I’ve had the privilege of owning an iMac Pro for a little over a year now, having ample time to put the iMac Pro through the paces in my daily workflow. Coming from a 2011 iMac (without an SSD), the iMac Pro was a world of difference of an upgrade to my iMac and a solid workhorse.
Beautiful 27” 5K Retina Display
Since my previous iMac did not have a Retina Display (only 21.5” HD), the 27” 5K Retina Display is a world of difference upgrade, and once using a Retina Display, it’s hard to look at anything else. Text is crisp, colors pop, and working on my iMac Pro every day is stunning. I’m almost at the point where I cannot look at any brand of TV and want Apple to design a TV for my living room just because of the overwhelming beauty of the display.
Serious Power Under the Hood
My iMac Pro model is the base model with an 8 Core Xeon processor, 8GB of Radeon Vega 56 video memory, 32GB of ECC memory and a 1TB SSD. Everything on my iMac Pro is speedy and zips around without lag. I use some research software for school purposes that loads instantly on the iMac Pro, whereas it always lagged on machines with lower specs. Video editing is a breeze on the iMac Pro as well. While I haven’t installed Final Cut Pro X on the iMac Pro yet since the work I’ve been doing involved more screencasting, I will be installing Final Cut Pro X on the iMac Pro later this summer and can report back with additional tests. Exporting screencasts in Camtasia and ScreenFlow are super speedy, however. Most of my screencasts in Camtasia export either in seconds or less than a minute for higher-res screencasts, and exporting out a huge, high-res screencast in ScreenFlow took about five minutes. My iMac Pro has cut down my workload time so well that I can get far more done in far less time and well worth the added expense.
Apple T2 Chip for Increased Security
The iMac Pro was the first Mac to include the Apple T2 chip for increased security, offering the ability to enable Secure Boot, faster on-drive encryption, and the ability to control many of the system processes on a single chip, as well as “Hey Siri” support. While Apple still recommends enabling FileVault, doing so only takes a matter of moments instead of waiting for the drive to encrypt and decrypt over a series of hours. Additionally, knowing my iMac Pro has an additional level of hardware encryption is a nice plus. Overall, it is also nice that Apple is integrating more of the components into a single chip, although I have occasionally had audio issues with popping noises if I’ve spoken too loud into USB microphones, as well as my screencasting tools needed updates to work with the built-in-microphone on the iMac Pro (although I use a USB headset microphone for screencasts, the four built-in microphones are clear).
Secure Boot is an interesting feature I keep enabled since I don’t use Boot Camp, although for those who need to boot the iMac Pro “the old fashioned way”, a flip of the switch in a Security Boot Manager on the Recovery Drive disables Secure Boot. The only disappointment is the lovely Mac boot chime is gone, which I miss (since the Mac boots from the T2 chip then hands the boot process off to macOS). “Hey Siri” support is a nice plus, although I’ve had occasional issues with it where my sound would mute afterward until I rebooted the iMac Pro (I need to re-test to see if this has been resolved).
FaceTime HD Camera, Connectivity, and Ports
The iMac Pro comes with a 1080p FaceTime HD Camera, although the T2 chip does apply some image processing to it. I’ve used my FaceTime HD Camera often during video conferencing, and my video seems to be decent and clear. The stereo speakers on the iMac Pro are super-loud and will blast one out of the room when turned all the way up. No need for a soundbar on this machine!
Connecting to the Internet is simple with the 10GB Ethernet port on there (although my network gear is all Gigabit Ethernet), as well as the iMac Pro includes AC Wi-Fi. Bluetooth 5 is also included, so it fully supports AirDrop between my iMac Pro and iPhone or iPad Pro, something my old iMac didn’t.
The iMac Pro comes with four Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, as well as four USB-3/USB-A ports. Professionals who need to plug additional displays into the iMac Pro can over the Thunderbolt ports, although I haven’t needed to at the moment. I’m glad Apple included USB-3/USB-A on this Mac, as I still have plenty of USB-A gear I need to plug in regularly before all my gear goes USB-C. It also includes an SDXC card slot for photographers, although my DSLR camera takes CF, so I need to plug in the camera over USB to transfer images. There’s even a classic headphone jack on the iMac Pro for anyone who needs one!
Breathtaking All-in-One Space Gray Design
The breathtaking, all-in-one design with a super slim profile known to the iMac is all there, as well as it comes in a stunning space gray case that looks gorgeous on my desk. It also comes with a space gray Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard, and I also threw in the space gray Magic Trackpad. It has been a while since I’ve used a mouse, but the Magic Mouse is a solid Mac mouse. My previous Magic Trackpad didn’t have Force Touch, so it has been fun working with it, although sometimes I forget the functionality is there. The Magic Keyboard has a slimmer profile than my previous keyboard, but it is a joy to type on, and this one includes the numeric keypad. The space gray coloring is stunningly beautiful, and the iMac Pro even comes with a black power cord and lightning cable to charge the accessories. I also love the fact that instead of dealing with removable batteries, I can simply plug in my Magic Trackpad or Magic Keyboard when the batteries are low and keep going, although charging the Magic Mouse keeps it on its side in an unusable position while charging.
My iMac Pro shipped with High Sierra, but the upgrade to Mojave when it was released went smoothly, and the new features of Mojave work well on my iMac Pro, as well as Dark Mode blends the hardware and software design together beautifully.
Bottom Line
The iMac Pro is the current king of the desktop Mac family, likely only to be surpassed in power by the forthcoming modular Mac Pro. However, for Mac-using professionals who want the combination of power and performance included in a gorgeous, sleek design with a breathtaking 27” 5K Retina Display, the iMac Pro is still the ideal option. The iMac Pro is the ideal dream machine to sit between the iMac and modular Mac Pro lines, giving professionals another solid option when they want to “have it all”. It’s been the ideal Mac for me over the past year, and the Mac I will use for years to come in my daily workflow.
Nathan Parker
