iMac M4 Review: The All-in-One That Actually Makes Sense

Everybody keeps telling you to buy a Mac Mini and a separate monitor. They’re wrong — at least for a lot of people.

The iMac M4 costs more than a Mac Mini setup, that’s true. But it also delivers something no cobbled-together desktop can match: a seamlessly integrated experience where the display, speakers, webcam, and microphone are all optimized to work together, in a package that takes up less desk space than your coffee mug collection.

That Display Though

The 24-inch 4.5K Retina display is the real star here, and it’s legitimately one of the best screens you can put on a desk for under $2,000. 500 nits of brightness, P3 wide color gamut, True Tone, and a resolution of 4480 x 2520 pixels. Text is razor-sharp. Colors are accurate out of the box. Photo editing doesn’t require an external color-calibrated monitor for most use cases.

Compared to the standalone monitors you’d pair with a Mac Mini, the iMac’s display competes with $600-800 panels. When you factor that into the total cost comparison, the iMac’s price premium over a Mac Mini shrinks considerably.

The nano-texture option returns at $200 extra, and in our experience, it’s worth considering if your desk faces a window. Reflections are dramatically reduced while image quality barely suffers.

M4 Performance in an All-in-One

The M4 chip inside the iMac is identical to the Mac Mini and MacBook Air M4. Same 10-core CPU, same 10-core GPU, same 16GB base memory. Performance is indistinguishable from the Mac Mini M4 in our testing — the active cooling system keeps the chip running at full speed under sustained loads.

Day-to-day, the iMac handles everything a typical user needs without breaking a sweat. Office productivity, web browsing with dozens of tabs, photo editing, light video editing, coding — all smooth, all fast, all silent.

The fan exists but rarely activates under normal workloads. During heavy exports in Final Cut Pro, we could hear a faint whoosh if we put our ear near the back of the machine. In normal use? Completely silent.

The Six-Speaker Sound System

This is where the iMac genuinely surprises. The six-speaker system with force-cancelling woofers and support for Spatial Audio sounds incredible for a computer. Bass is present and punchy. Mids are clear. The stereo separation is wide enough to be immersive.

We found ourselves reaching for external speakers less and less. For casual music listening, YouTube, video calls, and even movie watching, the built-in speakers are genuinely excellent. They won’t replace a dedicated audio setup, but they eliminate the need for one in most scenarios.

Webcam and Microphone Array

The 12MP Center Stage camera with the ISP from the M4 chip produces the best video call quality of any Mac. Lighting adjustments are handled in real-time, skin tones look natural, and Center Stage tracking keeps you centered in the frame as you move around.

The three-microphone array with directional beamforming is equally impressive. Background noise is filtered effectively, and voice clarity is excellent. We used the iMac as our primary video conferencing machine for a month, and colleagues consistently commented on how good we looked and sounded. No external webcam or microphone needed.

Design and Desk Presence

The iMac remains one of the most beautiful computers ever made. The 11.5mm thin profile is almost impossibly slender. The color options — blue, green, pink, silver, yellow, orange, purple — add personality that no other desktop computer offers.

Cable management is clean: a single braided cable connects to the power adapter (which includes an Ethernet port on the brick), and everything else connects wirelessly or through the four ports on the back. Speaking of ports — you get two Thunderbolt 4 and two USB-C ports, plus a headphone jack. No front-facing ports, unfortunately, which remains our biggest ergonomic complaint.

What’s Missing

No display height adjustment without a VESA mount. The included stand offers only tilt adjustment, which means you’ll likely need a monitor arm or a stack of books to get the screen at the right eye level. For a $1,299+ computer, an adjustable stand should be standard.

The base model still starts at 256GB of storage, which is tight. We’d recommend the 512GB upgrade at minimum. Apple charges $200 for that upgrade, which is steep but worth it.

And the elephant in the room: you can’t use the iMac’s display with another computer. When the iMac eventually ages out, that beautiful 4.5K screen becomes useless. A Mac Mini with a standalone monitor doesn’t have this problem.

iMac vs Mac Mini + Monitor

Let’s do the math. A Mac Mini M4 ($499) plus a comparable 4K display ($500), external speakers ($100), and a decent webcam ($80) totals about $1,179. The base iMac M4 at $1,299 is only $120 more, and you get a better display, better speakers, better webcam, and zero cable clutter.

The Mac Mini wins on flexibility and future-proofing. The iMac wins on experience and simplicity. Both are valid choices, and anyone who tells you one is objectively better isn’t being honest about the tradeoffs.

iMac M4 on Amazon (paid link) (paid link)

The Verdict

The iMac M4 is the best all-in-one desktop computer you can buy. It’s not the most flexible, not the most upgradeable, and not the cheapest path to M4 performance. But for anyone who values elegance, simplicity, and a stunning integrated experience, it’s unmatched.

OnVerdict Score: 8.5/10 — Beautiful, capable, and simpler than the alternative.