- Okay, so I'm converting a 4K video
in HEVC on this MacBook Pro.
So let's try it on this iMac now.
And holy frick, that is fast.
(electronic intro music)
Hey guys, how are you all doing?
Really? That's just great.
You know, I'm doing
pretty great today too,
because Apple's new 2020
iMac is now in my lair.
Honestly, it's been a long time
since I purchased a new Mac.
It's been about seven years,
and I've never purchased an iMac before.
I've always been a laptop guy,
so this is kind of new to me,
and trust me, I wanted to get
this review episode out earlier,
but this is a build to
order configuration.
So those take a little
bit longer to process
before they ship, but it'll be worth it.
Now, before I continue, I will say,
I have decided to
officially return this iMac,
and I've had some people asking
me why I want to do that,
so later in this episode,
I will explain that, don't worry.
So is the new iMac worth it?
Should you wait for the
Apple silicon version
with the new redesign?
Is it fast?
Good questions, let's talk.
Let's start with the design.
If you've followed Apple at
all for the past eight years,
you'll notice the design is, well,
exactly the same as it
was eight years ago.
I don't think that's
a problem, personally.
I still really like the design.
I think it's beautiful,
and the next iMac design is going to
follow more of the iPad Pro
type of design language.
So if you want to wait
for that, that's okay too,
but keep in mind, from today,
you're going to be waiting
about a year minimum
before they have that new design ready.
So you'll have to determine whether or not
the wait is worth it for you.
I just bit the bullet and did it anyway.
The design, yes is getting a little old,
but it's a little bit timeless too.
I think Apple is sticking with it
because they have cool plans coming
and they just want to get it right,
but also, it's kind of
just good the way it is.
I mean, I know some people would like
thinner bezels and all that,
and don't worry, I think
we're going to see that soon,
but for right now,
I still think the design is
great with a really thin edge.
And how about that display?
It is a Retina 5K display
with P3 color and True Tone,
which automatically adjust
the displays color temperature
based on the ambient lighting.
Now Apple's had Retina 5K iMacs
for a couple of years now,
but this is the first time they integrated
the true tone feature,
and if you're daring,
for an extra 500 bucks,
you can get the nano texture glass,
which is a glass that
has a matte finish to it,
so glare is reduced dramatically,
and I'd like to try that out sometime.
This is just the regular
gloss screen version.
So I was using this LG 34-inch
display for a long time,
which is still a nice display,
but switching from that to this iMac
was a night and day difference.
The resolution is so high on the screen,
everything is just so
fricking sharp and crisp,
and the colors pop just a little bit more,
which looks really nice.
But also an important
thing to me as a video guy
is I can see 4K video output
in a canvas that doesn't take
up the whole fricking screen.
The pixels are so packed together
that I can see true 4K resolution
without consuming the whole display,
so I still have room to work
in other parts of the interface.
And this is like, this is
gonna sound kind of funny,
but my LG display actually
wasn't a 4K display.
So I'd been editing and releasing
4K episodes out on YouTube
for the past couple of years or so,
and I actually haven't
been able to view them
at native resolution this whole time.
Oops.
But with this new iMac, now I can.
Okay, so the IO on this
thing makes me really happy.
I can plug in anything I have.
I just need one adapter for
my Thunderbolt 2 stuff, no big deal,
but everything else is
built in USB type A,
perfect ethernet, I don't
need a dongle for it,
like I do on my laptop.
Ethernet's built in, SD card reader.
So, a perfect compilation
of ports ready to go.
So this iMac has an updated
camera and microphone system as well
compared to the last model.
So the camera can now
record in 1080p resolution
and there's a T2 chip in this computer,
so it can do some automatic adjustments
with the image signal processor in it,
kind of like what your iPhone does.
So the camera can do things like
automatic tone exposure and adjustments
and stuff like that too.
Okay, so you can't see me
right now, but it's okay.
It's me, you know who I am.
So let's test out the camera system here
to see how it looks,
and we'll also test out the microphone
to hear how it sounds.
So, this is the new 2020
iMac FaceTime camera,
and the microphone's not
too bad for built-in stuff.
The only awkward part is now,
what the heck do we talk about?
Oh, tongue twisters.
Yes, let's do some tongue twisters.
Um, unique New York.
Can you say that?
That was pretty easy.
Ooh, Irish wristwatch.
That's a fun one, right?
Fool your friends with that one.
It's a cool little party trick,
not that I'd know.
I don't get invited to parties.
So as you can hear, it's
not studio level quality,
but it's a little bit better than
what you'd get on the older systems.
and compared to my laptop,
I've noticed it is way better too.
This is the camera and microphone on
the MacBook Pro I just upgraded from.
You can see uh,
definitely not as good with
the highlight roll offs,
and the color, and a lot more noise
'cause it looks like it's boosting the ISO
to try to compensate for less light,
especially in this area here,
in the darker areas, lots of noise,
and the microphone has
more of that, kind of like,
wishy washy, kind of like noise
cancellation going on there.
So yeah, definitely not
as good, nice improvement.
So I mentioned the T2
earlier, which again,
can help with things like the
cameras and the microphones,
but overall it is a security chip,
and this is the first non-pro iMac
to feature the T2 Security Chip.
So, that offers things like
secure boot and on device
encryption to keep your data safe.
You can use that in addition
to the file vault feature,
which encrypts your data,
so you have plenty of security there
to make sure your data can't
be read by anybody else.
But this chip does other things too.
Like what I showed at the
beginning of the episode
with that HEVC hardware
accelerated encoding.
The reason why it's able to render so fast
is because of the T2 chip, and it screams.
So there's nothing new
with the speaker system
in this particular upgrade,
but just for fun, let's try it out anyway
with a little bit of music
so we don't have copyright issues.
(music plays briefly)
Okay, those are pretty loud.
They got a little bit
of bass in there too.
I mean, those are pretty loud
considering they're
built-in, tiny speakers that,
when you're looking at the
computer from the front,
you can't even see them, so.
Not too bad.
This next feature is
really important to me,
and I don't even think Apple
advertises it as a feature,
but it's still important.
Silent operation.
So I've been using laptops
for pretty much all of
my professional life,
and laptops have small,
high RPM fans in them,
which generate loud noise
when they're at full throttle.
But this iMac, when it's idling,
you can barely hear the fan,
and even under load,
the fan does top out at 2,700 RPM,
according to max fan control.
But even at max speed,
it's nowhere near as
loud as the MacBook Pro.
Okay, so let's take a
break from that stuff
and just geek out about the
specs for a while, right?
We all like to do that every so often.
So this particular configuration has
the maximum processor config
you can get on Apple's website.
It's a 3.6 gigahertz Intel
core I9 10-Core processor.
It also has an AMD Radeon 5700 XT
with 16 gigabytes of video memory.
That is also the highest config
you can get with this model,
and it has a one terabyte SSD
with speeds up to 3.4
gigabytes per second,
but you can configure it
up to eight if you want.
So what about the RAM?
Well, thanks to you
awesome YouTube viewers,
you reminded me that you can actually
upgrade the RAM in this iMac,
which is good because Apple charges $600
for the 32 gigabyte RAM upgrade.
Six hundred dollars.
Why?
So, I actually ordered the
32 gigabyte RAM configuration
at first because I forgot
you could upgrade it,
but when everybody reminded me,
I actually canceled that order,
and then just ordered the
8 gigabyte stock version
and bought 32 gigabytes
of RAM from a third party
and threw it in there,
and it turns out there's
four slots, not just two,
so my two 16 gig sticks just combined with
the two 4 gig sticks in there,
and now I have 40 gigabytes
of RAM, because why not?
So, yes, the RAM is upgradable.
My advice to you, just
buy the stock 8 gigs
and upgrade the RAM later.
You'll save hundreds of dollars.
Enjoy that while you can,
because the Apple silicon iMac will
probably not have upgradable RAM.
We'll see.
But anyway, thank you YouTube viewers
for looking out for me.
So now the big factor,
probably the main reason
I bought a new computer
in the first place, speed.
How fast is this thing?
Well, we already saw how
fast the HEVC encoding was.
That was beyond impressive,
but what about Final Cut Pro renders?
So fun fact, every
episode you watch from me
has been cut, rendered, and exported
with Apple's pro video
software Final Cut Pro,
and it screams on this computer.
So I used my Windows '95
"Krazy Ken's Tech Talk" episode
as the benchmark for this.
It's an 8 minute and 51
second long 4K episode.
The export time on this iMac,
4 minutes and 53 seconds.
But more importantly to me
is application performance,
not just rendering and
exporting and background tasks
and all that stuff,
but how smooth does the
application function
when you're actually using it?
So, on my older MacBook Pro,
I would have usually a
lot of frame drops and,
it was still good,
like Final Cut Pro
still worked really well
considering how old the hardware was,
but there would be frame
drops, audio stuttering.
I would have to use the
better performance mode,
which plays back the
image at lower resolution,
but at an ideally,
hopefully better frame rate,
but even then I would still drop frames.
I got used to it, but it
was just kind of sluggish,
but on this iMac, virtually none of that.
No lag, I don't need to use
the better performance mode,
I can just use the better quality mode.
I can watch the 4K
video, complex timelines,
scrolling, scrubbing, trimming, playback.
It's all just smooth as butter.
Now, keep in mind,
not every application is
going to get magically faster
on faster, newer hardware.
It depends on how the software works.
So for example,
if I'm doing audio corrections
and like fixing and
sweetening in Adobe Audition,
and I have the spectral display up, well,
part of me was wondering, wow,
I wonder if the spectral display
can redraw itself faster on
this newer hardware, but no.
It performs the same as
it does on my MacBook Pro,
so it depends on how the
software is optimized
for your hardware, so
just keep that in mind.
So was the new iMac worth it?
The 2020 iMac.
If you purchased a new iMac,
like the previous generation
within the last year or so,
you probably don't need to upgrade.
You can stick with what you have.
But if you have something
that's older, yeah.
I would say it's worth it.
But if you've waited as long as I have,
definitely it's worth it.
Just don't buy the RAM from Apple.
Is it fast?
I believe we proved that.
Absolutely, it's fast.
I say go for the 10-Core configuration.
That's what I did.
And should you wait for
the Apple silicon version,
considering all this stuff we looked at?
Well, again, if you're in
need of a new computer,
you're in need of a new computer.
I personally don't care about
the Apple silicon stuff,
and the new design and stuff,
because I just needed something new,
and when Apple transitions
to Apple silicon,
there's going to be
some bumps in the road.
Keep that in mind.
So if you want to be an
early adopter, great,
but expect problems
right at the beginning,
and if you want to avoid that
and just have a faster system,
don't worry about Apple silicon.
Don't wait, just buy the new computer now.
Now Apple silicon is kind of a rabbit hole
we could get down,
but I don't want to do that right now,
because I already did do it.
Go check out this other episode
after you watched this one.
It's really good.
Also if you'd like some
awesome royalty free footage
for your own videos,
channel affiliate Artgrid has you covered.
They also have royalty free music too.
Feel free to grab all of that
with the link in the description.
Okay so, everything sounds
so freaking awesome.
Why am I returning this iMac?
Well, there's two reasons.
The first reason is nano texture.
I know, that may sound silly.
I really want to try the nano texture.
Again, the glossy wasn't too bad,
but I saw some other people tweet about
how cool nano texture is,
and I've never tried it before
so I just want to try it.
Jonathan Morrison swears by it.
Maybe I should have listened
to him from the beginning.
So, we'll see how it goes.
I might post a followup episode
about the nano texture
model once I get it,
or I'll at least talk about it on Twitter,
so make sure you're following me on there.
So, stay tuned for that.
And the second reason is,
I accidentally ordered this iMac
without being logged into
my Apple Business account.
There is a business
store on their website.
So my advice to you is
if you have a business, purchase
through the business store,
you can save a couple
hundred bucks on some Macs,
and that's what I did for
the nano texture model.
So I actually saved a couple
hundred bucks doing that.
Keep that in mind,
you got a business, buy
with the business store,
save some moolah.
So I'm insanely excited to
keep testing out this new iMac,
and the nano texture once that gets here.
If you have any questions about the iMac,
maybe you're on the fence of
buying it, just let me know.
I'll do my best to answer them,
and feel free to comment anything that you
like or don't like about this iMac.
I don't mind which way you go.
I just want to hear what you think.
If you'd like to support this channel,
plus get some awesome perks,
feel free to click the join button below
or use the link in the description.
Thank you for your support,
and if you liked this
episode, you know what to do.
Thanks for sticking with me.
Catch the crazy and pass it on.
(upbeat electronic music)
