Reviews: New iMac another winner for Apple

Thanks to our colleagues at MacFormat, we've just published a full review of the striking new Apple iMac - in its 20-inch, 2.4GHz guise.

Any new Apple product tends to be as much about its form as about its function. The latest iMac is no different. The black Apple logo, aluminium and black plastic construction and super-slim keyboard all draw the eye. More controversial is the glossy glass display cover - no longer is there a matte choice, which has raised some grumbles.

But in terms of performance, the news is all good.

"Overall we recorded an average 18 per cent increase in general performance for the aluminium 20-inch 2.4GHz iMac with 1GB of RAM compared with a white 24-inch 2.16GHz iMac with 2GB," MacFormat reports.

"In Xbench it scored 40 per cent higher than a 15-inch 2.2GHz MacBook Pro with 2GB RAM, and was virtually neck and neck with a 2 x 2.66GHz Mac Pro 1GB in all but the raw computation tasks. That struck us as pretty special."

Competitively priced

Special indeed, especially when you no longer pay much of a price premium for owning a Mac. The model tested has a RRP of £949, while the 2.0GHz version checks in at a highly competitive £799.

The new iMac is not quite an unqualified success - the reflective screen will annoy some. But it's still very impressive, and another strong showing from a company that's having a very good year.