The new 24in Apple iMacs look like something you’d find on the flight deck of a UFO – at least, one with an intergalactic interior designer onboard. In their seven delicious Fruit Gum colours (a welcome nod to the multi-hues of the original 1999 iMac) and with a ridiculously minimal profile, they are by a long chalk the most desirable desktop computers ever made.

It’s not just their beauty. The performance is also stellar. Apple has used chips by Intel for a few years, and very good they were too. But now it has its own processor, the M1, currently installed in 24in iMacs, MacBook Air and selected 13in MacBook Pro models. It brings a speed and fluidity that makes a noticeable difference. Everything you open with an M1-equipped device snaps into action instantly. Also, if you have particularly haphazard web browsing habits, you can have several hundred tabs open simultaneously.