By Graham K. Rogers

Today Apple announced an update to its line of iMacs with the inclusion of Haswell processors and faster wifi. As before, there are four basic models available: two with 21.5" displays, and two with the 27" screens.

The 21.5" iMacs come with either a 2.7 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, or the 2.9 GHz quad-core, Core i5. Their larger cousins have either the 3.2 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, or a 3.4 GHz version. All units come with 8 GB of RAM as standard and a 1 TB hard drive.

These units have different graphics cards installed. The basic 21" model has Intel Iris Pro graphics, with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M (1 GB memory) in the 2.9 GHz 21.5" iMac. The two 27" iMacs have the NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 755M (both with 1 GB of video memory) respectively.

Upgrade options include faster PCIe flash (including Fusion Drive and all-flash storage) as well as options for quad-core Intel Core i7 processors.

The prices in Thailand are shown respectively as 44,900 baht, 51,900 baht, 61,900 baht and 68, 900 baht. These prices include taxes (7% VAT). US prices of the same models are $1299, $1499, $1799 and $1999. I converted these dollar figues to Thai baht using the latest rate, then added 7% for VAT. The prices were 43,574 baht, 50,283 baht, 60,346 baht and 67,055 baht, showing that these models were slightly more in Thailand at this time, but not excessively so. The additional few hundred baht may be part of other invisible costs that apply here.

Of most interest to me was the inclusion of the 802.11ac WiFi standard, like the MacBook Air that was released not so long ago. The Airport Extreme Router was updated to the same capabilities then as well. I was surprised when the iPhones that came out last week were not so-equipped, which leaves the way open for this standard to be included with the next iPhone models. The move to the faster WiFi is sure to be part of Apple's strategy with faster in-home data transfers

It is hoped that those who have recently bought iMacs will be upgraded at an early stage.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.