In the 10+ years since the iMac was born as Apple’s simple computer, it’s become visibly less of a computer and more of a display. And what a screen this new iMac has.

But First, Simplicity

This 1998 ad with Jeff Goldblum narrating implies there are two physical steps to setting up an iMac. They skipped the mouse and keyboard cable, though. Today, an iMac is set up using just one power cable, depending on wireless networking and bluetooth peripherals to get the rest done.

The LCD

The 27-inch iMac’s screen is the thing to focus on in this revision. It is practically as bright (and more contrasty) than any of the previous iMacs—even Cinema Displays—and it looks astounding. It’s LED-driven so it comes to full luminescence immediately and takes up less power. It also has better side-to-side viewing angle as an IPS tech monitor; like the iMac 24 before it, it goes 178 degrees without much change in color accuracy or brightness. And here’s the kicker: Although it has 19% more area of LCD than the old 24-incher, it has an astounding 60% more pixels. That makes it more pixel dense than any of the Cinema Displays at 109ppi. And with a 2560×1440 resolution it has 90% of the dot count of a 30-inch cinema display. All these stats are great. They sound great, and they make for a powerful picture. But the actual view of the screen leaves me with a positive—but slightly imperfect—impression.  Read the rest of this entry »