The new iMacs have the problem that they come with glossy screens. This not only brings on problematic reflections, the colors are also not displayed as well as with matte screens, but more saturated, enhanced.
iMacs are desktops with laptop parts, which makes them much slower than a MacPro desktop tower, and this is why you have to replace them more often than a desktop, which is also upgradable.
I have an iMac G5, not even two years old, and it's getting slow after the latest Lightroom upgrade.
I don't think I'll get another iMac, especially with that awful glossy screen, which is better for TV watching than for photo editing.
Regarding laptops, don't forget you get much, much less color resolution, 8 bit (or is it 6 bit) in comparison to 16 bit on an iMac or a MacPro.
This (and other restraints of the compact size) makes even the basic iMac beats the best PowerBook in regard to image quality.
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I decided to switch to a glossy screen for my MacBook Pro recently, and just upgraded to the latest one ... again with a glossy screen.
Personally I like the glossy screen better. Both screens reflect ... one is just diffused. That can cause problems as well... compounded by the fact that you might not even realize the reflection is there introducing a bias and surprisingly not very noticeable. Since your eyes are focused on the screen, the reflections on a glossy screen are very out of focus. Serious reflections can be controlled and normally eliminated with slight screen adjustment, just like a mirror, whereas with a matte screen a serious reflection can't be eliminated ... the glare will still be there. The screen is actually viewable in much brighter light than a matte screen (outdoors for example). I personally like the extra saturation and blacker blacks ... maybe it's because I use lustre and gloss papers for 95% of what I do, so the blacks actually look closer. I have several friends that have also moved to a glossy screen after playing with lightroom on my screen. Takes a little getting used to, but I'll never go back.
One thing I like about the iMac is it is a scratch resistant GLASS screen ... you can actually clean the thing. Howver,if you want matte, I'm sure there will be ways to apply a matte shield .. I think there are already some out there.
As far as laptop screens vs desktops, you are right, there is a technology difference. laptops use a 6-bit LCD screen with dithering to simulate colors beyond their native 262,144 colors. Dithering works very well, and can display millions of colors to the human eye, but not true 24 bit color, and not as good as an 8-bit screen like an iMac or Monitor, which can deliver full 24-bit color.
For those that missed this,
www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-8741-9027 is a nice review of the new 15" Macbook Pro, which probably has the best LCD screen in a laptop for photoshop right now because of the LED light source. He compares the Macbook gamut to an iMac gamut in the article ... the iMac clearly wins. Laptops won't catch up for a while because the 8-bit screens are just too power hungry.
