Apple iMac (2010 model)

The Apple iPhone and iPad have grabbed all the headlines in recent months but Apple’s Mac computers have quietly been racking up record sales as well, and the company has just updated its range of iMac desktop computers to get them ready for the Christmas season.

The new models have the same sleek, all-in-one aluminium design as their predecessors but the processors and graphics cards inside them have been upgraded to provide greater performance.

There are four models in the range, but we tested the cheapest model – which isn’t all that cheap, as the price has now edged up from £969 to £999. That model includes a bright and attractive 21.5in screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, an Intel Core i3 processor running at 3.06GHz, 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard disk.

The i3 processor runs at the same speed as the Core 2 Duo processor in the previous model, so on the face of it that’s not a major improvement. However, the i3 processor includes several new features that make it more efficient, especially when it comes to performing multiple tasks simultaneously, so the iMac should feel more responsive if you tend to work with several programs or applications all open and running at the same time.

The real performance improvement comes from the new graphics card. The previous iMac model used an ‘integrated’ graphics chip from Nvidia, which shared some of the main system memory and processing power.

That has now been replaced by a more powerful ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card that is equipped with 256MB of its own memory and provides much better performance for 3D games and tasks such as video editing.

The big screen has a high-enough resolution to play high-definition films at the highest resolution of 1080p, but there is no Blu-ray player included to take advantage of that.

If you are prepared to pay another £250 you can increase the processor speed to 3.2GHz, double the hard disk size, and get an even more powerful Radeon HD 5760 graphics card. There are also two models with an imposing 27in screen, although these take prices up to a rather hefty £1399 and £1649.

Other standard features found in all the iMac models include a built-in webcam, DVD burner, four USB ports for connecting printers and other accessories, and a high-speed Firewire port. There is also an SD memory card slot for transferring photos from a camera, built-in stereo speakers.

It is also able to access Bluetooth devices and the latest and fastest wired and wireless networks.

In common with all Mac computers the iMac does not include Windows, instead using Apple’s easy-to-use Mac OS X operating system. That also comes with Apple’s iLife collection of programs, which includes software for editing photos and video, music recording, creating DVDs and designing your own website.

The iMac’s slimline design is undeniably attractive, and the more powerful processor and graphics card ensure that it can handle demanding graphics and video work with ease. Even so, a starting price of virtually £1000 is still pretty steep and it’s a shame that Apple doesn’t also offer one of its old Core 2 Duo models as a less expensive option for those of us on a tight budget.