Apple quietly ditches its cheapest iMac from Apple Store, here’s why

Apple has quietly ditched its ageing 21.5-inch iMac design – a model still powered by Intel processors. Earlier this year, Apple unveiled a completely new iMac design with larger screens, thinner design, bright pastel colours, and a custom-crafted Apple chipset under the bonnet.

The new 24-inch iMac, which was lauded by critics when it launched, is a little pricier than its predecessor. As such, Apple kept the 21.5-inch iMac, which has much larger borders around the display – resulting in a smaller screen despite occupying a similar physical footprint on your desk, in its online store. The older model started from £1,099, which was significantly cheaper than the £1,249 needed for the redesigned iMac.

For an even better deal, those who were eligible for Education Discount were able to secure the 21.5-inch iMac at a discount. Unfortunately for anyone who didn’t rush to add one to their shopping basket have now missed the chance. Apple has quietly removed the 21.5-inch model from its online store.

Some high street retailers still have some remaining stock. For example, John Lewis has the 2020 model of the 21.5-inch iMac, which arrives with an Intel Core i5 processor, coupled with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, for the same £1,099 price tag as the Apple Store. Buying the iMac will result in a three-month free trial of the video streaming service, Apple TV+.

Although that offer isn’t limited to John Lewis and is available on a number of new Apple-branded products at the moment.

The move to ditch the Intel-powered 21.5-inch iMac doesn’t mean the complete iMac range has transitioned over to Apple-designed silicon. The 27-inch iMac, which sports the same chunky borders, rounded design, and silver colour found on the 21.5-inch variant, is still powered by Intel processors.

That’s likely to change in the near future. When the redesigned 24-inch iMac was announced, we’d only see the M1 system-on-a-chip from Apple, which boasted impressive performance and battery life. However, it can only support up to 16GB of RAM, which means it wasn’t a like-for-like replacement for the Intel chipset inside the 27-inch iMac, which is used by photographers, video editors, and a number of other performance-hungry professions.

The latest redesign brings a number of other improvements, including support for a Touch ID fingerprint scanner on the keyboard to authenticate Apple Pay transactions and login to secure apps and websites, an improved 1080p FaceTime HD webcam for video calls, and a six-speaker system that supports Apple’s Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos standards.

Whether Apple waits for the M2 to be ready, or uses the M1 Max chipset already announced, it’s clear that – just like the 21.5-inch model – the 27-inch iMac is living on borrowed time. When Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed the Californian company’s decision to move away from the Intel chipsets used by every other PC manufacturer in favour of its own silicon, he revealed that the transition would take two years.

If the company manages to stick to that deadline, it has until November 2022 to move every machine to its M-series of processors. At last count, only the 27-inch iMac and the Mac Pro currently still rely on Intel-branded chipsets.