I was just putting the finishing touches on my review of the iMac 6 months after purchase when I found my original review from 1 week after I bought it. This was originally posted on my old website, but I'm glad I found it.

Click on Read More below to see the review

Follow up:

Well after a long wait, I finally took the plunge and bought myself my first Apple computer. A shiny new, aluminium 20in iMac.
The specs are as follows:
• 20in glossy widescreen display
• 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo
• 1GB RAM
• 320GB HDD
• 16x DVD burner Superdrive
• ATI Radeon HD2600 PRO
• Built in iSight and microphone
• Apple slimline keyboard, mighty mouse and remote control
• Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
• 3 USB 2.0 ports + 2 on the keyboard, firewire 400, firewire 800, gigabit Ethernet, mini DVI for external monitor

Unboxing

As previously mentioned in my review of the iPod Touch, Apple packaging is very much an experience to behold, and the iMac is no exception. The entire computer comes in a single box with a full size picture of what is inside on the front. Open the lid and you are confronted with a polystyrene block in which a white box is sitting, with the infamous monica “Designed by Apple in California” printed on it.
Open this box and you are immediately confronted with your new keyboard. Take this out the box and beneath it is the mouse and remote control, a cleaning cloth, instruction manuals and reload discs. The cleaning cloth is always a nice touch, and shows some thought has gone into the product.

Lift out the polystyrene block and there it is, the new iMac wrapped in a protective fabric like bag. Now lifting the iMac out the box isn’t as easy as you might think as it is incredibly heavy, granted it shouldn’t be a shock but it is built from aluminium and glass. The weight is a reassuring sign of quality however. Unwrap the machine and you immediately see an impressively reflective glossy screen that smacks of WOW factor. In the bottom of the box is the power cable, and setting the machine up is a snap. Plug in the power cord, the keyboard and mouse and hit the power button to hear that lovely “bong”

First boot

Within seconds of hitting the power button you’re faced with an option for which language you want to use for OS X, clicking next brings on an impressive intro movie. Then you get to go through the settings, such as location, wireless network etc, and register the product (having an AppleID already made this a doddle, just username and password needed). Then it asks you if you want to try .mac which while a nice idea costs money so this got skipped. Then that was it, the desktop was in front of me and the machine was ready to go on the internet and to start making movies, it really is that quick.

One week on

I’ve been using this computer for over a week now, and I just love it. The reflective screen doesn’t notice at all because the screen itself shows such glorious colours and is extremely bright, so I have it set to almost minimum brightness. I now have MS Office for Mac 2008 installed which works like a charm, and I haven’t had any instability issues. This is the best £949 I’ve ever spent, and still with just 1gig of RAM, you feel like you don’t need more.

Gaming has been a joy, I’ve only had chance to install and play Call of Duty 2, but this runs at native 1680x1050 resolution on full settings and is smooth as you like. This computer handles games with ease, however be warned it is not a monster gaming PC, but handles most games quite admirably.

Conclusion

This is a glorious computer with a very tidy and efficient operating system that just works. It looks absolutely gorgeous on any desk, has a glorious screen and has lived up to all my personal expectations. The closed box nature may be a deal breaker for some users, but RAM is easily upgradeable. If however a powerful and tidy computer is what you’re after with minimal fuss that can also run windows, then this could well be the computer you have been waiting for.