Hands-On Review--2.8GHz 24" Aluminum iMac Core 2 Duo

We ordered the 24" aluminum iMac from The Apple Store online on August 7, the day it was presented by Steve Jobs at a Special Event meeting at One Infinite Loop, Apple's headquarters. We opted for the 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme processor and the 500GB Serial ATA hard disk drive which The Apple Store online offers as a package including the ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 memory standard. (Later we realized that we could have started with the 2.3GHz Core 2 Duo model and added options while leaving the hard drive at the 320GHz base and saved $80.) We also opted for 2 GB of Apple-installed memory.

Initially, we ordered the new wireless Aluminum keyboard as well until we realized later in the day that our entire order was being delayed three to five weeks because of it. (The Apple Store online now quotes a four to six week delay!) We called The Apple Store customer service line and a helpful representative substituted the new, thin aluminum USB keyboard for the wireless one which reduced the shipping quote to a more reasonable five to seven days. It actually shipped by FEDEX from Shanghai on August 11 and traveled via Subic Bay, Anchorage, Indianapolis and Portland, Maine, before being delivered to our New England office on August 15.

Moving our files from our 20" iMac 2GHz Intel Core Duo (Early 2006) to the new one proved to be a snap, thanks to Apple's Migration Assistant and a nifty Apple 1.8 meter thin FireWire 6 pin>6 pin cable. We lost a few dock aliases in the move but they were easily reconnected by opening the apps. It took all of half an hour.

Appearance.

The appearance of the new aluminum iMac is striking. Is it thinner than its white plastic predecessor? Technically, the answer is yes but not by much. The new iMac just looks a lot thinner because of it's flat black backside. Is the so-called "chin" shorter, i.e. referring to the space below the display? Our conclusion is no. The distance from the exposed edge of the display to the bottom of the new iMac is about the same as its plastic predecessor. But, the 3/4" black frame around the new display covers some of the chin, making the exposed aluminum portion appear shorter. And centering a black Apple logo on the exposed aluminum strip further conveys the impression that the chin is shorter. If the white plastic iMacs got their design cues from the original iPods, then this new iMac certainly inherits its appearance from the iPhone. Black and shiny. In a word. Gorgeous.

On to the subject of the glossy display. We relocated our work station about a month ago to a corner of a large room with a window wall behind it. We noticed glare immediately, light bouncing off the highly reflective glossy enclosure of our white plastic 20" iMac. We made some adjustments and lived with it. Does the new, glass "windshield" covering the actual display of the new 24" iMac reflect light? Yes it does. We've made further adjustments and will live with it because it is without a doubt the finest computer screen we're ever had the pleasure of using. Apple's advertising folks claim the "glossy display with glass cover ... makes graphics, photos, and videos come alive with richer colors and deeper blacks." For once, we think the ad writers have not indulged in hyperbole. In a word, the display is sensational.

This iMac has a Wow! factor unlike any other since the Bondi Blue iMac. That's literally the word everyone uses when they see it for the first time. Wow! indeed.

The new, thin Apple aluminum USB keyboard is just that - very thin and very flat. The keys have a very short stroke. We think touch typists - we're not in that league - will love it. The USB Mighty Mouse seems by contrast an anachronism. Very white, very plastic and not thin. However, we prefer to eliminate the USB cables altogether and we have found a very interesting, compatible wireless keyboard and mouse combo that we will be reviewing separately.

Performance.

We tested our new top-end 24" 2.8GHz aluminum iMac Core 2 Duo against the former white iMac speed champion, a 24" 2.33GHz iMac Core 2 Duo with CTO Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT graphics that we reviewed September 2006. To do so, we ran many of our suite of speed tests on both iMacs. The tests we ran consisted of four benchmarking applications and four so-called "real world" tests

Speed of 2.8 GHz Aluminum iMac C2D vs 2.33GHz White iMac C2D

Test	2.80GHz Aluminum 24" iMac C2D	2.33GHz White 24" iMac C2D	Performance Change
	(%)
BENCHMARKS
Altivec Fractal 1.3 (GFLOPS)	11.5	9.7	+19
Cinebench 9.5 Rendering (2x)	876	726	+21
-OpenGL Hardware Lighting	5418	4416	+23
Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0+	6	7	+14
Xbench 1.3 - CPU	145	120	+21
- Threading	281	234	+20
- Memory	160	130	+23
- Quartz Graphics	200	167	+20
- OpenGL Graphics	154	169	-9
-User Interface Graphics	652	495	+32
"REAL WORLD" TESTS
Startup (sec)	25	20	-25
Shutdown (sec)	6	8	+25
Dup. 500 MB Folder (sec)	24	26	+8
Doom 3 (frames/sec)	107	127	-16

Generally, the new aluminum iMac Core 2 Duo is on the order of 20 percent faster (8-32 percent) than the former fastest white iMac Core 2 Duo. This is not unexpected since the aluminum model's Intel CPU is 20 percent faster. However, like the new MacBook Pros, the new iMac scored slower in OpenGL performance than its predecessor in Xbench and in the 3D game Doom 3. Hopefully, this is just due to immature driver development for the new ATI Radeon 2600 Pro graphics in the aluminum iMac and we will see a boost after a future release of improved drivers.

In Summary.

The new aluminum iMac is very attractive and many will like it better than the white plastic iMac that it replaces. Like our MacBook Pro (LED), the glossy screen of the aluminum iMac takes some getting used to but it produces a much sharper image with richer colors than the previous matte finish screen. The reflective surface of the glossy screens didn't take long for us to not notice. A 24" screen is terrific compared with our previous 20" iMac Core Duo model. The performance of the new top-end iMac exceeds that of the previous top-end model in almost every way. The only performance glitch is a noticeable drop in OpenGL 3D game performance that may be overcome in a future driver release. But until then, the white 24" 2.33GHz iMac Core 2 Duo with CTO Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT graphics is still the iMac king of games. We'll keep tabs on this as Mac OS X updates arrive. [Dana Baggett]