 Whether we're talking about Ford versus Chevy, cats versus dogs, or PC versus Mac, I think there comes a time in every enthusiast's life when he asks himself, I mean is the grass really greener on my side of the fence, or do those other guys know something that I don't? So, given that Apple is now offering not only the usual OS X experience, but also an entirely unique piece of hardware in the new 27-inch iMac that I would have wanted the opportunity to check out anyway, a 5K Retina display, I decided to pick one up. But, to justify the expense of an iMac, because you can bet your butt Apple did not send us a sample, we've got quite a lineup of content planned around it, including today's general overview, a separate video of my thoughts as a long-time PC user, after using the Mac as my daily driver at work for a few weeks, and more. So make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss any of... I Switched to Mac 2014. Corsair Gaming RGB Keyboards feature precision Cherry MX RGB key switches for 16.8 million color-per-key backlighting for virtually unlimited customization. Click now to learn more. Now, for many of you, this won't be anything new. Before you power it on, the late 2014 Unibody 27-inch iMac is not markedly different from the previous generation one, but for me, opening it up was actually an entirely novel experience. The last time I used an iMac, it had a brightly colored bubble on the back of its tube display, and the last time I even saw one up close, they were still the thicker white design. I mean, it's not like I've never been to an Apple store before, and it's not like I willfully ignored them. I just didn't ever care enough to walk up and inspect them closely. So I opened it up, and I was just struck by the excellence of the packaging on the PC itself, and the accessories, which include one power cord that plugs into the back of the unit to power the monitor and the PC inside, a 10-keyless Scissor Switch Mac keyboard, and a Magic Mouse. You also get a Quick Start Guide, some important information, two Apple stickers, and a small cleaning cloth. Then, I was struck by how light the machine is. I mean, it's not like you can lift it with one finger light or anything like that, but it's still got some heft to it at just under 10 kilograms. But if I didn't know better, you could probably have convinced me that it's just a monitor in there, and I wouldn't have batted an eye. And boy, is it ever beautiful. Speaking of batting eyes. I mean, we can talk about hardware specs all day, and don't worry, that's coming. But sometimes it's not about hardware specs. Sometimes people buy a Jag instead of hot-rodding a Neon because they want the experience of driving a Jag more than they just want to go fast. And while I'm not necessarily one of those folks, I do get it. This computer starts at $2,500. But when you look at it, at least it actually looks like it costs $2,500. Something that most gaming PCs don't really manage to do, even if they have more horses under the hood, and in some cases, a lot more. So we'll begin at the back, where we find the thick, solid, silver aluminum stand with a built-in cable management hole for power that looks wonderfully elegant and is definitely strong enough to hold the machine, but feels a little bit limited for something that I just paid this much for. All it can do is tilt, and I guess swivel, if you want to physically rotate the computer. If you want height adjust, you can get a stand for your desk, a fairly inelegant solution. And if you want pivot and didn't buy the version of the iMac 5K with a pre-installed base amount on the back, then go cry in the corner, because you can't remove the original stand without a complete tear down. Other than that, the back is pretty bare. There's a massive Apple logo that you can put the included stickers next to if you want to really show people what a cool guy you are. There's a tiny microphone at the back of the display at the top that you can use for video calls. I mean, sorry, excuse me, FaceTime calls. Gotta get used to the new lingo. And there's an exhaust vent for the during light workloads so far, stunningly quiet cooling system. Moving down, there's the power button and rear and also front, I guess? I.O. Unfortunate design compromise number two, I think. The power button is fine, just give your PC the old reach around, fumble back there for a bit and turn her on. But, well, the gigabit ethernet port and for that matter, dual Thunderbolt 2 ports won't need to be accessed often. I mean, only when you will need to plug in a new RAID controller or up to a single external 4K monitor or dual 1440p monitors. The four USB 3 ports, SDX C reader, which I'm thankful is included, by the way, and headphone jack all will and will probably result in scratches on your beautiful machine at some point if you don't want to clutter your workspace with external hubs or dongles, which you might end up needing to do anyway because my assumption that the headphone jack could also be used with a microphone via a four pole adapter was incorrect. That is just a headphone jack. So if you want a mic that isn't on the back of your PC, you will need something like this. Moving around to the sides makes my anger subside a little bit as I can focus on the beauty of the machine again. The edges are perfectly finished. The glass is exactly even with the aluminum and it's truly remarkable. And the edges are a mere five millimeters thick on the sides and top, with only the bottom taken up by speaker ports and air intakes for cooling the internals. Boy, is she ever pretty, which I guess leads us to the front. Yes, whether she's more than a pretty face or not remains to be seen over the next couple of weeks of using this computer at work as my daily driver, but she sure has a pretty face. Her 5K display features a massive 5160 by 2880 60 Hertz panel for an effective quadrupling of the pixel count and effective doubling of the resolution of a 1440p monitor with a custom Apple T-Con or timing controller to make this a single tile display, which is mind blowing given that single tile 4K 60 Hertz monitors started arriving a mere six months ago. It's IPS, so colors pop, although like all Apple displays, even if the rumors that it's using the same panel as the upcoming Dell UP2715K, which has a 10-bit per channel color support panel are true, it's limited to 8-bit per channel color due to OS and application support. Although that isn't really a problem unless you spend your whole day looking at grayscale gradients. If you spend more of your time watching movies, editing photos, etc., you will love it and all its pre-calibrated goodness. Colors pop or don't if you select a flat or pre-made profile. Text is phenomenally crisp even if your face is inches from the screen and the viewing angles are outstanding. Say what you will about glossy displays and their disadvantages if you're in a room without strong backlighting, you know, so you don't have to use it as a vanity mirror. They sure look nice when they're positioned correctly. Which I guess leads us finally to spec time. One of the arguments I found online for why Apple went with a whopping 14.5-megapixel 5K display versus a more mundane 4K one, I mean we're talking about 75% more pixels here, is to allow video editors to work on a native 4K preview with tools spread out around it, but I don't know if I buy that. I mean it's a good computer. With up to a Core i7 4790K, although that K is going to be underutilized, he won't be overclocking it, up to 32 gigs of RAM, an R9 M295X Tonga-based 4 gig GPU, and a 3.5 inch drive mount to go along with Apple's proprietary PCI Express-based SSD, but I feel like for serious content creation, this argument would have been stronger for a dual-tile 5K cinema display for use with the Mac Pro, and for the consumer-grade iMac, Ultra HD might have been a better bet for it for no other reason than that it would allow Apple's target display mode, a way of recycling your iMac in the future as a monitor once the internal guts are outdated, to work. With the 5K Retina iMac, what you see is what you get. So stick with us over the next few weeks to find out if what you get is amazing and magical enough to justify its $2,500 starting price point. Speaking of magical, Hulu Plus is the sponsor of today's episode. Hulu Plus is the only streaming service that gives you access to new current season episodes of shows like Once Upon a Time and Brooklyn Nine-Nine through your smartphone, tablet, Roku, Chromecast, or pretty much any device you already own, and you also get access to every season of shows like South Park and Doctor Who, as well as kids shows and hundreds of Criterion movies. Their service is reasonably priced at only $799 a month, not $2,500. Oh, $2,500 happens less often than monthly. But the point is they have a special offer going for Linus Tech Tips viewers where you can get a free two-week trial of Hulu Plus by signing up at HuluPlus.com slash Linus, meaning you can make sure that you like the service before you spend even one penny. Pretty darn good. So guys, when you go to sign up for Hulu Plus, be sure to use our link. That's HuluPlus.com slash Linus to let them know that we sent you to get in on that special offer. Thanks for watching, guys. Like this video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it, leave a comment letting me know what you'd like to see covered in the rest of my iSwitch series. I'm definitely open to suggestions for things like apps, things like handy tricks and workarounds that you guys have found is useful for your own Switch. I've already got Parallels installed. It's freaking awesome so far, by the way. But yeah, leave that in the comments. Also, guys, check out the link in the video description if you want to support us. You can give us a monthly contribution. You can buy a sweet t-shirt like this one. Or you can, the other thing, right, change your Amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code so we get a small kickback whenever you replace the Magic Mouse and Chicklet keyboard with anything else.