Apple Launches $1099 21.5-inch iMac for Educational Institutions

[Akshay Masand]

In a recent update to its traditional special priced Mac offerings for educational institutions, Apple is now offering the redesigned 21.5-inch iMac for $1,099. For the price tag, buyers will be getting a 3.3 GHz dual-core Intel i3 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD.

When compared to Apple’s previous iMac for education, which featured a 3.1 GHz dual-core i3 CPU, 2GB of RAM and a 250GB HDD, the new iteration is $100 more expensive but comes with additional RAM and storage space. One thing to note though is the newer version comes with Intel’s HD 4000 integrated graphics chipset, whereas the older version previously came with a discrete AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics card.

Similar to the consumer iMac, the education iteration brings Thunderbolt, USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity while dropping support for FireWire. Another thing to note is the lack of an optical drive, which is usually a necessity for schools that regularly install and update software. One thing to note that was a bit interesting was the fact that the standalone drive couldn’t be added to the configuration upon checkout.

The education only iMac will be available to ship in 5-7 days, which is also a bit longer than the usual 3-5 days quoted for machines with regular specifications.

Source: MacRumors

[Gamemaster77]

Woah! Intel HD 4000 graphics! A dual core i3 processor! 4GB of RAM! For only 11 hundred dollars?! This is great!

Seriously, any school that buys these really need to rethink their budget.

[Buzzeh]

Woah! Intel HD 4000 graphics! A dual core i3 processor! 4GB of RAM! For only 11 hundred dollars?! This is great!

Seriously, any school that buys these really need to rethink their budget.

Lol ikr! I got a Radeon HD 6870, i5 and 6GB for only $600!