24-inch iMac teardown reveals how little of it is actually computer

The folks at iFixit have got their hands on Apple's new 24-inch iMac and have proceeded to do their customary teardown.

It's a sign of just how far technology has come, particularly the efficiency of Apple's new chips.

As you can see from the X-ray above, the 24-inch iMac is really a display with a small computer attached to it.

Or you can also think of it as a 13-inch M1 MacBook with its 13-inch display replaced with a larger 24-inch 4.5K Retina display.

At the bottom, is a small logic board that houses the M1 chip and all of its memory and storage. There's a pair of fans for cooling and you can clearly see the iMac's speaker system at the sides.

Since everything is soldered onto the logic board, upgrades and repairs are impossible.

iFixit notes that their unit, which is the mid-range one with 8 GPU cores and four USB-C ports was made in Thailand . Our purple unit, which is a custom order configuration because it has 16GB of memory, was assembled in China.

ALSO READ: Apple 24-inch M1 iMac review: Much more than just a colourful Mac

What's interesting, however, are the two large metal plates inside. iFixit was unable to explain their purpose. X-rays also revealed two small circles near the middle which could be coin batteries.

iFixit will continue their teardown and investigate these mysterious components more closely.

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.