MacFormat UK – June 2019

APPLE CHOICE Mac hardware

The 21.5in iMac has four USB-A ports for older kit – double

the Mac mini. The mini doubles up on Thunderbolt 3, though.

The Retina 4K display

is still amazing, but I’m

also still disappointed

Apple hasn’t chosen to

ensure all iMac buyers

enjoy a more responsive

experience of macOS

through cheaper SSD

prices – or by including

an SSD as standard.

I could do with some

reassurance that the

spinning beach ball

won’t appear much.

Alex says...

82 | MACFORMAT | JUNE 2019 macformat.com @macformat

21.5-inch iMac

(Early 2019)

From £ 1 , 249 (£1,449 model tested) MANUFACTURER Apple, apple.com/uk

DISPLAY 4096x2304-pixel Retina display PROCESSOR 3.0GHz Intel Core i5

MEMORY 8GB STORAGE 1TB Fusion Drive GRAPHICS AMD Radeon Pro 560X

4GB CONNECTIVITY 2x Thunderbolt 3 ports, 4x USB-A ports, SDXC card reader,

Gigabit Ethernet, 3.5mm headphone jack, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2

Apple’s affordable all-in-one Mac

(until you fix the compromises)

Reviewed by ALAN STONEBRIDGE

P

roving that size isn’t everything,

the Retina 4K display in Apple’s

smaller iMac impresses us just

as much today as when we first saw it.

Its high pixel density, wide colour gamut and

large enough screen are excellent for photo

editing, especially for shots taken with an

iPhone 8 or later, or similarly capable camera.

The 21.5in iMac may be the best fit for

your desk. Though it still looks stylish

enough, the bezel and chin are looking a bit

old-hat when you consider Apple managed

to reduce the amount of black around the

display on all three MacBook families, where

it must have been more of a challenge.

Ignore the 21.5in iMac that’s £1,049, as

it’s unchanged and has older components.

2019’s truly new 21.5in iMacs really start at

£1,249, which gets you a much better display.

It also gets you an 8th-gen quad-core i3

processor, 8GB of memory, a Radeon Pro 555X

graphics processor with 2GB of memory, and

(here’s the unwelcome bit) a 5,400rpm, 2.5in

hard disk. The disk’s capacity is okay (1TB),

but the specific storage

tech is the weakness of the

entry-level 21.5in iMac.

You get a Fusion Drive

in the £1,449 iMac – but if

you skipped our 27in iMac

review to come straight

here, read the box on p81

to see why we no longer

recommend this storage,

whether included as

standard or as an upgrade.

The stinger on the £1,249 iMac is that

Apple wants not just £90 to swap the 1TB

hard disk for a 256GB SSD, like it does on

models with a Fusion Drive. Instead it wants

£180. That’s terrible value for money when

a superfast PCIe-connected SSD of that size

is under £100, and a SATA-connected one

that could replace that iMac’s hard disk

without putting a different connector on

the logic board is more like £50.

A memory malaise

All 21.5in models come with 8GB of memory,

which is upgradeable at checkout. Unlike the

27in iMac though, you can’t pop open a panel

on the back to fit more later on.

Think hard about how much memory you

will need. You can get by on 8GB for very light

needs, but 16GB is safer if there is any chance

you might be more ambitious with the iMac

in the future. Even if memory in this model

The 21.5in iMac fills less of your

field of vision, so its thick black

bezel stands out more. It still looks

slender from the side though.