iMac M6 Release Date, Price and Colors: Pre-Orders Open Today

Apple's new iMac with the M6 chip is up for pre-order starting today, October 28, 2026, at apple.com and in the Apple Store app, in 35 countries and regions including the United States. Pricing starts at $1,499 for the 10-core configuration and $1,699 for the 12-core configuration, and the redesigned all-in-one ships to customers and arrives at Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers on November 6, 2026.

What Apple announced

Apple unveiled the new iMac on October 27, 2026, positioning it as the next step for its all-in-one desktop line a little more than a year after the previous M4-based refresh. The update centers on Apple's M6 chip, a brighter and nano-texture-capable 24-inch 4.5K display option, faster wireless networking, and seven color options that carry through to the included keyboard and mouse or trackpad.

"iMac is the world's best all-in-one, and today it raises the bar yet again," said Shelly Goldberg, Apple's vice president of Hardware Engineering, in Apple's announcement.

The new iMac arrives alongside a broader Mac refresh this fall. Apple's other M6-chip news this week has focused on the MacBook Pro line; Pandromeda's MacBook Pro M6 vs. M5 Pro comparison covers how that chip change affects Apple's laptops specifically, which is a separate buying decision from the desktop covered here.

iMac M6 release date: when pre-orders open and when it ships

Pre-orders for the new iMac begin today, October 28, 2026, through apple.com/store and the Apple Store app. Apple says the machine will be available in 35 countries and regions at launch, including the United States. Customers who order today, along with walk-in buyers at Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers, can expect units starting November 6, 2026 — a roughly ten-day window between pre-order and general availability.

That cadence mirrors how Apple has staged recent Mac launches: an initial press unveiling, a short pre-order window, then wider retail availability about a week and a half later. Anyone planning to buy at launch should expect ship dates to slip further out as the initial pre-order allocation sells through, particularly for build-to-order configurations with upgraded storage or memory, non-standard colors, or the nano-texture display option.

Apple hasn't said whether the new iMac will be available for in-store pickup on day one in every launch market, or whether some of the 35 countries and regions will see pre-orders open later in the day than others due to time zone staggering — a pattern Apple has followed with other global hardware launches. Shoppers in markets outside the US should watch apple.com/store directly on October 28 for local availability.

iMac M6 price: what the two configurations cost

Apple is selling the new iMac in two base configurations, differentiated primarily by CPU/GPU core count and a handful of connectivity features. US pricing is as follows:

For buyers who don't want to pay up front, Apple is also offering the iMac through its Apple Upgrade Program, a monthly leasing plan that starts at $28.99 per month for 36 months, excluding taxes and any trade-in credit. As with previous Apple hardware leases, the Upgrade Program is positioned as a way to spread out the cost of the entry-level configuration rather than finance a maxed-out build.

Exact pricing and configuration options for storage upgrades, memory upgrades, and country-specific pricing outside the US weren't detailed in Apple's announcement; shoppers outside the US should check Apple's iMac store page directly once local pricing goes live. Students, teachers and staff can check eligibility for the discounted pricing shown above through Apple's education store.

iMac M6 colors

The new iMac comes in seven finishes: blue, green, pink, yellow, purple, orange, and silver. Apple carries each color through to the bundled keyboard and the Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad, continuing the color-matched-accessories approach it introduced with the M1 iMac redesign in 2021. Apple's product imagery shows the color extending to the chin and back of the display enclosure as well, not just the stand.

M6 chip: CPU, GPU and Neural Engine

The headline change inside the new iMac is Apple's M6 chip. Apple's published specifications put the CPU at up to 12 cores — two more than the previous-generation chip — and the GPU at up to 12 cores, with Apple saying each GPU core now includes a dedicated Neural Accelerator. The chip also pairs with a dual 16-core Neural Engine design, and Apple lists memory bandwidth of up to 170GB/s.

Apple's own footnoted marketing claims — which are the company's benchmarks, not independent third-party testing — put the new iMac at up to 18 times faster than the most popular Intel-based iMac still in use, and describe on-device AI performance as up to five times faster and graphics performance as up to two times faster than the M4-based iMac it replaces. Apple also claims up to 2x faster Neural Engine AI compute versus the prior generation. Apple publishes the full set of footnoted methodology notes on its iMac product page. Those figures should be read as Apple's internal comparisons under specific workloads (the company cites examples like Affinity Photo editing and ray-traced gaming for the graphics claims), not as neutral, lab-verified benchmarks.

For readers specifically weighing M6 against Apple's most recent laptop silicon rather than the M4-generation iMac, Pandromeda's separate MacBook Pro M6 vs. M5 Pro breakdown goes deeper on chip-to-chip differences; this article focuses on what M6 means specifically for the desktop iMac.

Display: 24-inch 4.5K Retina, now with an optional nano-texture finish

The new iMac keeps its signature 24-inch 4.5K Retina display (23.5 inches measured diagonally, per Apple's own footnote), with 500 nits of brightness and P3 wide color support for more than a billion colors. New for this generation is a nano-texture glass option, which Apple says reduces glare while preserving contrast — but it's only available as an upgrade on the 12-core configuration, not on the base 10-core model. Full technical specifications for both configurations are listed on Apple's iMac tech specs page.

Storage, ports and connectivity

Apple says the new iMac's SSD delivers up to twice the read and write speed of the previous generation, though the company's announcement didn't list specific storage capacity tiers or pricing for storage upgrades — a detail Apple typically reveals only once the configurator goes live for pre-orders. For wired connectivity, the iMac includes up to four Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports; on the 12-core configuration, all four support the full Thunderbolt 4 specification, while the 10-core model's port implementation is more limited. The new iMac can drive up to two external 6K displays, for more than 50 million total pixels across connected screens — useful context for buyers considering the iMac as a hub for a multi-monitor setup rather than a single-display machine.

On the wireless side, the new iMac adds Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, an upgrade from the standards on the outgoing M4 model. Wired Ethernet is more segmented by configuration: 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet is available only as an option on the 12-core model, meaning 10-core buyers who need faster-than-gigabit wired networking will need to either step up to the higher-tier configuration or rely on an external Thunderbolt dock with its own Ethernet port.

Readers assembling a broader desk setup around the new iMac, including external storage for photo or video libraries, may also want to see Pandromeda's recent coverage on RAM and SSD pricing trends heading into Q4 2026 and on rising demand for hard drives, both of which affect the cost of expanding storage around a new Mac with external drives rather than paying Apple's own storage-upgrade premium.

Camera, microphones, audio and accessories

The new iMac includes a 12-megapixel Center Stage camera with Desk View, which lets video call participants show both a face-on view and an overhead view of a desk simultaneously — useful for product demos, tutorials or handwriting during calls. Audio comes from two force-cancelling woofer pairs and two tweeters, with support for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos, backed by a three-microphone array that Apple describes as studio quality, enough for most video calls and podcast recording without an external microphone.

Every new iMac also ships with a color-matched keyboard and either a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad, all connecting over USB-C rather than Apple's older Lightning connector. The Magic Keyboard with Touch ID — which lets you unlock the Mac, approve purchases, and sign in to apps and websites with a fingerprint — comes standard on the 12-core configuration and is a configurable option on the 10-core model, which can alternatively be ordered with a numeric keypad instead of Touch ID.

Software: macOS 27 and Siri AI

The new iMac ships running macOS 27, which Apple has internally code-named "Golden Gate." The release introduces a new Liquid Glass personalization slider in Settings, letting users dial the visual effect from fully clear to fully tinted. Apple also detailed a more conversational Siri AI experience built into Spotlight, with support for writing and editing text across apps; as of macOS 27.2, this Siri AI capability is listed as a beta, available in a limited set of languages (English, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish) and not available in the EU. The iMac also supports Continuity features with iPhone, including iPhone Mirroring, letting users view and control their iPhone directly from the desktop.

Materials and sustainability

Apple says the new iMac's stand uses recycled aluminum, its magnets use recycled rare earth elements, and its Apple-designed printed circuit boards use recycled gold plating and tin solder. The company frames these choices as part of its broader push to be carbon neutral across its full footprint — including manufacturing and product use — by 2030.

What happens next

With pre-orders open today, the near-term timeline is straightforward: configure and order now at apple.com or in the Apple Store app, and expect delivery or in-store pickup starting November 6, 2026, assuming no shortages on specific colors or build-to-order configurations. Apple's iMac comparison tool can help narrow down which configuration fits a given budget. Apple Store locations and Authorized Resellers will also begin carrying walk-in stock that same day. Shoppers deciding between the 10-core and 12-core models should weigh whether they need the extra two CPU/GPU cores, the optional nano-texture display, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, or the bundled Magic Keyboard with Touch ID — all of which are exclusive to, or only configurable on, the $1,699 tier. We'll update this article if Apple publishes additional regional pricing or storage-tier details after launch.

Written byMara Lindqvist

Mara Lindqvist edits the hardware desk. She covers graphics cards, processors, memory and storage, the foundries and chip designers behind them, and what the numbers on a spec sheet mean for people choosing a PC. Specifications in her stories come from manufacturer spec pages and datasheets.

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