iMac M4 review: Minor changes lead to perfection for Apple's all-in-one Mac

Apple's 2024 iMac M4 got some internal updates to a familiar design, and the bevy of those small changes helped Apple perfect its ever-popular all-in-one.

The new wave of colorful iMacs debuted in November 2024, alongside upgraded MacBook Pros and a redesigned Mac mini. We picked one up and have been testing it out in the studio for the past two week or so.

Unsurprisingly, we were happy with what Apple delivered here.

Our machine is a base, 8-core M4 in the striking new green. It has 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage.

It powers a large 24-inch 4.5K display that measures 4480-by-2520 with 500 nits of brightness. If you opt for the 10-core model, you can get a nano-texture finish on the glass.

We have the same texture on the new MacBook Pro and it's lovely, especially if working in a well-lit space.

The new iMac at the low-end is expandable to 24GB of memory and 1TB of storage. Once more, opting for the 10-core gives you more choices, including up to 32GB of memory and 2TB of storage.

iMac M4 review: Design

We're currently on the third refresh of the existing iMac design. As it did from the beginning, it looks stunning perched on your desk.

It's thin and svelte and looks better than most standalone displays, putting aside the fact there's an entire computer hidden inside of its chin.

Apple pushed its colors this time, making them a bit more vibrant than before. When viewed from behind, the anodized aluminum enclosure pops even more.

We like all the new colors, and it's clear the pink is actually pink this time around. Unfortunately, there's no deep red color though.

One last note on the colors -- you no longer need to buy an upgrade model if you want something other than silver. All colors are available at every price point.

Otherwise, it's what we had before. An all-in-one Mac that is largely screen.

The ports are located around the back, as is the power button. It has a camera integrated above the screen and you can optionally get an ethernet port built into the power supply.

iMac M4 review: Small, but mighty updates

Even if it looks the same, there have been a number of welcomed tweaks Apple has implemented. These start with the ports on the back.

On the upper-tier models, the iMac used to be split between USB and Thunderbolt ports. It felt very un-Apple as they all were type-C connectors.

This made it a little unclear, especially from the front, what the differences were and which were which. Now, they're all Thunderbolt 4 across the board.

On the base model, you're still limited to two ports, but they're at least both Thunderbolt 4. More ports is one of the biggest reasons to pay the $200 to upgrade to the next model.

Another update is the change to base memory. Apple has moved every Mac to 16GB of unified memory as a starting point.

This has been long-requested and Apple is finally giving in. Apple Intelligence may be playing a part in that.

The camera is now a 12MP Center Stage-equipped shooter which is still limited to 1080P. It does support Desk View with this change.

Desk View uses the camera to capture then perspective-correct the area right in front of your iMac to show on screen. This can be shared on a call or recorded.

It's been a feature for a while, but it now works natively on the iMac without need an extra camera or your iPhone. Otherwise, the camera is also richer with better color balance.

We also got new peripherals. Nothing flashy, but they did move to USB-C.

They otherwise haven't changed at all, other than having the colors tweaked to match the new machines. It seems like a missed opportunity for Apple not to add some new features to them.

Oddly, you can also no longer choose both the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse at checkout. You have to purchase the second pointing device separately.

While working in graphics, we like using both the trackpad and a mouse and it doesn't make sense why Apple took this option away. It was possible with the M3 iMac.

Apple Intelligence

Since Apple won't stop talking about it, we probably should touch on Apple Intelligence during this review. At the time of this review, we're running macOS Sequoia 15.1.

Apple's AI features have been rolling out in stages. The first feature arrived with this update and were available at this machine's launch.

The notable feature so far include notification summaries, Writing Tools, and an updated Siri interface. More will be arriving over the next time, including macOS 15.2 with Image Playground and ChatGPT integration.

Sadly, this first batch of features is underwhelming. We have liked using Writing Tools, but we're a group of writers, so we probably use it more than you average user will.

Notifications summaries are great, though they have a ways to go before they're fully reliable. Some of the responses we've seen have been fairly inaccurate.

Siri's improvements amount to little more than fresh paint at this point in time. A handy shortcut of double pressing the CMD key does open a typing interface which is nice.

The rub is that Siri is no more capable than before, so far. We still have to wait on ChatGPT this winter and personal context to come sometime in 2025, and we'll obviously be talking about them as they roll out.

To be clear, none of this is specific to the new M4 iMac. These features are all available on any Apple-silicon based iMac, up to and including the originally redesigned M1 iMac.

These features are nice, but it's too early to tell how effective they are and where Apple intends to grow them. Time will tell how that develops, but this machine will be ready.

iMac M4 review: Performance

The M4 chip comes in 8-core and 10-core configurations. That's four performance cores and either four or six efficiency cores.

Apple says there's a 70% performance boost from the M1 and a 30% boost from the M3. That's roughly on par with what we've seen in our testing benchmarks.

In daily tasks, it doesn't feel much different at all from our M3 model. But people buying into the iMac aren't usually upgrading yearly, so it's not surprising why Apple is comparing it to the M1 model.

In Geekbench 6, our iMac scored a 3835 single-core and a 13589 multi-core. That's up from 3040 and 11694 on the M3 model.

On the Metal graphics benchmark, the GPU went from 41515 to 48468. That's especially impressive when the base model went from a 10-core to an 8-core GPU.

We threw a bunch of tasks at this machine, including 4K video editing in Final Cut, and it had no issue with any of them. Even dozens and dozens of open tabs in Safari.

iMac M4 review: Still a bargain

It's hard not to argue that the iMac is an incredible bargain -- assuming you don't already have a display or peripherals at least.

If you picked up a new Mac mini, a Magic Keyboard, and a Magic Mouse, you'd be at almost $800. Sans display.

By the time you tack on a somewhat comparable monitor, you're higher than the price of the iMac. We say somewhat because it's next to impossible to find a 24-inch 4.5K display.

When you include the performance of Apple Silicon, and look outside the Mac ecosystem, it's still shockingly competitive.

Apple's typical fashion is to release a new machine with a new design, monitor feedback, then iterate with small changes over the coming years until you get a near-perfect implementation.

That's where we've arrived. The design still stuns but now the colors are better, the camera is sharper, the peripherals are USB-C, the M4 flies -- it's all impeccably refined.

There's nearly nothing to complain about with the new iMac. Some may criticize the starting storage of 256GB, but that's easily expandable on a desktop though external solutions.

The base will be fine for a lot of users, but if you can swing it, the $200 upgrade gets you the 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, two more Thunderbolt ports, and Ethernet. It's a decent bump for Apple's upgrades.

Overall, it isn't the flashiest of updates but you'd be hard pressed to find a better machine suited for education, families, and even many businesses.

iMac M4 review: Pros

• Colors are more saturated
• Now starts with 16GB of memory
• Nano texture finish looks great
• All Thunderbolt ports
• Colors aren't locked to upper tier
• Peripherals are all USB-C

iMac M4 review: Cons

• 256GB of starting storage is lower than we like. but it's expandable with external drives
• Without M4 Pro, High-end users need to look elsewhere

iMac M4 rating: 4.5 out of 5

Where to buy Apple's M4 iMac at a discount

Apple's 24-inch iMac is on sale now, with every configuration discounted in our M4 iMac Price Guide.

In the Price Guide, you can shop top iMac deals across popular Apple resellers, including Adorama, where promo code APINSIDER knocks up to $150 off every set of specs in addition to bonus savings on a 3-year AppleCare plan.

At press time, Amazon also is throwing a sale -- with retail models marked down to as low as $1,149.99.