We hoped that we'd be getting an iMac with a Retina display, but we weren't expecting to get one with a resolution of more than 4K. Yet, that's exactly what Apple pulled out of the bag with its 27in 5K iMac with Retina Display review.
Specs-wise, that's a screen with a resolution of 5,120x2,880, the highest resolution display that we have ever seen. To put that resolution into context, that resolution is 7.35 times the number of pixels of Full HD and 1.67 times the number of pixels in a 4K display.
While specs can give a rough impression of things, this is truly a screen that you need to look at in order to really understand just how much detail you get with it. Viewing photos on it, you suddenly appreciate the number of pixels and level of detail that a modern digital camera is capable of taking. You also realise that you've never seen the detail from your camera in this way before, with prints and existing displays simply not delivering.
We were taken through a series of sample shots, and they looked astounding. Every tiny bit of fine detail in every image was there in front of us. It completely gave us a new way of looking at photos; this is a screen that every photographer is going to want to have.
It may sound like we're just heaping praise on this screen; and we are, but with good reason. While we're used to seeing iterative improvements with products, it's rare to see a genuine and obvious massive improvement. This is one such case, and the new iMac's screen genuinely makes everything else look, well, a little low res.
All of this resolution isn't just useful when dealing with photos, as video editing can also benefit. With Final Cut Pro X, you've enough resolution to have a 4K clip running at full resolution, with plenty of space around the side for the full video-editing interface. Of course, OS X Yosemite scales beautifully on the display, so everything is easily readable and usable, while looking super-sharp.
While the display may be high-tech, Apple hasn't had to make it fat to fit all of the technology in. In fact, at just 1.4mm thick (the iMac is just 5mm thick at the edges), the screen's super thin. By combining the screen's layers in this way, Apple has said that it's also boosted the overall quality, improving contrast along the way.
Inside an Oxide TFT brings even and consistent brightness across the entire display; highly-efficient LEDs for the backlight mean that this display uses 30% less power than on the previous iMac; and organic passivation cuts out crosstalk between pixels, which are packed closely together.
There are the usual specs options available inside, with a choice of processor, RAM and storage devices - see our iMac specs and features round-up for the full lowdown and the current pricing.
