almost forgot the 2 iPads we have….the 2nd generation 10” and the iPad Pro 12.9 4th gen which I love and use every day❤

[@mendodsoregonbackroads6632]

iPads are a nice addition. I probably spend the most time on my first gen 11” iPad Pro.

[@planeguy95]

Wonderful computers. I’d have one if I didn’t prefer the portability of a MacBook

[@DavidLewisTech]

yeah - I am very lucky to have both, but I will always love iMacs - they just feel great to be in front of and work on! Great to hear from you - cheers D 🖥️

[@hamodalbatal464]

Like and subscribe handsome.

[@DavidLewisTech]

amazing - thank you

[@tomscott88]

The Retina display came to iMac in 2014 with the release of the 5k iMac not 2017 and 2015 for the 4k 21.5". Hence my comment on your studio display video about the cost of the studio display, Apple has used this tech since October 2014 with the release of the 5k iMac. 10 years nearly. An 1800 iMac with a 5k panel that had a whole computer and keyboard and mouse with it which grinds my gears a bit. My route to an iMac was a weird one. Ive been a Mac user since I went to Uni in 2006 studying graphic design and photography, bought the 2007 17" MacBook Pro with a matt display then got a 2008 Mac Pro as I came from building PCs so liked the upgradable aspect, from then I always had lower end laptops like the 13" aluminium unibody macbook and an 2013 11" MacBook air for on the go and a powerful desktop. At the time the iMacs didnt really appeal to me because they were no faster than the laptops as they all used laptop components until they moved the desktop class in 2017. I ended up buying a 2010 Mac Pro quad core and upgraded it between 2012 and 2017 to as far as it could go with the 3.46 6 core 48gb of ram for triple channel, multiple graphics cards, 40+ tb HDDs with 6 drives as the dvd drives could be swapped out too, a dual PCIe SSDs for boot these ran at 800mb/s which was quicker than the apple SSDs until the 2015 MacBook Pro.. I loved the fact I could upgrade everything and have all my drives in one place. The 2013 Mac Pro was a backward step and £1000 more than the 2012 base Mac pro and it didnt really offer much more performance as it only offered one CPU not dual sockets so I stuck with it for a long time. In 2017/18 the Adobe creative suit just ran unbelievably slow on the Mac, like apple they just weren't putting much effort behind the Mac. Premier, after-effects, lightroom, indesign etc were so unbelievably laggy and they didnt really get better until late 2018 when all of a sudden it was like night and day they were all rewritten to support metal efficiently. I really struggled to use some of the graphics intensive sliders in lightroom like dehaze, clarity, sharpening and trying to use an adjustment brush was like a laggy mess. Sharpening always needed to be done last individually on each pic as the machine just couldn't render it while you were making small tweaks. I suspected the graphics acceleration wasn't working properly on the Mac. Editing weddings was a fools errand and I was spending so much time I was loosing money and spending less time with the family. Thing is it didnt matter how much hardware you threw at it, the creative suite ran poorly on every Mac. I tried my at the time 5DMKIV files on the iMac Pro and the same issue, I was ready to drop £5k on one to get the speed back but it was software not hardware. I literally went through the whole sales experience and they allowed me to bring my library and install lightroom on the iMac Pro in the Apple Store and to everyones bewilderment it ran no better than on my Mac Pro which was 7 years older. So I ended up being given a windows dell workstation by a company I worked with to try. It wasn't much newer like 2012 with similar Xeons to the 2013 Mac Pro. It was only a 2.6 hex core vs the 3.46 in my Mac Pro. The benchmarks were very similar and at the time I had also bought an RX580 8gb which made no difference on the Mac pro. I moved all my hardware over which was so good about having a modular PC, even the graphics card. The creative suit just ran circles around the Mac. Turned out the early graphics acceleration was to blame and it worked flawlessly in windows to the point where I could add sharpening as a preset on lightroom import and still work the files instead of doing it all at the end and graphics accelerated adjustments like dehaze and clarity worked amazing. It completely turned my work life around. I ended up using it for about a year but just hated using windows. So I booted up the old Mac Pro as it had been sitting for months and had seen the creative suit had a big under the hood update. I swapped everything back and the Mac Pro was back in business. This was late 2018 and at that time the 7th gen intel chips were double the speed of my Mac Pro the 3.4ghz base iMac was double the speed and single core is really important in most tasks to keep the editing process smooth. I also needed a triple monitor capable machine. The 2017 iMac was 18 months old at this point so I didnt want to drop £3000 on an i7. By chance I found a 2017 base 5K iMac for sale on Facebook for £1000 which was ridiculous at the time so I just bought it. 3.4ghz 1tb fusion and 8 gb of ram and it had a trackpad too. Then started to figure out how to make it work. I bought a Samsung X5 512 thunderbolt NVME to run as a boot drive externally which ran 2700-3000mb/s and thunderbolt drives have trim enabled by default. I added 32gbs of ram to the 8 already installed and went to work. Because of how good the update to the adobe CC was it worked really well. I sold my Mac Pro for £700 and it pretty much paid for itself. I then bought a OWC thunder bay 6 to put my drives in and it had a thunderbolt dock built in, display port and a thunderbolt 3 so I managed to put both my 27" cinema displays through it too. From then on I was converted. The 2019 iMac didnt land until March 2019 and because I like the 2017 I bought a pretty much full spec 3.6GHz 8-core Intel Core i9, Radeon Pro Vega 48 with 8GB, 1tb SSD and I upgraded the ram to 64gbs myself. I really liked this machine and this just changed places with the 2017. The 2019 Mac Pro came out and it was £6k, was slower than the i9 in the iMac and had the same graphics card I had in my Mac Pro 2 years earlier so that was a non starter which was so disappointing. Then the 2020 model came out in August 20 so I did the same 3.6GHz 10-core i9, AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT with 16GB, 1TB SSD and 128gbs of ram I added myself. Im still using that today and still love it. Main reasons as I put on the studio display vid - the display is exactly the same in the 2020 iMac. I work on a bit of 3D work now and the dedicated GPU is great for that and it's also great to boot into windows to play the odd game. The thing I hate about apple silicon is the ladder they have you on. Doesn't matter what 27" iMac you bought, a base or top end it supported multi display and 128gb of ram. I eat through ram and I need 128gbs to get this I have to buy a Mac Studio ultra which is a £1600 upgrade over the base max chip as puts the ram to 64gb too, the ram upgrade is then another £800 to go from 64 to 128. £2400 just in upgrades for a grand total of £4999 then add a studio display another £1599. Total £6598. My 2020 iMac was £3400 with the ram upgrade I did myself. Granted the studio is faster but I don't need the CPU, I could get by with a base max chip as it's 50% faster than the iMac. There is the issue apple has the pros on this silly ladder where you have to have the best of everything just because you need more ram and that ram is insane money. 128gbs on the iMac is like £300 at the moment and apple is charging £1200 for it and then the rest of the ultra chip. I bought an m1 MacBook Air with 8/8 16gbs and 1tb as a daily and love it. Technically on paper it's faster than the iMac and it feels more responsive but the iMac outperforms it easily with extended tasks, ram usage, graphics performance and external displays. I have tried using the MacBook Air as my main machine and it can do it but as soon as that ram swaps it really kills the performance its slides off a cliff really fast. I am a heavy user tho at idle my iMac uses 32gbs im often in the red memory pressure zone on the MacBook air. I can also get into memory pressure on the iMac too, the age old if you have ram the machine will use it. If your doing one task at a time then fine but most creatives don't and for me I will have indesign open making layouts with illustrator for graphics, photoshop with large format images, editing those images in lightroom first, then you have an email client, task manager, web browser with a few tabs and playing music, word, excel etc that's a daily for me which obviously isnt the same for everyone but the multi tasking elements eats ram like no tomorrow. I don't like shutting down programs as it just takes more time and just want to work and pick up where I left off. Plus if you use the creative suite the way its design but placing the different files within each, say playing illustrator and photoshop files into indesign and then want to edit the link the last thing you want to me thinking about it opening and closing the app to make sure the machines won't start to bog down just added annoyance when your under deadline. The base M chips are a good example of a great chip but gimped by the ladder model, the m1 is faster than nearly all the Intel Mac offerings and I could use it as its faster then my i9 10 core iMac but the performance is only one aspect and as soon as you throw some bigger tasks it really struggles. I design a lot of large format exhibition graphics and some of the indesign files can be 10-15gbs each and with the OS using 6gbs your into swap before you even get going with those files. So ye I would love a new one but it just doesn't work for me, ram is more important to me than the CPU, I can wait 10 more mins for an export but the ram is what makes the working experience. I think when you start shutting programs down for more performance is silly and at that point the computer gets in the way of the creativity. Long answer but hope that explains. Apple silicon is the best and the very worst of apple, best performance, worst terms of capitalism. If you refer back to the 1984 advert the little man vs the big corps. How things have changed.

[@DavidLewisTech]

wow - what a fascinating read - thank you so much. I love getting comments like this that just show how much the tech we choose affects our daily efforts and our ability to get things done. Like you, I use Adobe CC every day, and at long last they are working really well on Apple silicon. The early problems they had with compatibility now seem a thing of the past...