Apple Releases 27-Inch iMac With Retina 5K Display And A Screen 7 Times Sharper Than HD TVs

Apple on Thursday launched the new 27-inch iMac, its all-in-one desktop computer with Retina 5K display, which, according to the company, has the “world’s highest resolution display with a breathtaking 14.7 million pixels.” However, the price tag could put off the general public and users may have to wait a while before they can enjoy the screen's full power.

The new iMac’s Retina display comes with a resolution of 5120×2880 pixels, and allows the device to offer improved contrast, viewing angles and color accuracy. With the Retina 5K display, the iMac’s screen has four times more pixels than the standard 27-inch iMac and 67 percent more pixels than a 4K display, according to Apple.

“Thirty years after the first Mac changed the world, the new iMac with Retina 5K display running OS X Yosemite is the most insanely great Mac we have ever made,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said in a statement. “With a breathtaking 14.7 million pixel display, faster CPU and graphics, Fusion Drive, and Thunderbolt 2, it’s the most beautiful and powerful iMac ever.”

According to Apple, the iMac Retina 5K display uses “a precisely manufactured” oxide TFT-based panel. The iMac also uses new power-efficient LED backlight modules that help the device reduce display power consumption by 30 percent, even while driving four times more pixels at the same brightness.

Pricing on the new iMac starts at $2,499 for a model with 3.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, AMD Radeon 290X graphics chip, 8GB RAM and a 1TB Fusion Drive. The new models can be upgraded with a 4 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 4.4 GHz and an AMD Radeon R9 M295X graphics processor. Other build-to-order configurations include a RAM upgrade of up to 32GB and a 3TB Fusion Drive or 1TB solid-state drive, or SSD.

Is It Too Early For 5K Display?

According to Bloomberg, there is no appropriate content available yet to be watched on the new iMac's ultra high-resolution screen.

“When you read text, it looks incredible, crisp and sharp, with magazine quality. If you work with photos, you'll have never worked on a desktop display with this level of detail,” Schiller said at the unveiling event in Cupertino, California, without talking about watching videos on the latest 5K display.

Most movies and television shows are meant for typical high-definition TVs, and the iMac’s screen is reportedly seven times sharper than those displays. Users can still watch HD content on the new 27-inch iMac, but it will only blow up the picture to fit the screen, Bloomberg reported.

“It's really for high-power creatives,” J.P. Gownder, an analyst at Forrester Research, told Bloomberg. “It's not really pitched to the average user, not by price point. The days of the $2,500 computer is long past for the mass market.”