Retina 5K iMac: Apple’s next bright light

SINGAPORE — The simplicity of Apple’s iMac remains impressive. Plugging the power cord in and switching it on took only five seconds, far faster than the time it took to unpack it. While the form factor is indistinguishable from its predecessor, that is not a bad thing. No other all-in-one desktop has managed to rival the iMac’s looks while packing in so much hardware.

Yet, the sterling feature of the latest iMac is its Retina 5K display: A 27-inch screen with a resolution of 5,120 pixels by 2,880 pixels. Just imagine staring at a screen with seven times the resolution of a regular full high-definition television.

The Retina 5K display has the widest viewing angle I have seen — even when you view it at an almost perpendicular angle. A side-by-side comparison with a regular 27-inch display revealed strikingly clearer images and high-resolution videos appeared vivid and bright. In one instance, I viewed a high-resolution video of a night sky filled with stars. It almost replicated the experience I had camping on a mountain in Sapa, Vietnam (sans mosquito bites). The display is that good.

I read a number of long-form articles online and appreciated how much sharper text appeared onscreen — individual pixels are no longer distinguishable. The higher fidelity of the display also translated into less eye fatigue over long hours of usage.

The iMac can handle some pretty challenging tasks for an all-in-one. The model I reviewed had a 4GHz Intel Core i7 processor with 8GB of memory. It could edit 1080p and 4K videos without any problems. I pushed its limits by playing StarCraft II at the display’s native resolution, and while there was a slight lag, it was still playable and the experience of gaming at such a high resolution was awesome.

With current laptops packing enough power to rival desktop computers and able to mimic one once hooked up to an external display, I thought I had long abandoned the idea of buying a desktop computer. Apple’s new iMac with Retina 5K display has made me rethink this notion.

It might sound hyperbolic, but there is no other machine like this on the market today — one with a high-resolution 5K display and a powerful computer bolted on, in a beautiful form factor. I had a much more powerful Mac Pro on my desk but my eyes craved the higher fidelity of the iMac’s display each time. It became a centrepiece of entertainment and productivity in my room.

One limiting factor is the lack of video content out there that will take full advantage of the 5K display. Even 4K content (which has four times the resolution of 1080p) for television sets that support it is hard to come by. Still, this makes the machine a future-proof purchase, albeit one that is a tad pricey.

The base model of the new iMac costs S$3,388. I recommend upgrading the memory and graphics because handling that many pixels onscreen really pushes the hardware to its limits. This will push the price tag to more than S$4,000. However, this is still substantially cheaper than a standalone professional 4K display that does not even come with a computer with free productivity and media editing software.