iMac 2019: release date, news and rumors

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Apple has now officially announced the iMac 2019, and offered us some tantalising information about what we can expect from this year's all-in-one Mac.

As we've said from the start, the iMac 2019 needs to offer a decent leap in hardware power because, almost immediately after the iMac 2017 hit the streets, backed with a 7th-generation Intel Kaby Lake processor, Intel announced the new 8th-generation Coffee Lake chips – which have been succeeded by 9th-generation Coffee Lake Refresh chips.  With the current iMac two generations behind the curve when it comes to silicon, the iMac 2019 needs some serious hardware upgrades.

The good news is that Apple has done exactly that, announcing a refreshed iMac 2019 that doesn't look any different from the iMacs that have come before it, but with new 8th generation and 9th generation Intel processors.

While we don't currently have all the information about the iMac 2019, we've updated this page with everything we know so far, as well as any rumors and speculation we've found as well.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? A new version of the Apple iMac
• When is it out? Pre-orders begin March 19, 2019
• What will it cost? Starting at $1,299/£1,249 / AED 4,619 (about AU$1,899)

iMac 2019 release date

Apple has just announced that the iMac 2019 will be available to order on March 19, 2019 from Apple.com and the Apple Store app.

If you want to walk into a store to pick one up, then Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Resellers will begin selling them in the week beginning March 25.

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The iMac 2019 (Image Credit: Apple)

iMac 2019 price

Apple has also now officially revealed the iMac 2019's price. The 21.5-inch iMac 2019 starts with an 8th-generation quad-core Intel processor at $1,299/£1,249/AED 5,459 (about  AU$1,899), but you can upgrade that to a 6-core processor for an additional cost. 

Meanwhile, the 27-inch iMac 2019, with a Retina 5K screen, comes with a choice of 9th-generation 6-core and 8-core processor configurations and starts at $1,799/£1,749/AED 7,559 (around AU$2,699). 

The base price of 2017’s non-retina iMac is $1,099 / AED 4,619 (£1,049, AU$1,599), and will be continued to be sold.

Boosted specs

While know pretty much nothing about the hardware that’ll be included in the iMac 2017, we’d love to see it include the latest and best components when it’s revealed.

Now, what we really want to see is Apple shoving the latest 9th-generation Coffee Lake Refresh processors into the iMac 2019, so that Apple fans could have access to these octa-core behemoths. But, even if Apple is more conservative and sticks with an 8th-generation Coffee Lake processor, the iMac 2019 will still get a huge performance boost over last year’s model.

We’re also fairly certain that Apple will use one of its T2 co-processors in the iMac 2019, probably for ‘Hey Siri’ commands, much like the rest of Apple’s recent devices. 

Apple is also reportedly working on crafting its own processors, in a rumored program called the ‘Kalamata Initiative”. This will see the Cupertino giant replace all Intel processors with its own by 2020. This is a huge ordeal, to be sure, but Apple seems to be well on the way working on its own chips in a super-secret lab.

Fingers crossed we see some – or all – of these predictions come to fruition.

• These are the best Macs that 2019 has to offer so far
• Here's how to get the best VPN for your Mac

Gabe Carey has also contributed to this report

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