The 24-inch iMac once had a front Apple logo. Here’s what it would have looked like

The Apple logo was always placed front and center of the iMac, until the first M-series model was released in 2021. That M1 iMac featured an updated design that lacked an Apple logo on its “chin.” And every iMac since then has followed suit.

According to an X post by Kosutami_Ito, Apple did consider placing an Apple logo on the chin–during Engineering Validation Testing (EVT), the plan was to put the Apple logo there. But then Apple decided not to do it, and we don’t know why.

Kosutami_Ito has a history of posting leaks, with some past accuracy–last year, they posted that Apple killed its FineWoven case lineup, which Apple did quietly. In the iMac post, it’s not clear if the front frame in the picture is an actual Apple prototype, a product produced by a non-Apple company, or an artistic rendition of what the iMac Apple logo would look like.

The last sentence in the post–“Then they removed it until today”–also brings up questions. What does that mean? Is the picture from Apple’s production of a new M5 iMac that will have the logo? Or are they showing an image of an early M1 prototype that wasn’t publicly seen until today?

A teardown of the iMac shows that the chin houses most of iMac’s vital components, with plenty of empty space behind the display panel. It appears that Apple had a goal of making the iMac as thin as possible, and the chin plays a part in that goal. And as I point out in my iMac review, the chin makes a good place for Post-It notes–with or without an Apple logo.