Apple debuts 21.5-inch 4K iMac, new Magic Keyboard, Mouse, TrackPad

The 21.5-inch version of Apple’s all-in-one is now available with a 4K screen.

Last year, I reviewed the first 5K iMac and found it to be a great machine with a truly awesome display. Performance was fine for web browsing and light multitasking, with benchmark scores that matched the flagship 5K iMac I tested past year. A metal stand that protrudes from the back of the computer lets you tilt the screen up and down but not from left to right, and all of the computer’s ports-a headphone jack, SD card slot, four USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, and a gigabit Ethernet jack-are all on the back where they stay out of sight. In addition to updated internals, the display on the new 2015 iMac is now better than ever.

I haven’t had time to properly but the new iMac through its paces, but I can fairly confidently say most people won’t really feel most of the hardware changes. It also has a P3-based color gamut. So if you want, you can use this 21.5-inch iMac to show the same amount of information as a 27-inch iMac, a nice added benefit to using a Retina screen. A year later, I’m still wowed by 5K.

The new iMac, an updated version of the one that launched about a year ago, has a high-resolution “5K” display, which means it can play so-called ultra high definition video.

Inside is a fifth-generation Intel Core i5-5675R processor clocked at 3.1 GHz alongside Intel’s Iris Pro 6200 graphics, 8 GB of memory, and a 1 TB hard drive. The 27-inch iMac starts at $1,799, $1,999 and $2,229, respectively.

The graphic improvements aren’t earth-shattering, but the improvements are real.

We’ve gone through the non-Retina-to-Retina transition a few times now, so you know how it goes: the new screen is pretty and sharp and even if you don’t particularly care what colour space it supports you’ll appreciate how colours pop, particularly bright ones like the orange Ars logo. Customers also have the option to replace the hard drive with complete flash storage for an extra fee. Now, if you want the 128GB SSD, you’ll need to have a 2TB or 3TB Fusion Drive offering. The smaller iMacs are getting a speed increase, too. Just be sure to upgrade the hard drive before you place your order.

The iMac is a very powerful machine.

That remains true in 2015.

Enter the new Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse 2, and Magic Trackpad 2, the trio of input accessories that ship with Apple’s refreshed 21.5- and 27-inch iMacs.

All three accessories get new rechargeable li-ion batteries that are rechargeable via (included) Lightning cables, and those Lightning cables are also used to pair the accessories to new Macs.

The Lightning port, used for pairing and charging.

The new Magic Keyboard will cost £79, the Magic Trackpad 2 will cost £109, and the Magic Mouse 2 £65. That said, the iMac took a back seat. The new Magic Keyboard features a full-size keyboard in a sleek new design that takes up 13 percent less space on your desktop. The Magic Keyboard is smaller and flatter, but has slightly larger key faces.

The keyboard is seeing the next biggest change.

The Magic Mouse 2 looks the same as the old Magic Mouse – at least until you turn it over. If you found them useful before, that may well convince you to use the Magic Trackpad instead of the mouse. It’s the exact same tech as the MacBook Pro’s new trackpads, Apple says, just lifted out of the palmrest and placed on your desk. But until now, users who didn’t have the latest MacBook or MacBook Pro couldn’t use it. Adding the feature to the Magic Trackpad 2 is a big step in helping Force Touch adoption. The new models contain sealed rechargeable batteries that you juice up using the same Lightning plug as an iPhone. It now takes advantage of the pressure-sensitive controls, known as Force Touch, that Apple built into its laptops and latest OS X El Capitan.

But inside the familiar convex chassis of the iMac, there are a few important spec changes for 2015. It has a 4,096 x 2,304 4K display with the same wide gamut display.

Apple’s 2015 iMac is expected to have faster graphics cards and 4K display.

The Retina 5K display has a resolution of 5120-by-2880, which comes out to about 14.7 million pixels on the screen. It starts at $1,799. Today’s announcement leaves just two lower-cost 21.5-inch iMacs as the only models available with 1920×1080 screens – screens that will fail to show all the details of videos shot using the iPhone 6s’s 4k camera.

For my part, I was always able to hit the button I meant to, even without looking. You’re in luck: Apple is bringing a 4K Retina display to the 21.5-inch iMac for the first time.

It’s notable that Apple is coming in aggressively on price.