Apple - 27" iMac® - Intel Core i5 (3.2GHz) - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Silver

I've used iMacs since 2011, and while they're not all they're cracked up to be, I do like them. I switched because I liked the idea of not having to worry as much about viruses. Sure, there was a bit of a learning curve, as well as compatibility issues, but overall not too bad, except for MS Office for Mac 2011. If you use Outlook, there are functionalities that you had with Windows that are not in the Mac software (no back button, can't copy emails, have to type in folder name you want to move an email to instead of just choosing it, etc.) According to a MS representative, Apple limits them as to what they can put in their software for Macs because Apple wants you to use THEIR office software. Geez. My first Mac (21.5 inch in 2011) came with Snow Leopard. When Mavericks was offered for free, I upgraded, thinking things could only get better, right? Wrong. Outlook had issues. So when Yosemite came out, I upgraded to it hoping to “heal” Outlook, but Outlook developed even more issues and crashed when I was trying to fix it. I asked a local mac technician if I could downgrade my OS back to Snow Leopard and he said no. So that is what led me to having to buy a new computer- this 27 inch iMac. I will NEVER upgrade operating systems ever again on a computer or phone. Just use what the computer came with and what it’s hardware and software was designed for. Not too happy with the Mac keyboard, either. I'm used to 10-keying and the provided keyboard does not have one. So I bought the LMP 10-key that attaches to the Mac keyboard via a slot or groove that fits between the two. While mostly reliable, I have had lots of times where the 10-key disconnects from Bluetooth randomly. So it would be very helpful if the bluetooth keyboard that is provided with iMacs would have the 10 key keypad on there already so you don’t have to buy one more thing and mess with connecting yet another bluetooth device. The other gripe I have about the keyboard is you have to cramp your fingers up to do the Mac version of CTRL + C (or X, or whatever, depending on what shortcut you need), which is Command + C, etc. Also, unless you have a 10 key attached, you don't have a way to delete characters to the right of your cursor, only to the left. Another inconvenience. And make the keyboard solar! I'm waiting on a Logitech solar keyboard to come in. Ditching the Apple one on my most-used computer. Tired of all the batteries- between the Mac mouse, 10-key and the keyboard, seems I'm always changing batteries. So the Logitech keyboard has no batteries to change and has 10 key already! I do like the 21.5 and 27 inch screens. I don't think the 27 makes that much of a difference, though, and kinda wish I would have just bought another 21.5 inch. I have several programs, windows and applications open at the same time, so I thought the 27 would really help. It helps to help a little in some cases, but probably not enough to justify the price diff between the 21.5 and 27. The top of the 27 inch screen is higher than the 21.5, also, so I find myself straining my neck back a bit to use the whole screen. I'm getting used to it after a month + now, but still, for someone with neck and back problems, it can be a pain. Pun intended. ;) I can't raise my office chair up any further, either. I do like the all-in-one feature of the computer. I don't have room for a tower, so having just a screen to deal with fits my needs. The computer looks nice on my desk, too, and adds a touch of modernity to my office. Time Machine has been unreliable on my 21.5 inch. We’ll see what happens with the 27. Welllll,,,, hopefully I won’t have to find out! And, I do NOT like the fact that the new Macs DON'T HAVE A DISK DRIVE!! I didn't know this until I brought the 27 inch home and went to put a disk in it and was like, "Where is the disk drive?!?!" Fortunately, I still have my 2011 21.5 inch Mac. There are still times we need to use disks, Apple!!! Another issue I have with Macs is there is no refresh button in Finder. In my work, that would come in very handy.

So after weeks of pondering not only whether to switch from Windows to a Mac, but whether to get a desktop or a laptop, I finally made the transition. I've been a Windows user from the get go, I've used windows 3.1 and every other version (seems like Microsoft gets every other version right: 98 - good, Win ME - bad, XP - good, Vista - bad, Won 7 - good, Win 8 - bad). I also use it at work, so moving away from Windows wasn't easy, especially since I'm very used to the Windows version of Excel. A big part of the reason was Windows 8, I love windows 7, but couldn't see upgrading to windows 8. I don't think I should have to re-learn how to use an operating system! Enough about that...iMac: I wanted an iMac with an i7, but it wasn't available unless you order directly from the apple site, and since budget was a concern, I decided to purchase the i5 they had on sale at best buy. Combined with education promotions and rewards, Best Buy price is hard to beat. The operating system is fairly intuitive, once you get used to the way apple has it setup, it's easy to use. And being able to sync across your devices (iPhone, iPad etc) makes it very convenient. I can get my iMessages, update my calendar, save Pages or numbers documents and it's all synced across my devices. It's like the iPhone, everything just works together well. I purchased this for photography and was planning to use Aperture on it. Photos look stunning on the 27" display! It's not retina, but still looks amazing! The best part is what I print on my canon large format printer looks almost exactly as I see it on the screen! This wasn't the case on my Lenovo laptop, making it frustrating when editing photos. All in all, I'm very happy with this purchase. I would definitely recommend. Making the switch for any Windows user, yeah, you have to re-learn the keyboard shortcuts for the operating system and any Microsoft office programs, but it's worth it. If I can't figure something out how to do something, there's so much information online. Oh and 1 more thing, their phone support (90 days free I believe) is excellent! I have never experienced such excellent phone support from a tech company (10 years ago! Dell was great, but not this good). Hold times at apple support is less than 5 minutes, people are friendly and don't have any heavy accents! Just buy it!

Walked into best buy yesterday looking to get myself a desktop. Having made the switch to Macs from PCs a while ago, I already knew I'd favor the iMacs over anything else. I was primarily buying a desk top computer for my college apartment so that I could only have to rely on my Macbook for going the the library or class. Knowing that Macs were quite expensive, I was only planning on getting the 21.5" iMac, but after getting a few deals that would save me $505.70 off a 27", how could I say no!? The packaging is very efficient and the box came with only the iMac, Magic Mouse, Wireless Keyboard, batteries included, and the power cord. Classic Apple. Setting up the computer was just as easy as setting up any of there other electronic devices. All my apps and settings synced effortlessly over from my Macbook to my iMac via iCloud. As far as the sound, camera and display go, I am quite pleased. The display is absolutely gorgeous with crisp sharp detail. The brightness seems to be even brighter than what my Macbook can display. The sounds is very powerful with a great bass for anyone also looking to play something with a deeper sound. Coming from someone using a 2013 Macbook Air who is used to the speakers being good, but somewhat muffled, the sound on the iMac is magnificent. The FaceTime camera is crystal clear and displays a great amount of me and all my surroundings. Will be great for when I Skype my family while i'm at school. One of the biggest step ups from my Macbook is the RAM, Processor, and Graphics card. To test their abilities, I downloaded a few graphic demanding games and it worked flawlessly without any hiccups. I know a lot of people are scared to look at the price tag on all Apple products (myself included), but I can honestly say that I am happy with my purchase and will continue to not stress myself again with another PC.

We received our new 27" iMac desktop in the time-frame indicated. However, once it was set-up and turned on, there were no other instructions other than what came on a mini-Quick-start brochure. After spending over $1500 you would think that the instruction booklet could be designed so that the average person could READ it! The print was so small! And the explanation and examples were hardly readable on 3x5 sheet of fold-out paper! ! C'mon! After shipping a 27" screen you could afford to print instructions to use it on a 8-1/2x11 piece of paper! We have had our iMac for a month and after numerous calls to the help center--which we had to look up ourselves on the internet because there were no Help instructions included, we learned that this "opened-box" product did not come with the main ingredients: Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Garage Band, iphotos or photos! After considerable time on the phone with Apple help, we were able to download them from the internet at no cost, but that was promised to be included with our system and it was NOT. We have yet to have our Mac and IOS devices work together. We have been unable to see all our photos taken on our iphone or with our camera, on our iPad for example. It would be helpful if a task sheet were included in the box to walk us through the simple arrangement of icons and explain the file structure so we could begin using our iMac efficiently. We are not new to computers. No phone numbers, no customer service to call, nothing. Not even an email for Best Buy help --and calling their customer service is a nightmare!. Not a very friendly way of doing business.

when I told my staff that we were going to be switching from PC based computers to Apple products you could've heard a pin drop in the office. The staff had only ever worked in pCs in the past and despite the network difficulties, Internet miss adventures, and blue screens of death, They were not convinced of the need for the change. They had all used Apple products before in the way of iPhones and iPads but in their opinion apples were too expensive for what they felt the office required for day-to-day business. Within two days my receptionist had figured out so many of the unique benefits of the Apple platform that she finally agreed with her husband to make the next computer purchase an Apple product. The office manager was the most resistance of the entire bunch. But after being forced to use it for a week she found not only was it more reliable but despite being a low powered processor compared to the higher and configured to own models on the Apple webpage, was much faster but anything we had had before. Beside to speed they're all impressed with the sound quality and picture quality despite not being a retina display. They all love the form factor, with the exception of difficult to access USB and SD cards on the rear. The security of the platform has also been remarkable as well as the completeness of supporting software within the operating system itself. Not including the antivirus program (which really was only for E-mail attachments to other computers) we had half a dozen programs that we did not have to buy because the additional features in OS X had provided all of the same features for free. Our last set of computers started failing only after two years and based on our experience with examining windows eight systems, there was no way we are going to go with a PC again this year.

Coming from a PC, I can say it's beem an entirely new experience. A very good one at that. The beautiful screen resolution makes the resolution of our pictures pop, sucking us into their beauty. The processing power right out of the box is more than plenty to endure even the most strenuous editing of pictures to videos. However, with that said, adding an additional bus of RAM (helps with processing speed, allowing programs to run much more smoothly) up to the max of 32gB will enhance your overall experience. That's not all this computer is great for though! Do you have kids? Maybe grandchildren? If so, then I'll ask you why would you expose the to a PC (unless their big gamers whom like to customize and upgrade often)? The parental controls are amazing on the MAC. They're so intuitive: -time monitoring (when can the get on, until what time at night, or maybe even a set amount of hours and minutes). -application filtering (you have an app you don't feel comfortable with your child using? No problem, just disable it for their user!) -website filtering; pornography, manipulative, and discouraging...no matter your dislikes , you can filter them all! Overall, it's a fantastic computer that will last for years, the construction, software, and even hardware blend together creating one hell of an experience. Fantastic switch from PC to MAC.

I have been so frustrated from day one! First of all, I had to return the first one because one of the USB ports seemed to be out. I had the same problem with the replacement computer, but I think I have discovered that it won't recognize a new device unless you REBOOT! So frustrating! My second issue is with how SLOW this computer is. I keep ALL of my data files on an external drive, so there is nothing to slow things down. No matter what I am doing, however, I sit, waiting, and waiting, and waiting....! Moving a file from one folder to another takes about 15 seconds. Renaming a file takes about the same. When trying to move a record on my external drive from file to file (drag-and-drop), the Mac will suddenly default to the Documents folder. Yosemite (the OS) has problems with opening windows properly. Instead of minimizing/maximizing a window when the green radio button is clicked, it goes to full screen, forcing me to constantly have to bump my mouse up to the top of the window, so that the top menus can be visible. What a time waster! I am also having multiple delays within browsers, most of them, I feel, due to the computers slowness, not the browsers's fault. I have had so much of my personal time wasted by this new Mac! Every day reveals a new and more annoying problem!

Having used Macs in past, I was apprehensive about going back to one after so many years. Not only was there the unit cost, but also the re-investment in s/w. Thought about the mirroring systems, but all in all, the cost of s/w wasn't so bad. The biggest complaint I have is the dissimilarity between same software for different systems. Completely baffles me that developers would think that different users want different features, application, etc. Part of it is the o/s, which I understand, but within the application the functionality should be greater. The 27" (which I bought) screen is BIG, because the 21.5 felt small after a regular 23" (used at work). With a 23" seeming so ubiquitous, Apple may be somewhat behind the curve on their small, standard screen size. One disappointment: Norton Identity Safe does not work in a Mac environment. The same Norton software out of the box loads fine onto the Mac, but the 'safe' is one feature that Norton acknowledges is not functional in iOS. Above notwithstanding, most of my concerns are learning curve - both how to use the software, and learning where 'things' are located. The system is beautiful and easier to read (due to clarity and resolution, not screen size), which was a key issue for me.