but it's ugly! the matte black back and the black bezel around the display are awful and are made even more awful by the fact that they don't match the keyboard and mouse. this redesign is such a tremendous let down.

Agreed. It's totally fugly. Looks like a crappy Dell, or an HP.

Actually, I think HP's latest desktops are better looking. At least they look consistent. The new iMac is aluminum with a glossy black bezel and a black Apple logo. The back of the machine is matte black plastic and looks really cheap. The keyboard is aluminum, but it's a different color and texture than the iMac's aluminum. The keytops are matte white plastic, which doesn't match anything, save maybe some of the white cables (why white cables for a computer that's now mostly black?). The mouse is white with glossy transparent plastic.

The hardware is unimpressive, too. Even maxed out at $2200 for the top-of-the-line 24" iMac you're still stuck with slower RAM and a slower system bus than you'd find in a $1200 PC, and the graphics card is pathetic - it's actually a downgrade from the card found in last year's top-of-the-line iMac, and you can't replace it anymore, either.

Apple is still using laptop components to manufacture the iMac, which doesn't make a lot of sense anymore and contributes to the crummy price / performance ratio. I'm assuming it's for heat management, but really, does the 24" model really need to be SO thin? Proportionally it's already much, much thinner than the 20" or the old 17" model, and they both looked great.

They should have made the entire case out of aluminum and used it as a giant heat sink / radiator. They could have filled it with heat pipes to make it more conductive, and attached the back of the case directly to the hottest chips. Would have added a hundred bucks or so to the cost of the case, but it would have allowed them to use desktop components, probably saving $200 and boosting performance in the process.

Seems like Apple isn't committing any engineering resources to the iMacs anymore. Sad. The funny thing is, Steve Jobs was asked the other day how the iMacs - which start at $1200 - could compete with other vendors' desktops, which feature comparable models at under $8000 with a 20" screen. Jobs replied that, "we can't just ship junk." But the iMacs are pretty junky when compared to comparably-priced PCs. The only things they had going for them were their looks - which Apple has pretty much ruined (they look like every other PC now) - and OS X. I love OS X, but is it really worth $400 more than Vista if you don't already own a Mac?

I can't see them expanding their user base much at these prices. The 20" iMac as equipped needs to sell for $800, the low end 24" for $1,200 and the high-end model for $1,600, tops.

I am glad I bought one on the friday before these come out. I think the whole black and silver color palette that Apple has adopted looks like every other PC manufacturer. I really do think the white set them apart from the pack.