iMac Pro released: Apple finally lets people buy the most powerful product its ever made

The computer looks a lot like the existing iMac. Except there's a lot more lurking beneath that grey metal

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Apple has released its most powerful computer ever.

The iMac Pro looks like the traditional computer that hasn't changed in years, except with a darker, space grey finish. But inside it has been completely revamped, with Apple redesigning the inside of the Mac so that it can shove more processing power and other guts inside.

The computer has gone on sale today, and will begin at £4,999, though all sorts of expensive additions can be added to get it all the way to top speed. Users can pay for a processor with a full 18 cores, for instance, if they're unhappy with the already incredibly fast 8-core processor that comes in the base model.

The computer was first unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developers' Conference in the summer. But little has been said about it ever since, until a page appeared on the Apple website and they started being sent out to developers and other pros.

The expensive computer is positioned firmly towards pros, unlike the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro. As well as being expensive, Apple is focusing on performance and has released a new version of its video editing software alongside the iMac Pro.

“iMac Pro combines the incredible design of the iMac with the most powerful workstation architecture we’ve ever built,” said John Ternus, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering. “iMac is the most popular desktop for our pro users due to its amazing display and elegant design, so we completely re-engineered it to deliver performance far beyond what anyone thought possible in an all-in-one.”

In that respect it is intended to sit alongside the Mac Pro, which has gone years without being updated. It's thought that the iMac Pro was intended to replace that computer – but that as it became clear people still want the separate, tower computer, the company said it would release a new version of the currently bin-shaped computer next year.

Apple's devoted page for the iMac Pro is still showing a message that reads "available 14.12". There's no option to buy, meaning people are unable to pre-order now or see how much their configuration will end up costing.

"Pros love iMac," that page reads. "So when they asked us to build them a killer iMac, we went all in. And then we went way, way beyond, creating an iMac packed with the most staggeringly powerful collection of workstation-class graphics, processors, storage, memory and I/O of any Mac ever.

"And we did it without adding a millimetre to its iconic all-in-one design. So everyone from video editors to 3D animators to musicians to software developers to scientists can do what they do like they’ve never done before."