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The first Apple Silicon iMac turns 4

Mark Sokolovsky - 2025.04.20

Four years ago today, the world saw the first Apple Silicon Mac to come out after the initial set of three shipped alongside the transition to Apple Silicon. While the M1 Mac mini gets your foot in the door and lets you “BYOB”, some were looking for that familiar all-in-one which also provides a great price-to-performance on the screen quality/resolution. Gone are the 21.5″ and 27″ screen options of the Intel era, and none to replace the larger option as of yet.

In a throwback to the PowerPC era, you can choose between 7 colors. The colors here are two-tone, all have a white bezel with the screen, and no Apple logo is present in front. Silver, Purple, Green, Yellow, Pink, Blue, and Orange are all options, and the iMac looks stunningly thin.

At entry level, there were 4 choices of color: Silver/Green/Blue/Pink, no ethernet, a 7-core GPU, and Two USB-C ports. Ethernet is a $30 option. By default, a color-matching mouse and keyboard are included with the iMac, and Touch ID was a $50 option.

Like any other electronic device, there will come a time where the device can’t keep up anymore no matter what. But without the ability for the user (or at least an authorized retailer) to upgrade its components, this iMac is locked to where it is performance and capability-wise. Relative to it’s time, it’s a more powerful device with a more powerful chip compared to other computers, making it a proverbial barometer for how the first generation of Apple Silicon Macs will fare over the rest of the decade. In Early 2025, these M1 chips even with 8 GB of RAM kick around just fine for light computer use.

Just like the colorful PowerPC iMacs of yesteryear, the new Apple Silicon iMac continues the trend of having a small yet powerful set of speakers which make it a desirable device to use to listen to music with. It happens to have 6 in total with two pairs force-cancelling sub-woofers. Each pair of subwoofers have a high-performance tweeter, and this is managed within an 11mm case. Apple touts this creates “deep, rich bass without unwanted vibrations”.

You also get a newer, 1080p FaceTime HD camera with a larger light capturing sensor. Image quality in stream and pictures are improved as a result of the M1 Image Signal Processor. The new iMac features 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, and Thunderbolt 3 with USB 4/3.1 Gen 2 support also – so you won’t be short of connectivity and speed.

Pricing in Early 2025

The pricing can be a bit all over, ranging as low as $440 like this advertisement or as high as $840 for a refurbished one labeled “eBay refurbished”. Just be sure to always carefully read the description and look at the images carefully.

Obviously if you buy a cheaper Mac it’s more likely to be more used, but it’s not always the case. Sometimes it involves taking some risks that end up panning out – out not.. Sometimes an item is listed as defective when all it takes is a few extra (or just many but known extra) steps to get it working again.

In Conclusion

We’re now at a point where the bleeding edge of Apple Silicon lies upon the M3 Ultra chip – nothing to sneeze at. Much has been done in the time since the release of the original Apple Silicon iMac and many new devices are set for 2025, while this iMac continues to receive OS updates in the time being.

It remains an excellent choice for people who want a refurbished device and a modern macOS without overspending, a gateway into the Mac side of the Apple ecosystem. This iMac was a part of the second wave of the first generation of Apple Silicon Macs, with the M1 chip taking the market by storm and forcing chipmakers to be far more competitive.

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