January 2022 • Macworld 51laurels, and even Apple, with all of
its success, is not an exception. So
as we start thinking about closing
the books on 2021, it’s worth looking
ahead to that puck that Apple’s
skating towards. And while we may
have good reason to anticipate some
of its upcoming products, there are
always places where Apple could have
something surprising up its sleeve.
THE MOST
POWERFUL MACS
Given the impressive performance
of the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips in
Apple’s new MacBook Pros, the
company has quelled any doubts
that it can produce professional-
level computers based on its own
silicon. Which is good, because
with the recent discontinuation of
the Intel-based 21.5in iMac, the
company’s shifted the vast majority
of its product lines to its own chips.
And, as anticipated, it’s left the most
powerful for last.
This year’s redesign of the 24in
iMac gave us some idea of what we
can expect to see when the company
presumably refreshes the current 27in
iMac sometime next year, including a
focus on Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports,
eye-popping colours, and a slimmer
design. On the other hand, the recent
MacBook Pro update also embraced
conventional options like HDMI and
an SD card slot, forwent the bright
colours for traditional silver and
space grey, and actually got a little bit
thicker than their predecessors.
From those data points, we can
perhaps interpolate the larger, more
powerful iMac as taking something
from both ends of the spectrum.
No doubt it will include the M1 Pro
and M1 Max processors, with more
RAM and storage options, and
perhaps a smattering of additional
ports. (Though I do think that the
positioning of the SD card reader
on the back of the current iMac has
always been a bit inconvenient;
perhaps Apple might consider moving
it to the side, à la the headphone jack
on the 24in iMac.) Here’s hoping it
embraces fun and colour, even though
it seems possible Apple has decided
that ‘professionals’ like grey.
That 24in iMac also boasts a
screen that’s certainly far larger than
even the 16in MacBook Pro, but the
specs on the latter put it to shame:
254 pixels per inch, compared to
218 ppi on the iMac, and double the
average brightness (500 nits on the
iMac versus 1,000 nits standard, let
alone 1,600 peak, on the MacBook
Pro). It would be a bit of a head-