TechLife Australia – September 2019

(Jacob Rumans) #1

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considerations – involved in the creation of the
iMac Pro. At the edges, the iMac Pro is only
5mm (0.2 inches) thick, meaning it doesn’t take
up too much space on your desk. And, it comes
in at just 0.7kg (21.38 pounds), which means
you won’t break your back moving it from desk
to desk if necessary.
Having such powerful components, which
require more power and therefore produce
more heat, inside the slimline design of the
iMac Pro means that an effectivecooling
system is essential.
And, Apple’s engineers
have managed to
design a reliable
cooling system for this
workstation, utilising
dual fans that not only
help circulate cool air
over components, but
also expel hot air.
One particularly noticeable difference with
the iMac Pro’s design, compared to regular
iMacs, is that it comes in a new color scheme:
Space Gray. As expected, the Space Gray iMac is
beautiful, and the included Magic Mouse 2,
Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad 2 also
come in the new color, for users who prefer to
keep things uniform.


MAGIC PERIPHERALS
The iMac Pro comes with the Magic Keyboard
with Numeric Keypad, Magic Mouse 2, and
optionally, the Magic Trackpad 2 – all of which
come in the new (to the iMac range) Space Gray


DDR4 RAM and a Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics
card with 16GB of HBM2 memory. With these
specs and the steep price, you’d expect the iMac
Pro to perform like a beast. And, unsurprisingly,
it does – elegantly so.
Apple macOS High Sierra feels incredibly
smooth and snappy, thanks to the 2TB SSD in
the iMac Pro, and the desktop looks beautiful on
the 27-inch display. Of course, you’re not buying
an iMac Pro just to stare at desktop wallpaper, or
mess around in the operating system.
It’s how the machine performs under intense
workloads that’s crucial, and again, the iMac Pro
is seriously impressive.

VERDICT
In many ways, the iMac Pro is currently the
pinnacle of Apple’s computing division – it’s
easily the most powerful machine the company
has ever made so far, and it packs a punch all
while keeping that irresistible slim design and
build quality that iMacs are known for.
Obviously, thanks to the high power (and
price) displayed here, the iMac Pro isn’t the most
ideal for the general consumer. For day-to-day
tasks, and even casual photo or video editing, the
immense power – not to mention, the price – of
this machine is an overkill.
Also, if you are in need of a workstation
machine that packs loads of power, but you’re not
too fussed on looks and being able to open the
machine up to tinker and upgrade is crucial to
you, there are definitely equally powerful
computers on the market that will fit your
needs better.

color. Apart from this new shade, these
peripherals should be pretty familiar.
We were happy to see the Magic Keyboard
with a numeric keypad, as that’s a convenient
addition for writing up sums. While we
wouldn’t describe the typing experience on the
keyboard as ‘magic’, despite its thin keys and
shallow travel, it is comfortable enough to use.
However, if you do a lot of typing for work,
then you might find a more tactile keyboard
moresuitable.
In our opinion, the
Magic Mouse 2 is much
more successful at its
job. While the design
hasn’t changed (again,
apart from the color)
since its debut in 2015,
many would argue that
it’s already close to
beingperfectinitscurrent iteration.
The mouse feels smooth and responsive in
use, and handles remarkably well on different
surfaces. If you’re used to using Macs, then
you’ll feel right at home. But again, for some
tasks you might find it better utilising a
specialised pointing device.
There is one drawback that still needs fixing
on the Magic Mouse 2: to charge the mouse, you
need to hook the Lightning cable up at the
bottom of the mouse.

PERFORMANCE
The configuration Apple sent us rocks a 3.0GHz,
10-core Intel Xeon-W processor, 128GB of

THE FACT THAT APPLE
HAS KEPT THE BODY AS
THIN AS IT HAS IS A
TESTAMENT TO THE HARD
WORK – NOT TO MENTION,
CAREFUL DESIGN
CONSIDER ATIONS
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