Teardowns

21.5″ iMac 4K Retina Teardown Reveals Display-Optimized Design

All Hallow’s Eve is just around the corner and things have been a lil’ spooky around here. A few days ago, we tore down Apple’s refreshed 21.5″ iMac. It looks scary-similar to the new Retina 4K. So similar, in fact, that lots of people thought that it was the Retina 4K. But fear not, no doppelgängers here; today we’re dismembering the good-looking twin—the iMac 21.5″ Retina 4K.

As far as hardware goes, if you saw our 21.5″ iMac refresh, you’ve seen it all, with a couple exceptions. This machine is all about dat 4K Retina display: a rubber bumper provides support for the rear of the display, while a new heatsink and migrated CPU help overcome the added heat generated by this pixel-packed picture maker. Looking at the display, with more than 4.5 times the pixels of the 1080p version, it’s easy to see where the device’s priorities are.

Here are some highlights from the autopsy teardown:

• Unlike other iMacs, this one’s packing a DCI-P3 display—one of the first available to consumers…drool!

• The base configuration logic board is back to not including an empty SSD slot—only bare solder pads. If you want a Fusion drive, you’ll have to configure it when you buy your iMac—or be handy with a soldering iron.

• While the 4K Retina is an impressive display of Apple’s prowess, the rest of the hardware is a fixer’s nightmare. This guy earned itself a scary 1/10 on the repairability scale.

iMac 21.5

You can head over to the complete teardown for a more in-depth look at the 21.5″ iMac 4K Retina.