Why not a 4K iMac with Retina?

APPLE’S 27-inch iMac with a 5K display is stunning, but you might ask why not 4K?

Why not a 4K iMac with Retina?

APPLE’S 27-inch iMac with a Retina 5K display is stunning, but you might ask why not 4K given it’s the new standard?

Prosumer cameras by Sony and Panasonic, the new GoPro Hero4 Black, and smartphones by Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Oppo, OnePlus, Motorola, Lenovo and LG shoot various strains of 4K.

I’ve watched a variety of 4K media on large ultra high definition TVs and on the new iMac’s 27-inch 5K display, and, while it looks stunning on the iMac, it looks even more breathtaking on larger screen TVs for which the medium is designed.

The problem is that if you’re going to watch 4K media fullscreen on a 5K display, it needs to be upscaled. A special upscaling algorithm has to interpolate existing pixels when it adds new ones between them.

But there’s a good reason for having 5K on a computer terminal — editing 4K video.

With a 4K display, you’d be forced to either downscale the video you’re editing to leave room for on screen controls and assets, use two displays or somehow superimpose the controls over the video. Urgggh!

The iMac lets you display video of 3840x2160 pixels in native 4K resolution in an area taking up 56 per cent of its 5120x2880 display. It leaves plenty of room for those on screen panels and assets. But being a 27-inch monitor, it just won’t be as immersive as on a full-blown 4K TV.

For 4K video editing, I’d be wanting at least 16 Gigabytes of RAM, a Core i7 processor instead of i5, and the bigger 4GB graphics card, which would cost $3839, rather than the $2999 entry level system. And you’ll need either Final Cut Pro X or the latest Adobe Premiere if you want to export edited video as 4K.

If you’re not into 4K video editing, the new iMac gives everything from text to high-resolution photos and 4K YouTube video a stunning look, but going 5K instead of 4K would be unnecessary.

Rating: 8.5/10
Price: From $2999