AppleInsider Staff
Following up on earlier reports that Apple would unveil thinner Retina display-equipped MacBook Pros at the forthcoming Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Joanna Stern of ABC News corroborated those details, but also included the iMac in the mix. Along with the MacBook Pro, the iMac will get a new, "very, very high resolution" display, she said.
The detail comes on the heels of benchmark tests that appeared online for a new iMac model, identified as "13,2." The desktop tested with Geekbench featured a quad-core i7 chip at a clock speed of 3.40 gigahertz running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, and earned a score of 12,183.
One report in April claimed that Apple's 2012 iMac lineup will feature anti-reflective glass displays. It was also said that the new iMacs will be noticeably slimmer than the current all-in-one desktop models offered by Apple.
The latest rumor of high-resolution iMacs suggests that Apple plans to quickly upgrade much of its Mac lineup to new Retina displays, catching up with the high pixel density screens currently found on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Earlier this month, AppleInsider discovered new Retina-caliber icons hidden within Apple's latest OS X 10.7.4 update to Lion.
An earlier report in April previously indicated that Apple was eyeing a June launch for new iMacs featuring Intel's latest-generation Ivy Bridge processors. It was said the new iMacs would feature options for Core i5 or faster Core i7 processors based on the latest chip architecture.
The iMac lineup was last updated in May of 2011, when Apple added high-definition FaceTime cameras as well as high-speed Thunderbolt ports. The current iMacs are powered by Intel's Sandy Bridge processors and AMD Radeon HD graphics.
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81 Comments
Anyone with thoughts on whether Apple displays might get a bump up as well?
Anyone with thoughts on whether Apple displays might get a bump up as well?
Naturally
I'd like to add that the DPI for a large display would be much smaller than what's in iPhone/iPad because our eye will be placed further out. I am curious how high the density need to be. Will 150 DPI be good enough?
No one on Earth makes 27" 5120x2880 display. The iMacs cannot get retina displays this upgrade time. It's just not possible.
[quote name="Tallest Skil" url="/t/150087/apples-next-imacs-also-rumored-to-receive-retina-display-upgrade#post_2110277"]No one on Earth makes 27" 5120x2880 display. The iMacs cannot get retina displays this upgrade time. It's just not possible. [/quote] I agree. I also don't know of any mainstream graphics chips that will handle that resolution. Rumormongers ought to at least check on whether something is plausible. ETA: I may have been wrong about the graphics chips. Modern chips are getting close to being able to handle that resolution: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/37253-three-screen-geforce-gtx-680-vs-radeon-hd-7970/ This is a three screen setup at 5760x1080. Not quite what TS was referring to, but it's closer than I thought - and suggests that it just might be possible with a high end video card. They will, however, have to come up with some new initials for a screen that size: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_display_resolutions
No one on Earth makes 27" 5120x2880 display. The iMacs cannot get retina displays this upgrade time. It's just not possible.
The article didn't state the resolution would be exactly double to what it is now, and I don't think it will. In fact there was an article linked to from Macrumors earlier about the possibility of a retina display iMac and suggested:
Apple could build a 3840 by 2400 pixel 27-inch screen that presented itself as a pixel doubled 1920 by 1200 pixel display. That’s effectively an 84ppi screen @1X and 168ppi screen @2X.
Makes a lot of sense to me!