Apple's iMac M4 has 16GB of RAM minimum, brings back nano-texture glass as an anti-glare option

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Apple has revealed its new iMac 24-inch with M4 CPU in the first of its Mac-related announcements that are set to run throughout this week (likely up to Halloween).

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Rear view of the new iMac 24-inch with M4 processor (Image Credit: Apple)

With the M4 chip inside, Apple tells us that the new iMac is up to 1.7x faster for productivity, and just over twice as fast (2.1x) for demanding workflows (such as photo editing) in comparison to the iMac with M1. Gamers can also expect much better performance with double the frame rates, again compared to the iMac with M1 silicon.

As ever, Apple prefers to compare the newest model to the last release but one, rather than the last-gen iMac (with M3), to ensure that the upgrade looks like a more compelling leap forward. And twice as fast, broadly, certainly is a huge improvement on the iMac M1.

Of course, the M4 is built for the new Apple Intelligence feature in macOS 15.1, which means the iMac is as well - and all the new Macs are going to be pushing AI capabilities hard.

The 24-inch screen is a 4.5K Retina screen with a new nano-texture glass option (costing $200) that means reduced reflections and glare in general, without messing with the quality of the image displayed. This option is only new for modern M-series iMacs, and has been seen before on models with Intel CPUs, we should note, but it sounds like a useful touch indeed, especially if you have your all-in-one PC in a bright area like a living room.

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The available colors for the iMac (Image Credit: Apple)

A unified slice of joy

Apple has equipped the iMac 24-inch with a new 12MP Center Stage camera, and perhaps most importantly, we have our first Mac where the baseline amount of RAM is 16GB. Yes, the entry-level iMac M4 comes with 16GB of unified memory and costs $1,299, with pre-orders now open, and the PC actually going on sale on Friday, November 8. (You can't have nano-texture glass on the base model, though, we should note).

The iMac also comes with color-matched accessories, the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse or optional Magic Trackpad (the iMac and peripherals are available in either green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, or silver).

With the iMac going 16GB as a base configuration, the MacBook Pro has also been previously rumored to be doing the same with its 14-inch spin (currently sporting just a paltry 8GB with the entry-level model of the laptop).

Given this, we'd be surprised if the Mac mini didn't go this route too - and maybe Apple is going to give every Mac M4 16GB as a bare minimum, as has been one line of thought via the rumor mill. This would likely be because of Apple Intelligence, which is inevitably going to place extra strain on memory resources.

We reckon Apple will likely push out a new Mac mini M4 tomorrow, and then round things off with the MacBook Pro M4 on Halloween, hopefully with all machines decked out with 16GB of unified memory as a baseline.