iMac (M1, 2021)
Stunning 24-inch all-in-one in 7 colors. Just 11.5mm thin. Reimagined iMac for a new era.
Seven colors and 11.5mm thick. The biggest visual change to the iMac since 1998. M1 made it possible, because the chip ran cool enough and drew little enough power that Apple could shrink the whole computer into something that looks like a display with a slender chin, with the logic board and a redesigned thermal system hidden inside it. Then Apple painted it. Blue, green, pink, orange, purple, silver and yellow, each with a matching keyboard, mouse and trackpad, deliberately recalling the iMac G3 rather than the decade of aluminum severity in between. Not everyone was convinced. Some longtime buyers found the two-tone chassis too playful for the price, and the ports thinned out to two or four Thunderbolt connectors with no SD slot. Most people loved it, which was the point of doing something this confident after years of the same silhouette. Performance was M1 performance: quiet, efficient, and ahead of the Intel iMacs it replaced despite being the entry-level chip rather than a Pro or Max.
Mac History Timeline
Full Specifications
Availability
Processor
Memory
Storage
Display
Graphics
Expansion
Connectivity
Physical
Processor Deep Dive
Apple M1
AppleThe same 5nm 8-core CPU and up to 8-core GPU unified-memory chip that powered Apple's first wave of Apple Silicon Macs, here enabling the iMac's radically thin new chassis by eliminating the need for the bulky thermal solutions Intel chips had required. Its dramatic efficiency advantage over any Intel chip previously used in an iMac let Apple shrink the entire all-in-one to a fraction of its former depth while still delivering a meaningful performance leap over the outgoing Intel model. This chip's arrival in the iMac completed Apple's first-generation Apple Silicon rollout across laptop, desktop-mini, and all-in-one form factors.
Compatible Operating Systems
macOS Big Sur 11.3
Launch OS2021
Launched as the debut OS for the redesigned Apple Silicon iMac.
macOS Monterey 12
Compatible2021
Brought Universal Control support to this colorful new iMac later that same year.
macOS Ventura 13
Compatible2022
Added Stage Manager and Continuity Camera features.
macOS Sonoma 14
Compatible2023
Continued full support with desktop widgets and improved gaming APIs.
macOS Sequoia 15
Compatible2024
Brought several Apple Intelligence features to this first Apple Silicon iMac.
macOS Sequoia 15
Compatible2025
Remains actively supported and updated as of the most recent macOS releases.
Reviews & Reception
The M1 iMac's radical thin, colorful redesign and Apple Silicon performance were met with widespread enthusiasm, cementing it as one of the era's standout Mac releases.
This is the most exciting iMac redesign since the original candy-colored G3. It's impossibly thin, genuinely playful, and the M1 chip inside makes it feel effortless to use.
Bringing color back to the iMac line is a joyful, confident move, even if the reduced port selection will frustrate a few longtime desktop users.
M1's efficiency is the real hero of this redesign. Without it, an iMac this thin with this little active cooling simply wouldn't have been possible.
It's astonishingly thin, wonderfully colorful, and quietly one of the best all-in-one desktops Apple has ever built, even without the Pro or Max chip options.