The all in one space pioneered by Apple has been dominated by the iMac. While there were single form factor PCs long before the iMac, none survived as long. Looking at the latest Apple iMac(Nvidia GeForce 8400M) , that history of dominance is not likely to be surpassed my time soon. Last year, the same price tag could buy you a 20-inch iMac, which was nice, but now that same amount of money gets you the 24-inch model that you were really lusting for all along.
On the outside, the new iMac looks much like the older iMac 24-inch. There’s the brilliant 1,920 by 1,200 widescreen LCD that can display true HD video. The case is still made of aluminum, glass, and plastic, though now the keyboard is a little smaller. If you have seen any iMac over the last five years, the newest iteration will look familiar to you. The current iMac design is iconic, like the Porsche 911. The exterior changes a little from model to model, but the overall shape and proportions have stayed the same since the introduction of the iMac G5 in 2004.
The new model centers on the Nvidia 9400M chipset with built-in graphics. The 9400M is fully DX10-compatible, so it can run the latest 3D games and applications, and it supports DDR3 memory, which faster than the DDR2 , memory in the iMac’s predecessor. The 9400M isn’t a gaming part, but it will let you do light to moderate 3D tasks. The changes also extend to the amount of memory and storage. The system’s 4GB of system memory is now standard, up from 1GB, which helps a lot for the kinds of multimedia tasks the iMac is good at. The hard drive is up from 320GB to 640GB at this price point.
Last but not least, the iMac comes with a one-year parts and service warranty, but only 90-days of phone tech support. You can bring the iMac to any Apple store for walk-up service during the one-year warranty, but for three years of phone and warranty service, an AppleCare protection plan is for some extra bucks.
The LN46A850’s swivel-action table stand is constracted from a rectangular-shaped sheet of tempered glass that nicely complements the TV’s frame. A good, stylish TV deserves a quality remote control, and the LN46A850 includes two things , such as a standard model with backlit keys and a mini remote. An Ethernet port lets you stream video and audio from a DLNA-compliant server or Windows PC. I streamed DVD video files successfully, except that the aspect ratio of the video was incorrect. Using calibrated picture settings, I found that the LN46A850’s average picture contrast was an impressive 3,487:1. This result is one of the best I have seen among fluoresent-backlit LCDs, second only to the LN52A750’s contrast result of 3,725:1.
