Well it has now been over 6 months since I bought my iMac from the Apple Store in Regent Street, London, and made that seemingly endless journey on the underground back to the end of the Northern Line where my car was parked, before driving home with my girlfriend to do the grand unboxing. Not long after I got it I posted my first video on YouTube, an unboxing of a drive caddy. Since then I’ve made 34 more videos for YouTube (not including the 2 part video review that goes with this article), some about my iMac, the switching experience and some on tech news. The iMac really opened up a whole new creative channel for me, and this still remains a huge selling point for Apple computers.

So what has life been like over the last few months with the iMac? Well, hopefully this will answer your questions. Don’t forget to head on over to YouTube to see the review videos. Like the videos, this review will look at the hardware and software seperately.

Follow up:

Hardware

From the moment I got the iMac out the box I was simply in awe of how great it looks, and it really does look good. Apple have a habit of designing their hardware with a real touch of style, and this is no exception. It looks good on any desk. Anyway, onwards to the specs

2.4GHz Core 2 Duo Processor
1GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM
20” Screen at 1680x1050
8x Superdrive
256MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO
Wired Keyboard and Mouse
OS X Leopard Pre Installed

These are pretty solid specs, the system cost me £949 when I bought it, so it wasn’t the basic iMac. I couldn’t justify (or really afford) the extra £200 for a 24 inch model with the same specs. Looking back, I don’t regret this decision at all, the 20 inch model is a great system. I would say if you are a graphics designer and don’t mind working with a glossy screen then go for the 24 inch, but for everyday use the 20” screen is great. It’s worth mentioning that I had only ever had matte LCD screens in the past, but the gloss on this screen is really something, to the point that I actually think I would choose a glossy screen again. It is extremely reflective though, almost like a mirror when the screen is off. Turn it on though, and even though you can see some reflection, the brightness of the screen more than compensates. But it is worth bearing in mind if you are in a brightly lit environment, such as an office with fluorescent lighting.

Before I go further, I just want to talk about the debate about the “cheaper” screen in the 20 inch models. Yes it’s fair to say that the 20 inch screens are based on the Twisted Nematic (TN) technology, rather than the higher end In Plane Switching (IPS) found in the 24 inch screens. In theory, this means that viewing angles without loss of colour definition is more restricted. In practice however, I don’t tend to sit much off centre in front of my computer, even when I watch movies on it from across the room, so this hasn’t impacted on me. What I did do with my screen however, was set the gamma to 2.2 which can be done through the settings. This made the colours look bolder, as to my taste, out the box the screen seemed slightly washed out. Make no mistake though, the 20 inch screen looks vibrant, bright and downright gorgeous. Yes if you put the 24” next to the 20” you will see a difference favouring the 24”, but this is unrepresentative of how you will likely have your computer set up and don’t forget the cost factor.

Another point to mention is about the graphics card, many have said it is woefully underpowered, however this really depends on your needs. I run Counter Strike Source and Half Life 2 at native resolution, with various settings at high or medium and I get around 100 frames per second average, so I wouldn’t say it’s underpowered. What I would say is that it’s not a card designed with games like Crysis in mind, (but then that game will bring most systems to their knees!). The Radeon HD 2600 PRO found in the iMacs is in fact a 2600 XT which has been underclocked, presumably for cooling. So there is some muscle there.

The keyboard and mouse in day to day use are a joy to use. The keyboard makes typing easy, and the mouse is really nice to use too. One thing I have noticed is that you need to keep the scroll ball clean on the mouse. The cable for the mouse which came with the computer is actually really short, as it is designed to plug in to the USB ports on the keyboard.

Finally the processor has plenty of power, and despite heavy use of my computer it just copes with what I throw at it with ease. The RAM however at only 1GB has been the most surprising element. It’s not uncommon for me to have Windows XP running in a Virtual Machine courtesy of Parallels Desktop, while I’ve got iTunes running, MSN, Mail, Entourage, Safari and even Pages open at the same time without any real sense of slow down. I will be putting a couple more gigs in the iMac soon, but for 1 GB to cope like this has blown me away.

Ports are a slightly different story however. The Mini DVI output for a second monitor, the Firewire 400, 800 and the Gigabit Ethernet have not been used by me at all. The audio ports are both 3.5mm stereo jacks which also work as optical input and output for multichannel surround sound. Where things take a slight down turn is in the USB department. There are 3 USB 2 ports on the iMac. 1 will permanently be taken up by the keyboard (where using a wired one), 1 of my ports is permanently used by my external hard drive, and 1 is used for iPod charging, eyeTV and pretty much anything else I need to plug in. This lack of ports means you will probably find you need to buy a USB hub. I have managed without one so far but it is far from ideal.

The built in iSight and microphone work really well. I’m not going to say too much on either of these, as all my videos on YouTube so far have been made using them, so I guess the results should speak for themselves.

So there you have it, my review of the hardware, overall I’m very happy with it. This may not be the mother of all gaming computers, but it handles everything else in its stride. This is a great computer, and despite some of the minor gripes noted above I’ve found it to be well worth every penny I spent on it. Hardware wise, the 20 inch iMac is a great machine, that has given me little trouble, but what about the software?

Part 2 - Software