Besides upgrading the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 with newer M3 chips, Apple has also refreshed the 24″ iMac with Apple M3 inside. According to Apple, the slim 24″ iMac is the world’s best all-in-one with industry-leading 4.5K display, best-in-class camera and speakers, and it now features the latest wireless connectivity.
Same slim design with 24″ 4.5K Retina Display
The design for the new 24″ iMac for 2023 remains unchanged and it looks identical to the M1-powered version launched in 2021. It still gets a 24″ 4.5K Retina Display with a P3 wide colour gamut and it boasts 500 nits of brightness. Also retained are 1080p FaceTime camera with 3 studio-quality mics. Also included is a 6-speaker sound system with support for Spatial Audio when you’re playing music or video with Dolby Atmos.
New M3 version has more GPU cores, up to 2x faster than M1 iMac 2021
The biggest upgrade is the new Apple M3 chip which is offered with either 8-core or 10-core GPU for the new 24″ iMac. As a comparison, the M1 iMac had 7-core GPU for the base model and 8-core GPU for the higher-spec options.
According to Apple, the new Apple Silicon offers a huge leap in performance with up to 2x faster than the M1-powered iMac. If you’re upgrading from an Intel-based iMac, Apple says it is up to 2.5x faster than the most popular 27″ iMac model and up to 4x faster than the most powerful 21.5″ iMac model.
On top of that, the new Apple M3 chip allows you to customise the iMac with up to a maximum of 24GB of unified memory from the previous limit of 16GB on the M1 version. The maximum storage remains unchanged with a maximum of 2TB.
Apple says when compared to the previous 24″ iMac, Safari and productivity apps such as Microsoft Excel perform up to 30% faster and users can experience faster game loading with up to 50% faster frame rates.
When it comes to video production, users can edit and playback up to 12 streams of 4K video, which is 3x more than the previous M1-powered iMac. Meanwhile, video projects in Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier Pro, as well as photo processing on Adobe Photoshop are said to be up to 2x faster.
Faster WiFi 6E and up to 4 USB-C ports
For faster connectivity, Apple has upgraded the wireless support from WiFi 6 to WiFi 6E which is said to offer download speeds that are up to twice as fast as the previous version. Bluetooth is also upgraded from 5.0 to 5.3 which should make device connections more reliable and power efficient.
Similar to the previous generation, the higher-spec 24″ iMac comes with two Thunderbolt or USB 4 ports at the rear plus an additional two USB 3 ports. However, if you get the cheapest iMac with fewer GPU cores, you’re only getting two Thunderbolt ports.
Also, the base iMac doesn’t come with an ethernet port but you can add that as a RM110 option. The 10-core GPU iMac models come with Gigabit Ethernet included as standard.
Comes in 7 striking colours with matching accessories
The 24″ iMac 2023 comes in seven striking colours – green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. Also included are colour-matching wallpaper and accessories such as the keyboard, mouse and trackpad as well as the cables. Similar to the previous generation, the keyboard comes with Touch ID but the base iMac pricing only includes the keyboard without Touch ID. You are able to customise your order to get the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID or the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad.
New iMac 2023 costs more in Malaysia
With the foreign currency exchange rates, you’ll have to fork out more to buy the latest iMac in Malaysia. The M1-powered iMac launched in 2021 was priced from RM5,599 with 8GB unified memory and 256GB storage. Meanwhile, the latest M3-powered iMac with the same memory and storage configuration is priced from RM6,299.
Here’s the Malaysian M3 iMac 2023 pricing in its preset options:
- 8-core GPU, 8GB unified memory and 256GB storage – RM6,299
- 10-core GPU, 8GB unified memory and 256GB storage – RM7,299
- 10-core GPU, 8GB unified memory and 512GB storage – RM8,099
With all hardware options selected for the highest spec option, you’re looking at RM12,698 for the 24″ iMac with 10-core GPU, 24GB unified memory, 2TB SSD, Magic Mouse + Magic Trackpad and a Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric pad.
If you’re interested, the new iMac 2023 isn’t on sale yet and we reckon it will be released in Malaysia in the coming months.
