Over the weekend, Apple silently removed the 21.5-inch Intel iMac from its stores. The company has confirmed that it has “quietly” discontinued the 21.5-inch Intel-powered Mac desktop. The move comes half a year after it introduced the 24-inch M1 iMac.
Apple had weirdly continued selling its Intel-based 21.5-inch iMac even when it introduced the M1-based model earlier this year — most probably, waiting for its stock to run out. Now, the company has stopped selling its $1,099 Mac desktop. With the discontinuation of the Intel-based small iMac, only two iMacs are in the Apple lineup: 24-inch M1 iMac and 27-inch Intel iMac.
iMac (Pro)
Promotion and Mini Led
Base model 16gb Ram 512gb Storage
M1 Pro and Max
Dark bezels
HDMI, SD Card, Usb C
Similar design to iMac 24 and Pro Display XDR
Starting price at or over 2000 dollars
Ethernet on brick standard
Face ID was tested (Not confirmed)
1H 2022
— Dylan (@dylandkt) October 30, 2021
As the news of Apple discontinuing the Intel iMac floated, popular Apple leaker Dylandkt revealed that Apple is planning to launch a new iMac, which could possibly be the upcoming iMac Pro, in the first half of 2022. Dylandkt says that it isn’t confirmed if the upcoming iMac will be a 27-inch iMac replacement or the iMac Pro replacement. Apple is also planning to launch a new MacBook Air next year which could be called just “MacBook” so launching a new iMac with iMac Pro branding would make a lot of sense since this will streamline the Mac series as “MacBook and MacBook Pro” and “iMac and iMac Pro.”
Talking about the specifications, Dylan says that the 2022 iMac will feature mini-LED technology and 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate, the features which were recently introduced with the 2021 MacBook Pro. Display analyst Ross Young has also mentioned about mini LED making it to the iMac next year, so it could be true that the 2022 iMac comes with mini LED and ProMotion. Interestingly, Dylan says that the upcoming iMac will also feature a similar design to the currently available 24-inch iMac and the Pro Display XDR.
The leaker claims that the iMac Pro will come in a base model configuration which will have 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, just like the new MacBook Pro. Likewise, Apple will remove the Intel chip from the iMac and will give users an option to choose between M1 Pro and M1 Mac chipsets. Apple’s recently introduced M1 Pro and M1 Max chipsets have taken away the competition. The new chipsets are outperforming Intel and AMD, and even Apple’s own M1 chips, and we could see the new chipsets in the next year’s iMac as well.
Dylan also says that the upcoming 2022 iMac could borrow I/O ports from the 2021 MacBook Pro, such as the HDMI port and the SD card slot, which could make their way along with the USB C ports. Like the 24-inch M1 iMac, it will feature an ethernet port in the power brick. The leaker also claims that Apple tested Face ID on the 2022 iMac, however, it’s not confirmed. Apple executives last week explained why Macs don’t have Face ID or touchscreen. Given the statement’s fairly recent, it’s possible that the 2022 iMac skip them.
At last, Dylan says that Apple is planning to introduce the new iMac in 2022. He says that Apple will likely price the new desktops at over $2,000, which we could see coming given the specifications. It will “likely” be announced at next year’s Spring event.