Ok let’s talk about the new iMac design

The new iMac is a bit polarizing and certainly breaks with many long-established iMac design norms and that has the internet debating the design. We will examine a few major concerns about the design and discuss what we think is going on with the design choices.

The White Display Bezel

The white display bezel is an odd choice for those of us who have followed iMac designs over the last decade. Silver Aluminum and Black Glass, that was it, until the iMac Pro, but even with the Space Gray Aluminum the display glass was still black. Consider what a previous generation iMac looks like when the display is off, it looks like a unified black slab of glass with an aluminum chin. Now consider what the new iMac looks like when it is off, black display, white bezels then anodized (insert color here) aluminum.

Tech companies spend lots of time getting their display bezels and display blacks to match to achieve the unified black slab look, now Apple doesn’t have to with the 24-inch iMac. So, if the 24-inch iMac has white bezels will the rumored 30-inch iMac have black bezels? Possibly, Apple may opt to retain black bezels for the larger high-end model and could even opt to call it iMac Pro or iMac Max. Don’t be surprised if we see 3rd-party display makers with white bezels options in the near future.

That chin

With the internet speculating that the new iMac’s display would resemble an iPad Pro’s display seeing that chin on the new iMac for the first time was a bit of a shock. After seeing Apple’s video for the iMac where they showed how they achieved the 11.5mm profile had us thinking, just make it thicker then! Based on the Apple video, the Logic Board and the rest of the internal components like speakers are housed inside the chin. If we wanted a display like the iPad Pro in appearance then that thickness in the chin would have to be added to the back of the display’s thickness. We think that would be an acceptable trade-off, how about you?

Two-tone aluminum

The two-tone aluminum was an interesting an unexpected design choice for sure. From the front you see the lighter color, from the back you see both. Why did Apple use two shades of the same color on the new iMac? Well, this isn’t the first time we have seen the two-tone color look, the AirPods Max was the first. One missed opportunity we see here, is a few missing matching colors for the iMac and AirPods Max, perhaps we will see Purple, Orange, Yellow and a matching Green later on.

What other gripes do you all have with the new iMac? Sound off in the comments below.