Customer Reviews

Apple iMac MC309LL/A 21.5-Inch Desktop (NEWEST VERSION)

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have been considering an Apple computer for a while now, and have been reluctant to buy because of the high price tag, compared to PCs with similar technical specs. For example, a Dell Inspiron All in One with 4GB SDD3 RAM, 500GB hard drive, 2.8Ghz processor, comparable graphics card and larger, brighter 23" screen retails for 599. For 1199, you can get the same Dell model with a touch screen, 1TB hard drive, 8GB RAM, 1GB video card, and a bunch of other stuff, running Windows 7. That's twice as much computer, right?

Maybe not. I went into a Best Buy store to play with a Mac, and spent almost two hours comparing this computer to the ones I just mentioned. I ended up buying the Mac, and am entirely convinced that it is well worth the price tag. First of all, even with less RAM, the Mac was faster and performed much better than a tech spec superior PC. It ran several memory draining and intensive applications, like video editing software, iTunes, and web browsers playing video SIMULTANEOUSLY without any noticeable lag. The programs all started up almost instantly, and everything just seemed to work. The PC that had 8 gigs of RAM could not perform all of those tasks at once without slowing down. Second, the Mac doesn't require a seperate anti-virus software purchase. It's supposed to be virtually unhackable, and you won't have like a dozen McAfee processes running in the background to slow your computer down. That peace of mind for internet security alone is worth the extra money to me.

One of my other reservations for buying a Mac was having to use a different operating system, and after years of running Windows, I didn't want to have to learn how to use a computer again. However, after playing with the Mac even for just a few minutes, I realized that it was very intuitive, and as easy to use as a PC. For example, when you want to print a document on a PC, you click the tab on the upper right hand corner, find "print" and click- same thing as on the Mac. All of the menus are pretty much identical for the word processors and internet browsers, and unless you're planning on writing or editing the DOS, there isn't much you'll have to adapt to.

Finally, the software that comes with this thing is AWESOME. The photo/video software is amazingly useful, and I can't imagine anything out there that you can buy that is as good as this stock software. There is music editing, and a bunch of other stuff that is just as good as the photo software, and while I haven't had the opportunity to really try everything out yet, I don't think I will be disappointed with any of it. To top it off, everyone raves about the customer support you get when you get an apple product. I hope I'll never have to use it, but it helps to know that Apple stands behind their products. Bottom line is, I'm really happy with my purchase.

*Update Dec 28 2011*
I just read some of the comments on my review, and I just don't understand why people can be so defensive about why I think this outperformed the PCs that I tried and have used. I can say that I've owned dozens of computers in the last two decades, and I don't think I've ever had one that is as solid as this one. I've used it for almost a year, and to this date have not had even a SINGLE glitch. All of the programs perform as expected, I have not had problems with passwords or emails being hacked, and I don't notice any performance degradation. I don't know or understand technical specs as well as most folks, I don't need to "mod" my computer or do anything that's resource draining besides video editing, I'm just an average user. I know that PCs have their strengths over Macs, but as far as what an average user would need, I don't think it gets any better than a Mac. I've tried to find used Macs for my kids room on craigslist, and most go for about 3/4 - 80% RETAIL!!! Show me a PC that gets that kind of resale value. As far as the defensive PC users are concerned, I'm glad that you can buy a product that you are happy with at a fraction of a cost. For me, peace of mind is worth a little extra bread.

I have been using Macs for about 5 years now between school and work. My primary machine has always been a PC. Being a graphic designer, Macs are pretty much the industry standard. That is one of many reasons I bought this iMac.

I must say, I love this computer. It took me less than 15 minutes from opening the box, unpacking the computer, plugging it in, starting it, and set up. And 10 minutes of that was taking it out of the box, taking the protective wraps off of things, etc.

The initial setup was a breeze. It automatically recognized the keyboard and mouse (both Bluetooth), easily connected to my network (after I typed in the password), and bam, we were up and running. Since I never had a Mac before, I didn't have a backup that would put all my files on the computer, but I keep all of my files on an external hard drive anyways.

There have been a few bumps in getting used to doing certain things on the Mac compared to the PC. However, Apple Care is very helpful and helped me through alot of issues. The main thing was getting Time Machine working like I want. Still don't have it backing up my external hard drive, but that is because it is a MS DOS format, which is a format it doesn't recognize. Other than that, Time Machine is doing backups on its own drive. Also, for PC users, Time Machine is NOT System Restore. It is a file recovery program only. So if you delete a file, you can open Time Machine, find the file, and restore it.

Once you take the time to learn how certain things work compared to PC's, you will figure out that there are alot of things that are just much easier on the Mac. Granted, I plan to use both Mac and PC for a while, but so far, I haven't had to turn on my PC in several days (and I have only had the iMac for about 10 days).

Overall, it is a great machine. Feels like it is built very solid, runs fast, starts up fast, looks great in my room, the keyboard and mouse (Bluetooth) never skips a beat, the Magic Mouse was not difficult at all to start using, and overall it is great. Probably will always stick to Mac now. :D

I first bought an iMac in 2006. It was the same first model out of four. Not only it lasted me until now, but since I bought this one few days ago, I gave my old one to my wife's sister. I'm sure it will keep going and going for years.

Right now, it is better than ever to buy a new iMac. I remember when I bought mine, the whole line-up was good. But then they gave lower-priced iMacs much worse specs than higher-priced ones, especially in terms of video cards. So, if you wanted something good all around, you had to spend more money and buy third or even fourth one in iMac's line-up. Not anymore. Every single one has the same RAM, all of them have descrete video cards, and even Quad-Core processors. Not only that, but they are the newest i5 Quad-Core processors, Intel Sandybridge. Even if you take a look at various tests done by different websites, they will tell you that there is not that big of a difference between iMac line-up nowadays. It'll be about 10% or so in speed increase between this iMac and top of the line one. Also, this iMac is faster than top of the line iMac from previous generation, so yeah, it's that good!

Like everyone are saying, don't look at the numbers. That's the game PC plays, and people believe them. Read comparison reviews between iMacs and PCs and you'll see that in most tests iMacs go head to head with PCs that have twice the RAM and twice the video card and even higher clocked processors. In some tests, iMac still come ahead.

Besides nice specs, iMac has a really good screen. Yes, it is 21.5-inch, but is is beautiful. People might say that you can buy all-in-one from Dell with 23-inch screen. Again, those are numbers, and also, Dell's specs are a joke. iMac has a high quality screen, extremely accurate colors, which is perfect for anything, especially photography and editing, specifically color-correction. And just to show you where those two companies stand, Apple went for higher resolution on their 21.5-inch display, because they're about quality. Dell on the other hand, chose to have the same resolution on a 23-inch display, because for them it's more important to say that their display is bigger, rather than talk about quality. Same with HP, just recently they chose USB 3.0 over Thunderbolt. It just shows how low quality they are to choose already outdated technology for their machines. Yeah, we all might have to wait for a month or two for Thunderbolt accessories to become available, but it's a fair price to pay for the fastest of the fast.

iMac itself is a piece of art. There are no rough edges from all the cheap plastic, it's just two pieces, aluminum enclosure and a piece of glass on the front. All ports are nice and neat and it does come with a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse. Both are very comfortable.

As usual it comes with iLife, so it is ready for photos with iPhoto, movies with iMovie, creating music with GarageBand, creating DVDs with iDVD and creating websites with iWeb. Also, sometime during this Summer, new Operating System is coming out, but it will be a cheap upgrade for those who want it, it's not like buying Windows and choosing between 10 different options, all at the premium price. With Mac, you get just one OS, which has everything. Also, for all of you out there who like to edit, Final Cut Pro X is coming out this Summer as well, in June, unless if they'll move it to a later date. It will go down in price from $999 to just $299. So, it'll be an excellent editing machine.

I also have Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, via BootCamp, to play games. In Windows everything is noticeably slower. Not only that, but as usual, Mac came with everything out of the box, I can zip/unzip files, view PDFs and so on. Windows doesn't have any of that. I would have to download all of those programs to be able to fully use my computer. Game-wise, I think it's pretty good. I play Mafia II on all high settings and it runs just fine. Let me remind you that although Mafia II is not the latest game ever, but it does recommend Intel Quad-Core 2.5Ghz, 3GB or more for RAM, and most importantly, 1GB for a video card. Like I said I have all setting on high with 1920x1080 resolution. The only setting that makes it somewhat slow is when I turn on anti-aliasing. On one of the levels it was a little slow, so I put Shadow Quality on medium and it was fine. After completing the level I turned it on high again.

**ALSO, for all of you GAMERS out there, I found a pretty cool website that shows how well different video cards can handle games. It's not necessarily Mac related, just video cards in general. Amazon doesn't let you to post links to websites, so, I just put it in the first comment. Just to give you an idea, the site says that Crysis 2 plays good on High settings, Call of Duty: Black Ops plays good even on Ultra settings, Metro 2033 plays good on Medium settings. You can check out the rest**

Overall, this is the best all-in-one you can find and one of the best Desktops a money can buy.

If you don't like Apple or still think it is overpriced, do that. Find a Desktop/All-in-one with Sandybridge Quad-Core processor and around 6GB to 8GB of RAM and 512MB to 1GB video card. Add a nice screen to it, full HD, no less than 1920x1080. Add wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse. Don't forget bluetooth and Wi-fi connectivity. Make sure it has Windows 7 Professional for all of the features, or maybe even Ultimate. Also, make sure all 5 of iLife-equivallent programs are present. And see the price for yourself. I am not even going to bring up the ease of set-up and that iMac is only one piece of aluminum and one piece of glass. Because no PC will match it. You have to settle for million pieces of plastic holding your computer together.

Let me start by saying I am not an "Apple Hater". I've been happily using a 2007-era 20" iMac for 4 years, and I loved it. When that machine started showing its age, the choice was obvious - it would be replaced with the 2011 21.5" iMac, which despite costing several hundred dollars less than my previous machine did, is significantly more powerful.

That said...

I ordered my machine through Amazon.com at a great price. It arrived on-time, and well packaged. The unboxing experience was pleasant and the Setup Assistant transferred over all my old data/apps from my 20" machine flawlessly - took about 2.5 hours to transfer 300GB of data over a FW800 cable. Once done, the new machine basically was (from a software/app install perspective) identical to my old one. Really nice. Then, once I actually started using the machine, I noticed that the icons in the Dock looked "dingy". I didn't think much of it at the time. Later, I noticed when reading webpages with white backgrounds (such as the one I'm writing on now on Amazon.com), or in the Mail.app windows, that there is a noticeable shift to a yellow tint on the bottom third of the screen. There appear to be reports of other folks having this issue, though I know it can be hard to quantify as a vocal few can make a relatively isolated issue seem like a widespread one.

I use the machine for photo editing so this yellow cast/tint is unacceptable. It renders the machine 100% unusable for what I need to use it for.

Now, I've just discovered that Amazon.com will not accept a return of an opened computer, so I've no choice but to work with Apple, and I'm going to do just that.

[Update: To clarify, Amazon's written policy is that they will accept returns of computers within 30 days. However, if it has been opened, then you are only refunded 85% of the price (effectively a 15% restocking fee). If the machine is defective, Amazon's written policy is that you are to call the computer manufacturer to have the machine serviced under warranty. That policy is stated here: [...]. Now, as I described in the comments below, after speaking with a representative on the phone, Amazon.com did allow me to return the defective machine directly to them and was refunded 100% of the cost including shipping.]

I accept that computers are complex pieces of equipment that will have problems from time to time, but my rating of 2 stars reflects that this is an otherwise wonderful machine that has shipped with a defect that could/should have been spotted by QA at the factory.

I will update this review later with my Apple support experience.

If anyone else has seen this issue I'd love to hear you experiences in the comments.

[Update: see comments below.]

This is now my 5th Mac I have owned and this is by far the best. I just went from a late 2006 2.16ghz Core2Duo iMac to this one and it is amazing. Everything is super fast and my setup was a breeze. Just told it to restore from my Time Machine backup and and about 1 hour later all my apps, files, and users where all there.

I have had this Mac for two weeks, and I think that Apple did an excellent job. Before I got the new iMac, I was using a more or less "ancient" G4. I specifically waited until the Apple rumor mill indicated a new OS version without Rosetta would be coming out soon. I have an extensive list of PPC software that I definitely did not want to lose just because of an Apple upgrade.

This Macintosh upgrade was pretty much painless. I usually make a list of functions that I lose whenever I upgrade, and this wasn't an exception. I did have several problems with Mac Mail, which I managed to fix a few days after the upgrade. These problems could have been from either Apple or Comcast, my cable company.

Where I had faxing ability in my old Mac, the dial up modem was notably absent in the new one. I send out about one fax per month. I can fix this issue by buying another USB modem, and it is true that most computers have gone away from telco modems. Like I said, no big deal.

I also elected to buy the wired keyboard with the extended number pad. I have always used this feature in prior years and I didn't want to give up on the number pad with the new Mac. The touch on the keyboard is excellent, and I think that Apple did a good job in the design of the keyboard.

The Magic Mouse takes some getting use to, but I find that the mouse grows on me as the days go by. The one issue I did find was when I went to check out the batteries, the mouse lost bluetooth comm with the iMac. Apple's instructions tell you to turn the MM back on, and then open the System Prefs and click on the icon for the magic mouse. But the MM doesn't do anything because it isn't talking to the iMac. So I couldn't use the MM to perform the necessary steps to re-sync with the computer. I ultimately hooked up my previous Turbo Ball to click on the mouse icon, and then everything went smoothly. It's quite possible that I missed something in Apple's directions, but I don't think so.

The Magic Mouse needs batteries, either throwaways or rechargeable. I bought an Apple battery charger, which comes complete with six rechargeable batteries. I figured that with the Magic Mouse, rechargeable batteries would be nice to have so that I'm not running around trying to find extra AA batteries when the current batteries are dead.

The screen is running without any problems so far. I haven't seen any yellowing or dead pixels. I find the screen to be sharp and clear. It should be suitable for buyers who intend to use their Macs for photo apps, publishing, etc.

One of the changes that I don't like is that regarding the hard drive. It seems that with the model, Apple in their wisdom, decided that customers would have to buy their replacement drives from Apple. To force the issue, Apple has a temperature sensor in the drive, which reports back to the iMac. No sensor, no drive. I'm not one who goes about replacing hard drives left and right. However I would like the option. You never know when a drive is going to fail and you might really need to access your data RIGHT NOW.

I did buy the iMac from Amazon, and I would recommend Amazon to anyone who wants their Mac in quick order and at a competitive price.

After many years of contemplating on whether or not I should jump over to Apple, I did so after this 2011 revision of the Imac. Getting used to it took me about 2 days and let me tell you this, the extra hundreds that you spend for a Mac is well worth it.

This thing is fast. I mainly got it because as a Youtuber, I make a lot of videos and it seems like all of the Youtube partners own a mac. Rendering video is quite fast compared to my pc which was less than a year old.

THE ONLY CON is that the HD Facetime camera's quality is sort of bad and the built in mic is awful.

If you were thinking about jumping over to the Mac do so. As a first-time mac owner, I can safely say that it was the best think that I have ever done. Everything just works so well with this. Everything is snappy and the boot up takes about 30 seconds(YES, I timed it).

The computer is beautifully phenomenal.

Buy it! You will not regret it.

I have been a life long owner of "IBM" PC's. My first one was a Radio Shack "Coco", bought in the 1980's. The newest is an HP running Windows 7 Premium. My second, older PC, still running on XP started giving out so I began looking for a replacement. As I was browsing the reviews on Amazon I noticed the top ratings were Apple computers. I spent hours reading the reviews. Thanks to all who take the time! So a few days ago I went down to Best Buy and had one of the "geeks" give me a demo on the iMac. One hour later I walked out with the 21.5" iMac MC309LL/A (18months, no interest). I've had it now for a few days and I have to say, this thing is amazing. Super super fast, no bulky tower, awesome resolution, love the templates for docs and email, the sideways scrolling mouse is unbelievable! I am totally sold on iMacs. The more I learn this computer the more I love it. If you are still trying to decide take my advice: go and buy an iMac. You will not regret it. The sad thing is I turned on my Mac today to find out Steve Jobs passed away. R.I.P. Steve.

I was introduced to the Mac scene roughly a little more than a year ago. I bought a Macbook Pro at that time and have never looked back. I love OS X and the quality product that Apple puts together.

It was time to get the Desktop version of the Macbook I love so much, so I found this machine at a great price. Glad I grabbed it when I did because it went up $50 in a matter of days after my purchase. I honestly thought this was an older model because of the price, but it is very much current.

The machine boots fast, makes it as simple as possible to set up your network and start using it within seconds. There is one wire (power) to hook up for crying out loud...that's awesome! The i5 quad core processor seems to be very fast and the graphics are just beautiful. Since I have a Macbook already, I knew what to expect with this machine and it was worth every dollar. I'm not an Apple fanboy either, I've been a Windows user since day one, but realized that there are better operating systems out there than Windows, so I made the move and I'm happy I did.

I hope whoever buys this machine enjoys it, I sure will. =)

Absolutely wonderful. This is, by far, the easiest transition I have ever had from one computer to another. I took it out of the box, connected the power cable and the backup drive from the old computer. That was it; everything was magically transferred and in perfect working order. Wonderful! The I MAC arrived in two business days, was packed very well and I couldn't be any happier so far.