Apple iMac M4 Blue 2024 Review

The Apple iMac M4 is a gorgeous all-in-one with a spectacular 4.5K display, excellent speakers, and a surprisingly capable integrated GPU. Its base storage is stingy and there's no upgrading later, but for everyday work and a clean desk, it's a top-tier pick for Apple households.

The Apple iMac M4 is the kind of all-in-one that makes you reconsider why desktops ever needed a tower. It's thin, it's colorful, and that 24-inch 4.5K Retina display is absolutely gorgeous. At its core, the M4 chip with an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU keeps things snappy, whether you're jumping between a dozen Safari tabs, editing family photos, or running your favorite iPhone apps right on the big screen. Starting at $1,129 for the base model with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, it's positioned squarely as the heart of a modern, clutter-free workspace. Across over 5,400 reviews, owners have given it a 4.8 out of 5, which tells you it's doing something very right for the right person. But that 'right person' comes with a few asterisks, especially when you peek under the hood at storage and raw upgradeability.

The M4's integrated graphics sit at the 95th percentile among all desktops in our database. That sounds impressive, and for an integrated GPU it genuinely is. You can breeze through photo edits in Pixelmator Pro, handle 4K video streams without a hiccup, and even play some Apple Silicon optimized games like Baldur's Gate 3 at decent settings. But '95th percentile' loses a bit of its shine when you realize that the competition includes a sea of office PCs with bare-minimum graphics. Put it next to a gaming desktop with a dedicated RTX 4070, and the M4's GPU feels more like a really good tablet chip than a powerhouse. The CPU lands at the 55th percentile, which translates to perfectly fine for everyday multitasking, Excel, and Zoom, but it won't set any records in Blender or Logic Pro with huge track counts. The bigger bottlenecks are the 16GB of RAM (29th percentile) and that 256GB SSD (13th percentile). For a $1,200+ machine in 2024, that storage is shockingly tight. You'll be leaning on external drives or iCloud before you know it.

Pricing is all over the place depending on where you look. New models list for $1,299, but you can snag an open-box deal from Amazon for as low as $1,127. That hundred-and-change savings helps, but the base 256GB SSD remains a sore spot. For comparison, Apple's own Mac Mini M4 with the same chip costs $599 and leaves you $700 to buy a nice 4K monitor and still have money left over for external storage. The iMac's value is in its all-in-one simplicity and that built-in Retina display. If you're set on eliminating cables and love the look, it's worth the premium. If you're counting dollars per gigabyte, you'll feel the sting.

Plenty of shoppers will cross-shop the iMac M4 against Windows all-in-ones like the Dell Inspiron 27 7000 or HP Envy 34. Those machines often give you way more RAM and storage for the same money, plus touchscreens. But their displays can't touch the iMac's 4.5K panel, and the build quality rarely feels as polished. If raw performance is your priority, you'll notice that gaming towers like the HP OMEN 45L or ASUS ROG GM700TZ-BS978 will demolish the iMac in any GPU-heavy task. They're massive, power-hungry boxes, though. The real threat to the iMac might be Apple's own Mac Mini M4 paired with a Studio Display, which gives you more I/O and a taller screen, albeit at a much higher total cost. For most people eyeing the iMac, the Dell XPS desktop is another option if you want Windows, but you'd be giving up that seamless Apple ecosystem magic.

Hardcore gamers, video editors working with 8K timelines, or anyone who needs to upgrade components over time should look elsewhere. A full-on gaming rig like the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i will run circles around the iMac in GPU tasks and can be upgraded endlessly. If you're set on macOS, the Mac Mini M4 Pro with a separate monitor gives you more ports, more power, and way more storage flexibility without being locked into a single screen forever. The iMac is not a workstation replacement, and if you try to treat it like one, that 256GB SSD and 16GB of RAM will frustrate you fast.

If you want a beautiful, quiet, dead-simple desktop that makes your home office look like a design magazine spread, the iMac M4 is a joy. It's perfect for students, families, and anyone deep in the Apple ecosystem who doesn't push their hardware with pro-level video editing, massive code compiles, or gaming. The 4.5K display alone is a productivity cheat code, and the M4 chip handles everyday chores with zero fan noise. Just buy the model with more storage if you can stretch the budget, because the 256GB option is a trap. For casual users, this is absolutely the best-looking and most cohesive desktop experience on the market right now.