The 27-inch model used to be Apple's best consumer desktop, but no longer.
Enlarge / The original 27-inch 5K iMac, introduced in 2014. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)
Apple's 27-inch iMac was one of the few Intel Macs (along with the iMac Pro) to be discontinued with no direct Apple Silicon replacement. It used to be Apple's mainstream workstation Mac, but in the Apple Silicon era, that role has been filled by the Mac mini and Mac Studio, instead. The 24-inch iMac, recently updated with a new M3 chip, is a smaller machine focused more on casual day-to-day computing.
Some 27-inch iMac users have been holding out for a true large-screened iMac replacement. But Apple threw cold water on those hopes in a statement given to the Verge (and later reiterated to Ars), where it said definitively that it was not working on an Apple Silicon version of the 27-inch iMac. Users of 27-inch Intel Macs should either move to the 24-inch iMac or to the M2 Pro Mac mini or the Mac Studio if they need more performance, according to Apple.
Eternal optimists still holding out hope for a new large-screened iMac might note that Apple specifically mentioned the 27-inch iMac, which doesn't necessarily preclude the possibility of an even-larger iMac in the 30-something-inch range. But given Apple's usual aversion to discussing its future plans, an explicit denial does hit differently than a total lack of comment or a boilerplate "Apple doesn't comment on future plans."
