5K Retina imac Evaluation

Before the October launch, I'm afraid most people would think the new ipad would be the biggest star of the show. Of course, the IPad Air 2 is really good enough, and the slim fuselage and performance upgrades are still bright. However, while updating the ipad product line, Apple also released the 27-inch imac with the retina 5K display, stealing the spotlight of the ipad Air 2. Although the 5K Retina imac is not very different from the previous imac, the 27-inch screen with a resolution up to 5120x2880 is bright enough, and 14.7 million pixels are 7 times times the size of 1080p Full HD screens, It's even 67% more than today's popular 4K resolution. Today, there are few 4K screens in the market, and the 5K Retina imac is a product from Apple, ultra-high resolution means that the final Cut Pro clip video is not only able to play the 4K video at full resolution, At the same time there will be space left on the screen for various operating panels. There is no doubt that the Retina 5K imac is absolutely unmatched at the 2500 dollar price. Of course, at the absolute price, 2499 dollars is still very expensive, more than almost all the market in one machine. But if you have a high demand for quality, then the Retina 5K imac will be your best and probably the only option.

Appearance experience

In addition to the shocking experience of the screen, the 5K Retina imac is not much different from the previous 27-inch imac released in 2012. The screen edge of the 5K Retina imac is still only 5mm thick, and if not viewed from the side, it may even ignore the thickness of the screen. The 5K Retina imac is very slim and simple, and if you want to put a 5K Retina imac on the table, you just have to make sure that the space above the desktop is able to put down an oversized 27-inch monitor without worrying about the 5K Retina imac taking up more desktop space. The same thin, compact aluminum alloy bracket is fastened to the rear of the screen with a hole in the middle to secure the cable. The 5K Retina imac still uses the aluminum alloy to build the fuselage, the solid solid sanding feels with the MacBook in the same vein, shows the high-end.

When Apple released its ultra-thin-looking imac two years ago, some might think that a more beautiful look would not be a reason for consumers to change the imac, but now the 5K Retina screen is completely unable to find a reason not to buy the imac.

The various interfaces of the 5K Retina imac remain on the back of the screen and are neatly lined up, including 3.5mm standard headphone jacks, SDXC slots, four USB 3.0 connectors, two Thunderbolt 2 interfaces, and Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. In addition, there are power cord sockets, Kensington latches, and Power buttons on the back of the screen.

Notably, the 5K Retina imac is equipped with two speakers, located on the edge of each side of the screen, giving the impression that the sound is coming from the edge of the screen. Although the two speakers can not be seen from the appearance, but the sound is very good, more shocking. In addition to the mainframe, the 5K Retina imac's accessories are no different from the old imac, which allows users to choose Applemouse wired mouse, Magic mouse Touch wireless mouse, or Magic Trackpad, with a wireless keyboard attached.

Display effects

"I just want to keep an eye on it", which may be the most direct feeling of the 5K Retina imac screen. Dana Wollman, from Engadget, said the unpacking was like the first time an HDTV was removed from the box. "I didn't do anything in the first few minutes and just wanted to switch back and forth with the wallpaper." All the wallpapers are sharper than the original, and I want to know how much detail I can see from the screen, "says Dana Wollman." Although the OS X Yosemite flat icon looks great, playing some 4K video or Super HD image can really play the screen. If you use the 5K Retina imac to open some excellent photographs taken by photographers, you will notice that you can see every detail of the photos, even the fur of birds and beasts, and the whole feeling is like looking through the window to see the scenery outside.

Of course, the screen does not achieve such a good display effect. Apple uses the oxide TFT technology to ensure sufficient brightness, while the addition of the compensation layer gives the screen a very good visual angle. From a very biased point of view, color is still not distorted. The excellent display quality and the careful tuning of Apple, the 5K Retina imac can have amazing screen performance.

In addition, Apple also used the organic passivation technology originally on the Retina ipad in the 5K Retina imac to reduce power consumption while making the picture more legible. Apple says the 5K Retina imac is 30% less energy than the old imac, which means that more pixel burdens do not cause overheating. It is worth mentioning that Apple's own design of the timing controller processor ensures that all pixels work properly.

But compared to the old imac, the 5K Retina imac cannot be used as a stand-alone external display, only as a single machine, which is probably one of the biggest drawbacks of the 5K Retina imac. And Apple has not yet launched the 5K resolution of cinema display, so if you want to use a Mac Pro with a monitor, you have to choose a different brand of products.

　Performance features

Although the 5K resolution of the retina screen is the biggest bright spot, but do not forget the imac or an all-in-one machine. The low version 5K Retina imac, priced at $2499 (Mainland China for 17988 Yuan), is equipped with a 3.5GHz Core i5 four processor, 8GB memory, 1TB Fusion drive hard disk and an AMD Radeon R9 m290x video card with a 2GB memory. In the Geekbench and Xbench test, the 5K Retina imac has a slight increase in performance over the older 27-inch imac with the 3.2GHz Core i5 four processor and the Nvidia Geforve GT 755M graphics. In addition, in the Cinebench OpenGL test, 5K Retina imac frame number and CPU score are 90.54fps and 540 points respectively, while the old imac's results are 80.18fps and 520 points.

Considering that both the 5K Retina imac and the old imac are equipped with fusion drive hybrid hard drives (128GB solid-state drives with 7200 to 1TB mechanical hard drives), the disk reads and writes faster and starts at the same time. The average reading speed, average write speed and start-up time of the 5K Retina imac were 659mb/s, 311.5mb/s and 15s respectively, while the old imac was 668mb/s, 318.1mb/s and 13s, with little difference.

But is the 5K Retina imac enough to handle 4K video? In the actual test, start the final Cut Pro video editing software in the 5K Retina imac and load the 10GB 4K video, and then even though the video is in the process of playback, 5K Retina The imac, like the new Mac Pro released last year, has enough performance to make the video display a variety of effects, and the conversion process is fast and almost without delay.

Even setting the program in Final Cut Pro lets the video pause as it appears, and the video is completely free from scratch, which means that the number of frames has not dropped. In the test, the 5K Retina imac used 4 minutes and 53 seconds to export this 10GB 4K video to a 1080p-resolution version, which is the only time that the fan can be clearly heard spinning. Even if the 5K Retina imac and Mac Pro are sufficient for high-performance tasks, it should be noted that MAC Pro does not sound at all even in this situation.

Although the 5K Retina imac was not born for the game, in the 5120x2880 native resolution and medium-quality medium anti-aliasing settings, the "Batman: Arkham City," the highest number of frames can still reach 26fps, the average number of frames are also 22fps. At 4096x2304, 3200x1800 and 2560x1440 resolutions, the number of frames increases to 34fps, 52fps, and 78fps, respectively. Although the 5K Retina imac did not perform very well in the game, the various games in the 5K Retina imac are still available to play. Of course, if you like the full effect when you play the game, then you will not spend a fortune to buy 5K Retina imac.

Software system

The 5K Retina imac carries the OS X Yosemite operating system that is officially launched at the press conference. And if you want to make full use of all the features of OS X Yosemite, it's best to match an iOS device. After you upgrade OS X Yosemite, users can use a Mac to call the phone, connect the iphone automatically as a wireless hotspot, sync pages, and so on, or remotely turn on or off the Safari tab on the iOS device and browse icloud search history. In short, OS X Yosemite makes Mac and iOS devices more tightly integrated.

But in addition to an iphone, ipad or ipod Touch, users must use Apple's own apps, such as Safari browsers and mail. OS X Yosemite Platform Consolidation is not working if you are an Android phone user, or if you often use cloud services such as Google Drive or OneDrive. For most consumers, the most attractive improvements to OS X Yosemite are the better use of Spotlight search, the many new features of mail applications, and the flat design style that moves closer to iOS. Overall, OS X Yosemite is a very good operating system, and if you buy a 5K Retina Imac,os x Yosemite is also your best choice.

Configuration selection

The starting price for the 5K Retina imac is 2499 U.S. dollars (China mainland is priced at 17988 yuan), the main configuration includes 3.5GHz Intel Core i5 four processor, 8GB memory, 1TB Fusion drive hard disk and AMD with 2GB GDDR5 memory Radeon R9 m290x video card. Of course, Apple has also provided users with a wealth of hardware upgrades as usual. Processor, the user can choose the highest optional 4.0GHz Intel Core i7 four processor, upgrade cost of 250 U.S. dollars (Mainland China for 1840 Yuan). In terms of memory, the upgrade costs for 16GB and 32GB were 200 USD and 600 USD (Mainland China was 1520 yuan and 4560 yuan respectively). Graphics, the upgrade with 4GB VRAM memory of the AMD R9 m295x independent graphics card price is also 250 U.S. dollars (Mainland China for 1840 Yuan). Finally, the storage side, the 2499-dollar low version can choose 256GB SSD or 1TB fusion Drive hard drive, and upgrade to 3TB Fusion Drive, 512GB SSD and 1TB solid-state hard drive price of 150 U.S. dollars, 300 U.S. dollars and 800 USD (The mainland China is 1104 yuan, 2208 yuan and 5888 yuan) respectively.

　Market Competition

Whether from the excellent Retina 5K screen or the high price, the current market is not likely to be the same as the 5K Retina imac direct competitors. According to Apple at the press conference, the 5K Retina imac's rival is actually a high-end 4K display with a price of $ thousands of. But there is a certain degree of misdirection, because the 5K Retina imac does not support being used as a stand-alone monitor, so comparing prices with a 4K display does not make much sense. If you already have a powerful mainframe, then the 5K Retina imac has nothing to do with your high "price/performance", and you still have to buy a 4K monitor.

Of course, the current market of 4K display prices are also different, the price difference is very large. Sharp's 32-inch PNK-321 displays cost as much as $4795 (the current market price is around 3600 US dollars, about 22030 RMB), and Dell's upcoming 5K display is priced at $2500 (about 15300 yuan), The Asus 31.5-inch pq321q display is priced at $3000 (about 18360 yuan), and these 4 K monitors are really expensive. However, there are some relatively inexpensive options on the market, such as Dell 28-inch p2815q and Samsung 28-inch u28d590d prices are only 600 U.S. dollars (about 3671 yuan), the resolution is also 3840x2160.

If you want a single machine with a 4K screen, the 5K Retina imac is clearly the closest option. However, the 21.5-inch imac with 1920x1080 Full HD screen and the 27-inch imac equipped with the 2560x1440 qHD screen are also good options. And in the Windows PC camp, there is no product to contend with the 5K Retina imac. Dell high-end All-in-one XPS 27 is equipped with a QHD screen, priced at $1600 (about RMB 9791). In addition, the Asus All-in-one Et2702igth and Lenovo A730 are also equipped with the same resolution screen. and HP's highest end of the All-in-one machine Envy recline 271 body machine only equipped with full HD screen, the price of 1400 U.S. dollars (about 8567 yuan). Compared with these Windows PC machines, the 5K Retina imac cost a lot, but the visual shock of the Retina 5K screen is no match.

　Summarize

The 5K Retina imac is now officially on sale at Apple's official online store, and given the excellent Retina 5K screen, the 2499-dollar price is worth it. Of course, twice the price of rivals means that the 5K Retina imac is not for all consumers. If you just use a computer to brush up on the Internet, the start price of 1099 dollars (China's 7988 yuan) old imac is enough to meet your needs, but if you have a high pursuit of video or photos, the 5K Retina imac will certainly let you heart.

And for consumers who do not need or do not have enough money to buy up to $2999 (Mainland China sells $21888) and Mac Pro Professional hosts without displays, the new imac, which is capable of fluent editing of 4K video and equipped with Retina 5K monitors, is hardly to be rejected. , and more importantly, the starting price is only 2499 dollars. Of course, if you already have a Mac Pro but the shock effect of 5K display, can only expect the Apple to launch the 5K Cinema display display.