Retina iMac Review: The Screen That Makes Desktops Relevant Again

Wall Street Journal ^ | October 22, 2014 | By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

[Swordmaker]

Maximum Pixels in Apple’s 5K Display for the Most Demanding Photo or Video Jobs

In a world of tablets, phablets and laptops, is there room for a powerful desktop? WSJ's Geoff Fowler reviews the iMac with 5K retina display with Tanya Rivero.

I love using a desktop computer to write, surf and create, but I’ve had a nagging suspicion that they’re going away. Who needs a desktop in a world with laptops, tablets and even phones that are just as capable?

Last week Apple introduced a new kind of desktop iMac that changed my mind. The new computer is similar in shape and capability to last year’s iMac, except for one amazing feature: It packs four times the resolution into its 27-inch Retina screen. Because it has so many pixels—14.7 million, in fact—you’ll never need to think about pixels again.

Priced at $2,500 and up, you don’t need this new iMac—standard 27-inch iMacs start at $700 less. But oh boy will you want one, particularly if you spend time working with digital photos or videos. Using the Retina iMac lets you see, for the first time, every pixel you’ve captured all at once.

[palmer]

Except that I know that Apple Store employees simply do not "sell" lines of bull like that. ....They will be disciplined for doing such a thing.

Maybe, but there are always going to be exceptions and this is Canada not US. My experience in the Apple store was that they ignored me and I finally grabbed one and told him what I wanted (I had already researched beforehand). I would agree they are a world apart from places like Best Buy or Microcenter where if you go in ignorant you will leave even more ignorant with some piece of crap they are trying to get rid of.

[SunkenCiv]

Desktops remain more capable than anything portable, in particular phones. The mobile machines do one thing, and that is, be mobile.

[ReignOfError]

Desktops remain more capable than anything portable, in particular phones. The mobile machines do one thing, and that is, be mobile.

Desktops will always be more powerful than phones, or even laptops. It's a matter of power demands and physical space; anything you can fit into a laptop, you can fit four of in a desktop. What has changed in the last decade or so, the reason desktops are in decline, is that laptops have become way more than powerful enough for most of the tasks that most people perform, and they've gotten a lot less expensive.

[Big Giant Head]

Shall I send you my shipping address?

;-)