Best Apple iMac Deals: Get an Apple desktop for $479

We love our laptops as much as the next techie, but if you’re regularly spending the day sitting in front of a computer, exchanging the comfort of a desktop for the portability of a laptop isn’t really worth the trade-off. Traditional PC towers are pretty big, however, and that can be a problem if your work area doesn’t have a lot of room to spare. An all-in-one desktop computer like the Apple iMac solves that problem by packing a full set of PC hardware into a slimline monitor chassis with a compact overall footprint. The iMac is also a fine choice for anybody looking to get into the MacOS software ecosystem on a budget, or for those who already own a MacBook and want a desktop to pair with it. Whatever your needs may be, our roundup of the month’s best iMac deals has you covered, offering up some of the best Apple deals around.

Today’s best iMac deals

Apple 21.5-inch iMac (early 2019) Renewed — $479

Why Buy

Even cheaper than any of the MacBook deals going on, this Apple 21.5-inch iMac (early 2019) might be a few years old but it offers plenty of juice for the price. That’s the beauty behind many iMacs — they last a long time thanks to offering reliable hardware and the benefits of MacOS, which tends to mean they stay fast for awhile. In the case of the 2019 21.5-inch iMac, you get a Quad-Core 8th-generation Intel Core i3 processor paired up with 8GB of memory which is a great set of specs for ensuring you can get plenty of work done.

Arguably best of all is this iMac’s combo of display and graphics card. It has a gorgeous-looking 21.5-inch Retina 4K screen that still looks truly high-end. It also uses integrated graphics, which is enough to help you out when editing videos or completing graphic design projects. 1TB of storage space means there’s plenty of room to keep your files and software, too.

The whole thing is built into a beautiful and thin 5mm chassis that will look great in any our home office and won’t take up much room. You also get two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports so you can hook up the latest devices without a problem. Perfectly suited for someone keen to dip into the iMac world without spending a fortune, the 2019 Apple 21.5-inch iMac is a true bargain at this price.

Apple 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display (2019) Renewed — $750

Why Buy

If you need more screen real estate, the Apple 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display (2019) offers that while looking great, too. Its killer feature is its 27-inch Retina 5K display which offers a remarkable resolution of 5,120 x 2,880. It’s ideal if you need plenty of room for organizing presentations, juggling multiple windows, conducting design work, or simply streaming your favorite shows in Ultra HD. It’s just 5mm thin, too, so it will look great at home without taking up too much space.

Such productivity is further enhanced by everything else the 2019 27-inch 5K iMac has to offer. It uses a six-core 8th generation Intel Core i5 processor, and pairs it up with 8GB of memory. In addition, you get 1TB of fusion storage space so you have all the benefits of SSD storage for your key files with additional room courtesy of the standard hard drive. As well as that, the Apple 27-inch 5K iMac has a dedicated graphics card in the form of the Radeon Pro CPU. You also have two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports at your disposal for connecting devices to your home desktop setup.

The 2019 27-inch 5K iMac might not be the newest system out there but it’s well made to ensure it will perform well. Having the operating system installed on the SSD part of the fusion drive means that it loads up fast with apps easily accessed. With plenty of storage space elsewhere, it’s well designed for heavy-duty work, while performance is still pretty great. And, of course, there’s that beautiful screen just crying out for you to complete graphic design work on it.

Apple iMac 21.5-inch (2020) — $900, was $1,099

Why Buy

The 2020 Apple iMac 21.5-inch keeps things simple and straightforward. If you know you want an iMac and you don’t need to consider an expensive upgrade, this iMac is a great starting point. It has all the key features you need: There’s the eye-catching 21.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 with the familiar level of quality you get with Apple displays. It also has power in the form of a seventh-generation Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of memory. Thanks to MacOS running so efficiently, it will continue to fly with strong performance here.

In addition, the Apple iMac 21.5-inch also has 256GB of SSD storage. While that may seem a little low if you plan on saving a lot of files to your system, it does mean that you get incredibly fast performance times. Loading files or apps will be much faster than relying on a traditional hard drive. Besides that, this iMac also has two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports so that you can connect devices to it easily, including an external hard drive if you need more space.

Effectively, the 21.5-inch iMac keeps to the core essentials that you would expect from an iMac. While there’s no dedicated graphics card here, it does include a mouse and keyboard so you’re ready to go out of the box. If you’re keen to embrace the Mac way of doing things without relying on a MacBook, the 2020 Apple iMac is a fairly affordable way of doing exactly that. It’s perfectly suited as a work computer for you or your kids while they study from home. It also looks far more stylish than many other options in this price range.

Apple iMac 24-inch M1 (2021) — $1,299

Why Buy

This Apple iMac 24-inch (2021) is one of the latest iMac out there and if you can afford it, you’re really going to love all that it has to offer. For one thing, it is utterly gorgeous. With a range of colors to choose from, you can pick out the one that looks best in your home office. It’d even look good in your living room if that’s your only option with the system measuring just 11.5mm thin. It’s powerful, too, thanks to it using Apple’s M1 chip which offers fantastic performance compared to previous Intel models, as well as 8GB of memory. The features certainly don’t stop there either.

The 2021 iMac sports a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display which offers P3 wide color gamut for superior colors along with 500 nits of brightness. It’s sure to make everything you’re doing look so much better than ever before. Along with that, you can enjoy a six-speaker sound system for great audio when watching content. You can also use that audio in conjunction with the 1080p FaceTime HD camera for great video quality. When speaking to someone, a studio-quality three-mic array ensures you sound crystal clear as well.

Other features include 256GB of SSD storage which will ensure files open at speed. There are also two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports as well as two USB 3 ports. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 means your connection will never drop. Also, it comes with a color-matched Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard with Touch ID support so you can use your fingertip to log in rather than dealing with passwords. From tip to tail, the 2021 Apple iMac 24-inch is a well-made system that is sure to delight anyone who purchases it.

iMac deals FAQ

Knowing when to find the best iMac deals is tricky (as is often the case with pretty much all Apple deals), which is why we’re on hand to answer that question as well as look at how much you should spend. Here’s what you need to know.

When are the best iMac deals?

The best iMac deals tend to fall during the same sales events each year. One of the biggest sales events is Prime Day. It occurs around mid-July to celebrate Amazon’s birthday. While it was once exclusively an Amazon thing, it now extends to many other retailers who are increasingly getting in on the action and launching their own competing sales. It’s a good time to check out iMac deals as tech deals are often highly sought after.

Alternatively, there’s always Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Occurring right after Thanksgiving, these sales don’t happen until late in the year but they also tend to offer big deals on technology and popular gadgets like iMacs. Other sales periods like Memorial Day and Labor Day can also be worth checking out but, ultimately, the biggest times are Prime Day and Black Friday.

How much should you spend on an iMac?

If you’re happy to buy an older and refurbished iMac, it’s possible to score one for less than $700. That will suit many people who don’t need the latest technology but do want a more permanent MacOS setup compared to a MacBook.

If you want the latest iMac technology, you’ll need to spend over $1,000, and more likely around $1,300-$1,500. Doing so will future-proof you for a while to come as well as get you faster performance and a superior display, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessary for everyone to spend so much. Consider your budget and priorities and work from there.

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