Unboxing & Teardown: The 27-inch iMac with Nano-Textured Glass [VIDEO]

After ripping apart the previous 2020 iMac about a month ago, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on this bad boy. And in it. And under and through. It’s a similar 27-inch machine but features Apple’s much-new-and-touted “nano-textured glass” plus a few other upgrades.

But first, what is this glass we speak of?

Here’s what Apple has to say about the nano-texture technology…

The new iMac offers a nano-texture glass option — first introduced on Pro Display XDR — for even better viewing under various lighting conditions, such as a bright room or indirect sunlight. Unlike typical matte finishes that have a coating added to the surface to scatter light, this industry-leading option is produced through an innovative process that etches the glass itself at the nanometer level. The result is extremely low reflectivity and less glare while maintaining stellar image quality and contrast, and a Retina 5K display that is more gorgeous than ever.

Here are the specs of the computer Matt unboxed and took apart for your education and enjoyment:

27-inch iMac with Nano-Textured Glass

• Nano-texture glass
• 3.6GHz 10-core 10th-generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz
• 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
• Radeon Pro 5700 XT with 16GB of GDDR6 memory
• 4TB SSD storage
• Gigabit Ethernet

I took the opportunity to ask Matt about the main differences between the two new 2020 models, and if he liked the fancy-schmancy glass option…

I think the most notable and interesting part of this machine is the Nano-Textured display. If I were to buy this iMac, I would personally purchase it with the display upgrade. The other winner is the GPU upgrade from last year’s model. It’s got a really nice performance bump, and 16GBs of VRAM is an awesome bonus.

OWC Matt G

SPOILER ALERT!

You may want to skip this and watch the teardown video first. Your call.

—– Begin Spoiler Alert —-

The CPU is not soldered on. Does that mean it’s user-upgradable? Let’s ask Matt.

Het Matt, you mention in the video that the CPU isn’t soldered on. What is your thought on it being potentially upgradable? Is it something you would try?

I wouldn’t personally try it on mine if I were to buy one. But if you’re talking about OWC, in that case, I would very much enjoy testing that!

But price-wise, it’s not worth it. You can get the mid-tier 2020 iMac with the i9-10900, as well as a 512GB SSD. It’s also not worth the risk of damaging the system if you plan on purchasing a lower-tier CPU in the hopes of upgrading it to an i9 out of the box. There are too many fragile parts that could easily be damaged.

I really think that if there’s a good performance jump in future generations (like an i9-12900 whenever that releases), and you didn’t get a decked out 2020 iMac, it might be worth considering… If it works, that is.

—– End Spoiler Alert —–

And now, back to our previously scheduled program.

27-in iMac 5K (2020) with Nano-Textured Glass Unboxing

27-in iMac 5K (2020) with Nano-Textured Glass Teardown

RELATED:

• FIRST LOOK: Apple’s New Nano-Textured Glass – Is it Worth It?
• [VIDEO] Unboxing & Teardown: The 27-inch iMac 5K (2020)
• MAJOR UPDATE: Apple’s New 27-Inch iMac Goes All Out for 2020

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