As for the 24-in. display, other than the 30-in. Apple Cinema Display -- which is in a league all its own -- I've never seen a screen showed off videos, slide shows and photos as nicely as this one. According to Metz, it's 40 percent brighter than earlier iMac displays, and that extra brightness shows here in the office, where I'm surrounded by windows and bright light from outside. In fact, it makes my 17-in. MacBook Pro look downright dim when the two are placed side by side.

I did note that the resolution, while high, could be even a bit higher given the overall size of the screen. Apple has long been known for trying to keep its screen resolutions to about 100 pixels per inch (PPI). The higher the PPI, the sharper things look -- although they also appear smaller. This particular screen has a PPI of 94. So Apple could safely bump the resolution up on future models and still be in its preferred 100 PPI range. (Hey, I can dream, right?)

For now, Apple officials are focused on the model at hand, which Metz said is aimed at keeping with a "faster is better" theme. Bigger is better, too, she said.

"All users, whether it's me at home working with photos or reading Web pages, [or someone else], we're all multitasking now," she said. "We're doing more. A lot of pros even add a second monitor to have an extended desktop, so the concept [is] that people want more display size. They want more real estate to work with."

The 24-in. display offers 30 percent more screen than the 20-in. model, Metz said, something readily apparent as soon as you pull the iMac from its box. It's the kind of display, she said, that's tailor-made for something like watching DVDs or working with digital graphics. "It is a beautiful system to look at," Metz added.