Following a report from German blog iFun.de that claimed the new 27-inch iMac's flash storage is soldered to the logic board, MacRumors has obtained additional information in an internal document for Apple technicians.
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In the document, Apple says that the flash storage is indeed affixed to the logic board and cannot be removed. However, for the 4TB and 8TB configurations, Apple says that a flash storage expansion board is attached to a connector on the logic board. In the 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations, the expansion board and connector are not present.
Apple adds that the flash storage and logic board are paired together for hardware encryption, so data will be lost if the logic board is replaced. For this reason, it is recommended that customers back up their files on a regular basis.
The new 27-inch iMac features 10th-generation Intel Core processors, AMD Radeon Pro 5000 series graphics, up to 128GB of RAM, up to 8TB of storage, a 1080p front-facing FaceTime camera, a True Tone display with a nano-texture glass option, higher fidelity speakers, studio-quality microphones, and more.
Top Rated Comments
That leaves the expansion standpoint. Frankly, this is not a big deal either. Apple doesn't even use standard M.2 drives; they use their own proprietary interface. On top of that, these are iMacs! You can easily plug in cheap external storage, and since the machines typically stay in one place it's not inconvenient like it would be on a Macbook.
I'm still irritated by everything being soldered down, but it's not as big a deal as it was in the past. If Apple bothered to use an industry standard like M.2, it would be a bigger loss, but they don't anyway.
The problem with everything soldered down; is that RAM and storage that is currently prohibitively expensive (e.g. 64GB RAM or 8TB storage) will likely become quite affordable during the lifetime of the machine – but you're prevented from using these cheaper, future prices due to the use of these soldered components within the machine.