Gary Baker

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August 21st 2020

On August 4th, Apple launched the 2020 27-inch iMac deskstop(A2115). The new machine was upgraded to Intel’s 10th-generation Comet Lake processor, and the camera was replaced with a 1080p HD resolution sensor.

It is rumored that the newly designed iMac with narrow bezel did not appear, which may make some netizens feel a little disappointed, but the "traditional iMac" with upgraded brain and muscle also has its own bright spots.

Rocking Review has already got the 2020 27-inch iMac. What is the actual performance of this newly upgraded performance monster? Is it worth buying? You may wish to follow the evaluation of Rocking Review to find out.

Appearance design:

Under the background that Apple's main product lines have adjusted the design, the overall design of the iMac is indeed a bit boring.

As in the past, the bottom of the front of the new iMac is still the iconic silver chin, and the black polished metal logo in the middle is still very eye-catching and exciting.

Above the chin is the display area. From today's perspective, the black border around the screen is wider, but fortunately, the overall design of the iMac front is more avant-garde and harmonious. The balanced design can reduce the visual abruptness of the black border.

The back of the new iMac still has a curved design, all in silver, which looks very simple. There is also an Apple Logo on the top of the back shell, and various interfaces lined up on the bottom.

These interfaces include: 1 3.5mm headphone jack, 1 SDXC card slot, 4 USB Type A ports, 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports, 1 Gigabit Ethernet interface, and a power interface.

There are cooling vents above the power connector, but they are visually obscured by the stand of the iMac, and the normal viewing angle is not easy to find.

The stand of the new iMac is still the original one-piece design, simple and generous.

Including the stand, the overall weight of the iMac is about (19.8416). You need to lift both hands during daily movement and transportation, otherwise it will be more difficult.

In general, the appearance of the 2020 27-inch iMac has hardly changed from the past. Obviously, it will not be the core factor in deciding whether to buy it or not.

Performance 

Because it is mainly a configuration upgrade, the biggest difference between the new iMac and the past is its strong performance.

This iMac is equipped with an Intel Core i7-10700K processor clocked at 3.8GHz, with 8 cores and 16 threads, and the turbo frequency can reach up to 5.0GHz. The graphics processing task is mainly done by a Radeon Pro 5500 XT discrete graphics card with 8GB GDDR6 video memory.

In addition, this iMac also has 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory, 512GB PCle solid state drive.

From the parameter point of view, the performance of this iMac is worth looking forward to. So what is the actual performance? I have first conducted a benchmark test on it.

In "CineBench R20", the new iMac has a single-core CPU score of 503pts and a multi-core score of 4862pts. This performance is similar to the previous generation i9-9900K, which belongs to the top category.

Next is the running score of "GeekBench". The new iMac ran out of 1188 for single-core and 7182 for multi-core. The performance is still outstanding.

Followed by the "Disk Speed ​​Test" test of the hard disk read and write speed, the average read speed of the new iMac is 2343.6MB/s, and the average write speed is 2338.7MB/s.

Of course, the running score is only one of the reference factors for performance. In actual application, what kind of energy the new iMac can show, it needs to be further investigated in combination with application scenarios.

Therefore, we subsequently conducted a game test. The game I chose is "Tomb Raider 10". This game launched in 2015 also had a reputation as a graphics killer. During the test, I adjusted the game's image quality options to the following levels, which is basically the highest image quality.

When the game is running, the new iMac can provide a smoother playing experience. Although it is not silky smooth, the overall smoothness is completely sufficient, and the number of frames during the game is relatively stable, and there will be no frame drop that significantly affects the experience.

I have also used the game's built-in performance test to check the number of frames under the highest image quality. From the results, it can be seen that the frame rate is reduced to 30.69fps only in the Syrian scene, and other scenes are sufficient to play. I have recorded a period of "Tomb Raider 10" playing process, the process is still relatively smooth, and the iMac speakers are very effective, the bass is strong, and the game is more immersive.

Next, I have used "Photoshop" on the iMac to open a 3.9GB large .tif file, and then processed it with a Gaussian blur with a radius of 70 pixels, which took about 19 seconds. This is the experience of the editor test Medium is the fastest. It can be seen that iMac's reading and writing ability is quite powerful.

Subsequently, I have used "Final Cut Pro" to render a 4K resolution video with a duration of about 10 minutes. After the rendering was completed, the video size was 4.73GB. The iMac took about 7 minutes and 43 seconds to render this video. For high-resolution rendering, this speed is sufficient.

In general, the new 27-inch iMac is worthy of being a performance monster. It has excellent performance in computing processing, graphics processing, and hard disk reading and writing . In addition, the macOS system itself has advantages in optimization and stability. , Basically never encounter when the performance of the new iMac is not enough, it can be used as an excellent tool for corporate office and production creation.

Screen performance:

The screen display quality has always been the advantage of iMac products, and it also has many fans of graphic designers. The 2020 27-inch iMac has a screen resolution of 5120×2880 and supports one billion colors. In addition, on the basis of the original, the new iMac has also added a Nano-Texture glass panel. The biggest advantage is that it can reduce the glare problem of external light sources reflected by the screen.

However, this iMac I have used is not a Nano-Texture glass version. If the factor of nano glass is ignored, how will the new iMac perform in terms of screen display? So i have also conducted a simple test.

First of all, I have measured the color gamut of the new iMac screen to be 100% sRGB, 91% AdobeRGB, and 100% P3, indicating that this screen is rich in color and can express very delicate color changes .

In terms of maximum brightness, the screen of the new iMac can reach 505 nits, which basically won’t be unclear in any scene.

Next is the grayscale display. When displaying 256 levels of grayscale, the new iMac's performance from white to black is very delicate and the sense of hierarchy is obvious.

Since the resolution has reached the 5K level, the screen of the new iMac is also very delicate when displaying images, especially when displaying text, close to the screen, and the edges of the font are almost invisible.

When displaying the following picture of hand-taken color dust, the display effect of the new iMac can reach the level of realism, and its exquisite level will make you feel that the dust on your hands and surroundings is in reality, not in the screen.

Take a closer look, the two colors are mixed with dust and the color changes slightly during the transition, from bright to dark. The iMac also reflects this change on the screen, highlighting the excellent color gamut. display effect.

Look at the picture below. The grass and trees on the iMac screen are fresh and verdant, and the sky is brighter. At the same time, you can see that the screen has a high contrast and the shadows are pure black.

In addition, in such a high-contrast situation, the white clouds in the high-light parts of the sky are still clear in detail and not too bright, indicating that the iMac screen has a high dynamic range performance.

In addition to the basic display quality, Apple has finally added the original color display function to the 2020 27-inch iMac. When the user enables the original color display, the new iMac will adjust the screen color temperature in real time according to the ambient light, providing users with a more natural and comfortable viewing experience. In terms of actual look and feel, the screen color temperature of the original color display is warmer in most cases.

Of course, designers or colorists can choose to turn off this function if they are afraid that the original color display will affect their judgment of colors.

In general, the new 27-inch iMac has a very good screen, and its powerful display quality is very suitable for graphic designers, film and television workers and other user groups who are sensitive to color .

Other experiences: 1080P camera upgrade significantly

For the new Apple iMac, powerful performance and excellent screen quality should be the key factors you consider buying it. In addition to these two points, it has other selling points worth paying attention to.

The first is that the new 27-inch iMac has a built-in Apple T2 security chip.

This chip can not only encrypt the storage, protect user data. It also integrates multiple modules such as system management controller, image signal processor (ISP), audio controller (DSP), and SSD controller. If the CPU is the computing core of Mac's general performance, it is equivalent to the brain in the human brain. , The T2 chip is like the brainstem responsible for regulating important physiological activities such as cardiovascular exercise and breathing. It can more efficiently allow the coordination of various hardware to bring more new functions and new experiences to users.

Like the 16-inch MacBook Pro, the new 27-inch iMac has a built-in studio-level three-microphone array and upgrades the FaceTime camera to 1080P.

The new iMac's built-in studio-level three-microphone array supports directional beamforming. This technology can obtain different sounds through three microphones at different positions on the iMac, and generate a high-quality audio signal with a high signal-to-noise ratio. And, thanks to the addition of the T2 security chip, you can also wake up Siri directly by voice on the new iMac.

When playing music, you can use the sound captured by the three-microphone array to analyze, adjust the balance in real time, and enhance the low-frequency performance of the speaker. With the 27-inch 5K high-definition screen, it can bring users a very immersive view. Shadow experience.

Compared with the previous generation 720P camera, the 1080P FaceTime camera has a clearer and sharper picture. Also with the cooperation of the T2 chip, the new iMac can adjust the picture's white balance, focus and other parameters in real time during video calls. With the support of this set of audio and video capture system, it will undoubtedly make the information transmission of scenes such as video conferences more accurate and efficient.

Summary: Excellent productivity tools

Overall, the 2020 27-inch iMac is still more suitable for office scenes, as a productivity device to use, especially visual workers such as programmers and graphic designers, using the new iMac will get an efficient and comfortable experience.

As for whether it is worth buying or not, I believe that considering the upgrade range and price of this product, it is more suitable for users to experience from generation to generation . Of course, if you have enough budget and want to try new things, then the new 27-inch iMac will also be very good. Good choice.

Thank you guys for reading and please do not forget to share this review. 

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