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Apple iMac gets a refresh

Under the hood of the latest iMacs are Intel's quad-core Haswell processors, 802.11ac Wi-Fi capabilities, and faster flash storage options.

Jon Skillings Editorial director
Jon Skillings is an editorial director at CNET, where he's worked since 2000. A born browser of dictionaries, he honed his language skills as a US Army linguist (Polish and German) before diving into editing for tech publications -- including at PC Week and the IDG News Service -- back when the web was just getting under way, and even a little before. For CNET, he's written on topics from GPS, AI and 5G to James Bond, aircraft, astronauts, brass instruments and music streaming services.
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Jon Skillings
2 min read
Apple iMac
Apple

Apple on Tuesday brought out a refresh of its iMac all-in-one desktop line.

Under the hood of the latest iMacs, available Tuesday, are Intel's fourth-generation quad-core Haswell processors, 802.11ac Wi-Fi capabilities, and faster PCIe flash storage options, Apple said.

Here's a breakdown of pricing and configurations: The 21.5-inch iMac is available with a 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.2GHz and Intel Iris Pro for a suggested retail price of $1,299. With a 2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 and Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.6 GHz and Nvidia GeForce GT 750M, the suggested retail price is $1,499.

The 27-inch iMac, meanwhile, comes with a 3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.6GHz and Nvidia GeForce GTX 755M for a suggested retail price of $1,799. With a 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 and Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.8GHz and Nvidia GeForce GTX 775M, the suggested retail price is $1,999.

In announcing the refresh, Apple put an emphasis on speed. For instance, the new iMacs, when connected to an 802.11ac base station, can get up to three times faster wireless performance than did the previous desktop generation, according to Apple.

Standard with the latest iMacs is 8GB of memory and a 1TB hard drive, expandable to 32GB of memory and up to a 3TB hard drive. All-flash storage options are available in configurations up to 1TB, Apple said. The desktop computers also pack two Thunderbolt and four USB 3.0 ports.

The new iMacs come with Apple's Mac OS X Mountain Lion.