iMac 2017 release date: New computer may be announced this year

The current-generation Apple iMac. There are rumors that iMac 2017 will be unveiled this year.apple.com

Apple recently announced its latest product updates but skipped revealing information about the iMac 2017. There are rumors, however, that the Cupertino-based company is gearing up for the iMac 2017 launch this year.

There are speculations that the iMac 2017 may be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2017 to be held on June 5–9 in San Jose, California. On the other hand, there are also rumors that the upcoming computer may be unveiled as early as next month.

The upcoming device is expected to come in a 5K Retina display for its premium 27-inch variant. It is also rumored to come in a slimmer and lighter design compared to its predecessors.

As for its power, the iMac 2017 is also speculated to be engineered with the Intel Kaby Lake i7-7700K processor. On the other hand, with the recent release of the new Ryzen 7 chipset from AMD, there are also talks that Apple may consider using this as the central processing unit (CPU) of the upcoming device.

For its graphics processing unit (GPU), rumors point to Apple using either the AMD Polaris 10 or Polaris 11.

Other features also rumored for the iMac 2017 include an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) touch bar, USB Type-C thunderbolt 3 ports, and touch ID and full flash storage. The iMac 2017 is also expected to support virtual reality, since the said feature is starting to be offered in different consoles and devices.

The latest huge iMac update was launched in October 2015, in which Apple introduced the Retina and Skylake processors. Prior to that, the company launched a cheaper version in June 2014, and another one with Haswell processor in September 2013. With the time frame, many believe that 2017 is a perfect timing to update the computer.

However, fans will still have to take this with a grain of salt as Apple is yet to confirm the information.