Apple iMac 2018 rumours: Prettier and faster music production?
With its self-contained aluminium design and bright, crisp display, the iMac is a fantastic and inspiring music production machine. Here’s everything we think we know about its possible 2018 revamp in terms of design, features, specs, and price.
iMac 2018 Design
To further slim down the iMac, Apple could go about removing the hard drive option and freeing up space formerly taken by the chassis. This could help reduce the chin. However, a full-on SSD iMac is unlikely, as Apple would like to keep the Fusion Drive as a means of providing increased storage options. With or without an HDD or Fusion Drive, slimming the bezels down remains a possibility. It will make for a slightly smaller, more modern-looking iMac without moving too far from a successful design. Also, given that Apple made the Space Gray keyboard and mouse available for purchase, it could end up with a Space Gray color option for the iMac.
iMac 2018 Specs
Screen
It is unlikely that Apple will switch to an OLED display for the new iMac, as the technology is still plagued by issues like burn-in and color distortions. Although it did appear on the iPhone X, OLED supposedly isn’t being considered as an iMac candidate at this point.
It is possible that Apple may integrate its FaceID technology into the iMac’s FaceTime camera as a means of securing it. This could potentially enable musicians to control virtual musical instruments using facial expressions.
Processor, RAM and storage
With hexa-core options available for Intel’s current-gen i5 and i7 Coffee Lake processors, it is likely that Apple will look into expanding its mid- and top-range iMac models beyond quad-core processing. However, the entry-level iMac will most likely remain a quad-core machine. Processor speeds of up to 4.7GHz are achievable via Intel’s TurboBoost technology in the high-end Core i7. The high-end Core i5 will operate at up to 4.3GHz. Graphics will be (probably) handled by an AMD Vega GPU, rumoured to be the Vega 28 or Vega 32. A new Vega RX GPU, designed for gaming, could find its way into the configuration.
RAM memory should start at 8GB for the base model, upgradeable to up to 64GB. Storage is in question, as it is unclear whether Apple will be dealing away with hard disks in favor of solid-state drives.
iMac 2018 Price
Apple is expected to retain current pricing, or make it slightly higher. This depends on the extent of hardware and design changes introduced with the 2018 iMac.
iMac 2018 Release Date
Last year, Apple announced the 2017 iMac on June 5 at its annual WWDC event. It’s possible that the same will happen with the 2018 version, although Apple may wait until September or October. There are rumors that the company is redesigning its flagship desktop computer as the aluminium concept it introduced back in 2007 is over 10 years old now. Together with possible shortages of Intel Coffee Lake CPUs during the first quarter of 2018, it could happen that Apple takes longer than a year to update the 2017 iMac.
Conclusion
All in all, it looks like we are in for something interesting happening to the iMac this year. Design changes, new processors and faster storage are welcome upgrades for all music producers. With hexa-core processors and ample memory, these machines ought to do an excellent job crunching synths, reverbs, and other processor-intensive tasks.
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2 responses to “Apple iMac 2018 rumours: Prettier and faster music production?”
What a pointless article. It tells us nothing. Stop trying to be an Apple rumours site. It makes it feel a bit spammy.
I am hoping for an 8 Core I-7 or I-9 processor, 64 GB of Ram, 8 GB of video ram, and at least 1, or 2 TB SSD. I am also thinking, the I-Phones and I-Pads have choices of Silver, Gold or Space Gray, hopefully that could be a choice as well as the amount of Ram, and the capacity of the SSD drives. I am looking forward to this new I-Mac 2018 and will wait for it to come out and then I will buy one.