Apple refreshes the iMac with M6 chips

Apple is updating the iMac with M6 chips. The new iMac generation was introduced today, giving Apple’s all-in-one desktop computer a performance boost via the same chipset Apple launched with the Mac Mini in August. Prices start from $1,499, and the design otherwise appears largely unchanged. The update was announced ahead of Apple’s “Pro and Tell” event that’s scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

This refresh comes two years after Apple gave the iMac an overhaul with M4 chips, meaning we’re skipping the M5 series entirely on this hardware. That should make this upgrade more meaningful. The M6 is Apple’s first 2nm chip and includes a dual 16-core Neural Engine that can boost performance when running on-device AI tasks. According to Apple’s press release, the M6-powered iMac “delivers up to 5x faster on-device AI performance” compared with the M4 model.

The M6 configurations start from a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU for $1,499, which is the same price as the 8-core CPU-equipped M4 iMac. There’s also a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU starting at $1,699. Preorders will launch at 1:10PM ET on October 28th, and it’ll be fully available starting November 6th.

Besides the chip upgrade, the new iMac isn’t getting much in the way of a hardware refresh. It now has Apple’s N1 wireless networking chip, alongside Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 on the base model instead of just the higher-spec variant. It still carries over the same Thunderbolt limitations as the M4 iMac, however — you get only two ports on the 10-core version, and four on the 12-core upgrade.

There are also some new restrictions and fees included in the configuration options. If you want to customize the iMac with a Magic Trackpad instead of a Magic Mouse, it’ll cost you an extra $50, despite this being a free switch on the previous iMac. Ethernet has been upgraded from 1 gigabit to 2.5 gigabit, but that’s now a $30 premium upgrade compared with sticking with a Wi-Fi only configuration. Apple also won’t let you configure the M6 iMac with a Magic Keyboard that has Touch ID but not a numeric keypad — despite showing an image of that on the new iMac announcement page.

If you were hoping for some new color options then, hard luck. Apple is offering the exact same color variants as it did with the M4, to the point where it’s just reused some of the marketing imagery and updated them to display more up-to-date content. The M6 chip provides a nice performance boost, but otherwise this is a small spec bump for Apple’s colorful all-in-one.