On the edge about the new iMac? I’ll tell you why you should or shouldn’t buy it, and the answer may have you waiting a while to snatch one up.

The new iMac was officially unleashed on August 7, 2007, and USA Today’s Edward Baig gave the machine a perfect 4 stars out of 4. I also grabbed one recently and feel very similar about my machine as well. From my experience so far and what I know about Apple’s future products, this is my recommendation if you choose to purchase one soon.

Why you should buy: The new Apple iMac looks absolutely gorgeous. If you want to look at it again, click here to check out some pictures.

The iMac can start with a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, 250GB SATA hard drive, 1GB RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB of GDDR3.

The iMac can max out at with a 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme, 1TB SATA hard drive, 4GB RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3. Wow, all that in the form factor of a post-modern monitor.

It also comes equipped with OS X of course and the new iLife ‘08, which I couldn’t care less about, so here’s Baig’s thoughts on the new iLife, “Across-the-board improvements in best-in-class software suite. “Events” makes it easier to organize photos in iPhoto. Skimming makes it simpler to pore through pictures in iPhoto and video clips in redesigned iMovie in a flash.” But he’s not happy about all of it, “Oversimplification of iMovie may turn off some users, but previous version is still there or can be downloaded for free.”

Something many will love about the new iMac is that it comes with 1GB of RAM but leaves an extra slot available for expansion. It also comes equipped with a Firewire 800 port. Firewire 800 is about twice as fast as firewire 400 and USB 2.0, great for attaching an external drive for backup purposes, extra storage, etc. The older iMac lacked both of these sublte but very useful features.

Although the new Apple keyboard looks great as well, it’s final appeal to users will depend on preference, so I suggest you go try one out at your local Apple Store if you’re not sure about the Macbook style keys. I actually love the new keyboard and found myself typing a bit speedier on it as well (or maybe it just felt faster?)

Why you shouldn’t buy: With the new version of Apple’s operating system coming soon, Mac OS X Leopard, it may be best to wait for the machines to come equipped with the appealing new software. But Apple keeps pushing back the release date, and it may not come out until spring of ‘08, one year after it’s initial launch window.

With an OS update, Apple may also update other parts of the machine, such as stock RAM or the graphics card, in order to make the iMac even more appealing. Although almost anything can happen at this point, I’d hate to buy and then find out if I waited a bit, I could’ve gotten more RAM and Leopard.

My ultimate recommendation is to buy it if you need it or really, really want it. If you’ve got yourself the an older version, it’d probably be a good idea to wait for the Holiday Season to hit to see what Apple does. At that point, it’s up to you if you can wait any longer, but if you can’t and you’re a student, it should only cost $69 to upgrade with the student discount.

If you have any questions, post them in the comments section and I’ll try to answer them ASAP.

Related:

Entry was posted on Saturday, August 18th, 2007 at 4:10 pm under Apple, Opinion.

Read more entries by Danny Mendez.
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