The first iMac with M6 reviews are out ahead of the November 6 release, and critics praise the faster chip as the main upgrade over the iMac with M4. Tom’s Guide and TechRadar both measured a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 20,038, up from 14,724 on the iMac with M4, but the 24-inch design and tilt-only stand have not changed since 2021.
Engadget and Tom’s Guide call the $1,499 starting price a $200 increase, which matches the $1,299 launch price of the iMac with M4, while TechRadar says it matches what that model has cost since Apple raised Mac prices in June. All four reviewers tested the 12-core model, which costs $1,699 and includes four Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the 10-core model has two.
iMac With M6 Reviews Start With Engadget’s 8.5 out of 10
Engadget’s Steve Dent tested a 12-core iMac with M6 with 16GB of memory that scored 4,552 in Geekbench 6 single-core and 20,363 multi-core, and its Metal graphics score of 88,276 is more than double the iMac with M4. The iMac stayed fast in office work and video calls. DaVinci Resolve played 4K drone footage and 6K RAW files without trouble, then lagged and skipped once he added effects and extra tracks, which he blames on the 16GB of memory.
Cyberpunk 2077 ran at about 50 frames per second at 1080p with default settings and about 60 with lowered settings, and he says 1080p is the highest resolution that stays playable in the games he tried. A small 9-billion-parameter model in LM Studio ran at about 30 tokens per second, but he says the iMac needs more memory to be a serious AI machine.
Dent calls it the best all-in-one for simple setup and says the design is going stale, with a 24-inch screen that is too small now that 27-inch and 32-inch monitors are common. He says most buyers should pair a Mac mini with M6 with a larger display, and prices a Mac mini with 24GB of memory at $1,099 against $1,899 for a 12-core iMac with 24GB.
Tom’s Guide Calls the iMac With M6 a Worthwhile Upgrade
Tom’s Guide tested the 12-core iMac with M6, and Anthony Spadafora measured 4,553 in Geekbench 6 single-core and 20,038 multi-core, against 3,646 and 14,724 for the iMac with M4. A HandBrake transcode from 4K to 1080p took 3 minutes and 20 seconds against 5 minutes and 3 seconds, and the SSD read and write speeds of about 6,600 and 6,750 MB/s are more than double the iMac with M4.
The 4.5K display averaged 473.4 nits in his lab, against 450 nits for the iMac with M4 and 538.2 nits for the Apple Studio Display, with a color error (Delta-E) of 0.3. He saw gigabit speeds over Wi-Fi 7 on a mesh system, and calls the six-speaker system surprisingly punchy and loud.
Spadafora calls the M6 a worthwhile upgrade for anyone with an older Apple all-in-one, but faults the $200 price hike, the missing height adjustment on the stand and a design that has stayed the same since 2021. He also says a raised desk makes typing on the Magic Keyboard worse, and that the 2.5Gb Ethernet port sits in the power adapter.
TechRadar Gives the iMac With M6 4.5 out of 5
TechRadar’s Jacob Krol used a purple 12-core iMac with M6 for about five days and measured 4,553 in Geekbench 6 single-core and 20,038 multi-core, about 25 percent and 36 percent above his iMac with M4. The same unit scored 3,931 in Geekbench 7 single-core and 21,374 multi-core.
More than a dozen Safari and Chrome tabs plus Messages, Mail, Photos, Pixelmator Pro and Slack ran smoothly on 16GB of memory. He says the Dual 16-core Neural Engine speeds up Siri AI and Pixelmator Pro’s Generative Fill, and he missed the nano-texture glass option on his review unit.
Krol rates it 4.5 out of 5 overall and for value and design, and 5 out of 5 for performance, and calls it the best all-in-one computer you can buy right now. He recommends it for families, businesses and creators, and tells anyone who needs a screen larger than 24 inches or the most power to look at the Mac mini or the Mac Studio. He says people who own the iMac with M4 get a speed bump, not a reinvention.
Stuff Says the iMac With M6 Suits Families but Needs a New Design
Stuff’s Britta O’Boyle used a pink 12-core iMac with M6 at home for a week as a shared family computer for homework, FaceTime calls and sorting photos. She says it is noticeably quicker than her iMac with M3, even with many browser tabs open and RAW photo editing, and that the Touch ID keyboard that comes standard with the four-port model lets each family member sign in with a fingertip.
She likes the color-matched accessories in the box, including the keyboard, the mouse or trackpad and the woven USB-C cable. Her complaints are the 24-inch-only screen size and a stand that tilts without height adjustment. The Magic Mouse still cannot be used while it charges from its underside, and she misses the Apple logo on the front chin.
O’Boyle recommends the iMac with M6 to any household that wants a computer that works and looks good. She says a bigger screen and a height-adjustable stand would make it very close to perfect.
