The New iMac Pro Is Apple's Most Bonkers Computer Ever

The new iMac Pro is a ridiculously powerful, 5K, space gray all-in-one.
Jason Henry for WIRED
Jason Henry for WIRED

Apple’s last mind-blowing computer invention was almost a decade ago. Steve Jobs reached into a manila envelope, and pulled out the slimmest, lightest clamshell anyone had ever seen. Didn’t matter that it cost about the same as a used car; one look and you knew it was the future.

Since then, Apple’s progress has been slow—and hasn’t always felt like progress. The new MacBook is even sleeker than the Air, but comes with a controversial new keyboard and some performance challenges. The MacBook Pro got a TouchBar and a giant price hike, neither of which went over well. The Air? Well, the Air’s awesome, but Apple hasn’t touched it in more than two years. The iMac is slimmer and sexier, but still basically the same. And the trashcan Mac Pro left a lot of people cold.

More Macs

Today, Apple showed that it does still care about PCs. It launched the new iMac Pro, a ridiculously powerful, 5K, space gray all-in-one that Apple seems to have made almost as a statement. That statement: if you need a supercomputer, Apple’s still the place to go. The iMac Pro can have processors up to 22 teraflops, memory up to 128 gigs, and as much as 4 terabytes of storage. There’s a new thermal cooling system with two fans that seems like it has its work cut out for it. It even has a new keyboard and trackpad to match.

The whole thing starts at $5,000, and is almost definitely more machine than you’ll ever need—Apple intends it for machine learning, VR, and real-time 3-D rendering. Not for Netflix. Or at least, not only for Netflix.

In one fell swoop, the company also announced an upgrade to all its MacBook and iMac models. The biggest change is the processors, which Apple bumped up to Intel’s more efficient and battery-friendly Kaby Lake chips. New iMacs will be able to handle double the RAM of last year’s models, and the Fusion drive is standard on the 27-inch model, with storage up to 2TB. The lowest-priced MacBook Pro and Retina iMac also get a price drop: Both start at $1,299.

The new Macs are shipping today, and the iMac Pro will follow in December.