iMac 27-inch 2022 biggest upgrade just got shot down

Recent reports that the upcoming iMac 27-inch will sport a mini-LED display may prove to be wide of the mark, as according to well-placed industry sources the 2022 all-in-one Apple desktop will in fact stick with an LCD panel. 

Speculation that the 27-inch iMac would come with a mini-LED display has been circulating for quite a while. Ross Young, Display Supply Chain Consultants co-founder and CEO, was the most recent industry insider to suggest the next iMac would take advantage of mini-LED technology. 

But a new report from DigiTimes flies in the face of these claims asserting that Apple has opted to stick with an LCD panel. The California-based tech giant could reportedly upgrade the display with LED chips that are “30-40% up from previous models," which would give a significantly higher brightness output.  

Adding to the confusion is the fact that Young has not backed down from his initial claim. In the wake of this report, the consultant took to Twitter to affirm that he “still believes it’s mini-LED." 

The waters are definitely pretty muddied at this point, so we look forward to getting some clarification from Apple in the Spring when the 27-inch iMac is rumored to be announced. 

DigiTimes’ sources have also claimed that the 27-inch iMac will take inspiration from its smaller 24-inch iMac 2021 sibling and sport a thinner exterior design and will also be available in a range of colors. Leaker @dylandkt had previously suggested the 27-inch iMac’s color scheme will be darker than the 24-inch’s pastel range, but this remains to be seen. 

Under the hood, it’s been speculated that the 27-inch iMac will be powered by the newly released M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. The base configuration will likely also sport 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. A base price is hard to predict but somewhere in the range of $2,000 seems pretty reasonable (or at least reasonable for Apple). 

With an expected Spring 2022 release date it shouldn’t be too much longer until Apple is ready to start officially talking about the 27-inch iMac. At least the mini-LED versus LCD confusion will be definitively cleared up then.