New iMac 2026: Wait for the M6, Not for OLED

The 24-inch iMac sitting on Apple's store today runs an M4 chip that went on sale in October 2024. That is coming up on 22 months, by my own count, and in June Apple put the price up rather than the specs. So if you have been hovering over the buy button, the only question that matters is whether the new iMac 2026 is close enough to be worth waiting for.

Mark Gurman thinks it is. Writing in his Power On newsletter on 23 August, he said Apple is preparing an M6 iMac with a fresh set of colours, landing before the end of the year. That is the clearest steer we have had all year, and it changes the answer for anyone about to spend £1,299 on a machine running a chip from two generations back.

What Gurman actually said about the M6 iMac

The line itself was short. “All signs point to the M6 models being close to launch,” Gurman wrote, with the 24-inch iMac named among them. Reported by MacRumors the same day.

Two details came attached. The first is new colours, though Gurman did not say which. The current seven are green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue and silver, and the M4 refresh in 2024 already toned those down from the M1 originals.

The second is that there is no redesign coming with it. Same 24-inch panel, same white bezels, same chin, same stand. If you were hoping this was the year the iMac finally lost the borders, it is not.

This is Bloomberg reporting rather than an Apple announcement, so treat the timing as a strong signal and not a date in the diary.

Apple skipped the M5 iMac entirely

This is worth pausing on, because it explains why the wait has felt so long. The M5 came and went without an iMac at all. Apple put the chip in other machines and left the all-in-one on M4, which is why the desktop on the shop page today is two generations behind the rest of the range.

It is also why people are still typing “imac m5 release date” into Google. There is no answer to that one. The next iMac is an M6 machine, and anyone holding out for an M5 model has been waiting for something that was never built.

The consolation is that when it does land, the jump is a two-generation one rather than the usual annual nudge.

What the M6 chip changes, and what it does not

Supply chain reporting points to the M6 being built on a 2nm process against 3nm for the M4, with more memory bandwidth and a reworked GPU and Neural Engine. That is rumour rather than spec sheet, so hold it loosely.

For an iMac, the efficiency half of that matters less than it would on a laptop. This machine is plugged into a wall. Better performance per watt shows up as a quieter fan, not as three more hours away from a charger.

Where it will show is bandwidth and the Neural Engine, both of which feed on-device Apple Intelligence. If your iMac exists for homework, email and a browser with forty tabs open, the M4 is already comfortably over-specified for you. If it runs Final Cut, Logic, or anything local and AI-shaped, the M6 is the one worth holding out for.

Two configurations are expected again, reportedly under the codenames J833 and J834: an 8-core model with two Thunderbolt ports and a 10-core with four. Same split as today, so the shape of the decision does not change, only the chip inside it.

What the new iMac 2026 is likely to cost in the UK

Here is the part that is easy to miss. Apple raised iMac pricing in June, taking the US entry model from $1,299 to $1,499 as part of the wider Mac and iPad price increase driven by memory costs. That rise landed mid-cycle with no new hardware attached, which tells you how hard the component squeeze is biting.

UK pricing is messier to pin down. Apple Premium Reseller KRCS currently lists the 8-core M4 iMac at £1,299 and the 10-core at £1,499 as normal price, with a few per cent off both. Reseller stock still carrying older pricing is exactly the window I flagged when those increases landed.

So do not expect the M6 iMac to arrive cheaper. Memory prices are the thing forcing Apple's hand and they have not eased. My read is the current price or a little above it, because a new chip is the sort of cover Apple normally uses for a rise rather than a cut. That is my reasoning, not a leak.

Do not wait for the OLED iMac

There is a 24-inch OLED iMac in development. The same report says it will not arrive for several years, and panel supply chatter has pointed at something around the end of the decade. Cost is the blocker.

I mention it because “I'll wait for OLED” is the excuse people give themselves for not buying, and on this product it is not a plan. Three or four years is not waiting, it is doing without.

The M6 is the near-term upgrade. Treat OLED as something that happens to a future iMac, not to your next one.

It is not the only M6 Mac landing this autumn

The iMac shares its window with the rest of Apple's autumn Mac plans, and the chip naming there has become genuinely confusing. Some MacBook Pro models are reportedly skipping M6 altogether so Apple can pull M7 forward, which is a different calculation from the one facing iMac buyers. I picked through which of those Macs I would skip this autumn separately.

The short version for desktop buyers: the iMac is not caught up in that mess. It is on M4, the next one is M6, and there is no M7 argument to complicate it.

Should you buy the M4 iMac now?

Buy now if

• your current machine has actually failed and you need a working desktop this month
• you find genuine reseller stock at pre-rise pricing, where the discount can be worth more to you than a chip generation
• your workload is browser, mail, Office and photos, in which case M4 already has far more headroom than you will use

Wait if

• you can hold out a few weeks, since “before the end of the year” points at autumn
• you care about the colour, because the palette is changing and it is the one thing you cannot upgrade afterwards
• you run local AI, video or audio work, where the bandwidth and Neural Engine gains are real rather than theoretical
• you would resent paying a freshly raised price for a chip from October 2024, which is precisely where the M4 iMac sits

And if you are replacing an older iMac, do not send it to the tip. A 5K iMac still makes a decent second display, and I wrote up the three ways to do it, one of which you cannot undo.

FAQ

When is the new iMac 2026 coming out?

Gurman said in late August that the M6 models are close to launch and expected before the end of the year, which points at autumn. Apple has announced nothing, so treat that as reporting rather than a confirmed release date.

Will the new iMac have an OLED display?

No. A 24-inch OLED iMac is in development, but the same reporting says it is several years out, with panel chatter suggesting the end of the decade. The 2026 model keeps the current LCD.

Is it worth buying the M4 iMac right now?

Only if you need a desktop immediately or you find properly discounted reseller stock. Otherwise you are paying a price Apple raised in June for a chip from October 2024, with a two-generation replacement close behind it.

My take

I would not buy an iMac this month. The M4 is 22 months old by my count, it costs more than it did in the spring, and the machine replacing it is reportedly weeks away rather than quarters.

That is an unusual position for me, because “just wait” is normally poor advice when Apple's timing is open-ended. Here it is not open-ended, the gap is two full chip generations, and the one thing you cannot change after you buy - the colour - is the thing about to change.

If your iMac has died and you need a desktop today, take the 8-core, keep the storage sensible, and check the resellers before Apple's own store. Everyone else: give it until the autumn.

Source: M6 iMac Coming This Year in New Colors, MacRumors