Apple's new iMac is one of the most exciting products of the year. While some have lamented its "chin," the general appearance of these machines has certainly made the perfect impression on their intended audience. These machines look fun and will appeal to families who need a computer but want something with a little style.

However, Apple has one omission. That is the lack of Face ID support on the new iMac. While it would be great to be able to use the new Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, wouldn't it be great to be able to unlock your Mac using your face? Frankly, the new iMac hardware is so close to the iPad that Face ID could be common to all Apple products. [MacOS Big Sur had code suggesting that Apple's Macs will have some form of Face ID. While the new iMac does not have it, it is clear that Apple is considering this option.

There is one clear problem: the camera on the iMac does not actually have TrueDepth. iPhone and iPad Pro have several modules for using Face ID. First there is the camera, then there is the dot projector that Apple's hardware uses to map the face. There is also a flood illuminator for low-light environments so that the device can be unlocked in dark places. These obviously add both cost and complexity to the camera module.

So, given the hardware costs of adding Face ID to a Mac, what are the benefits? According to Apple's own research, Face ID is more secure than Touch ID. The odds of someone randomly unlocking your device with your fingerprint are 1 in 50,000. Adding more authenticated fingerprints reduces that to 1 in 10,000 with five stored fingerprints; with Face ID, the odds of a random face being able to unlock your device is 1 in a million. While this may not matter much to home users, Face ID could have significant implications for corporate security.

It's more likely that Apple just didn't want to add extra hardware to the iMac design. After all, these are clearly designed to look as minimalist as possible, and there is not even an Apple logo on the front of the device. Adding a further camera would have crowded the top bezel a bit and would have detracted from the aesthetics.

So while Apple's reasons for not adopting Face ID here are quite obvious, it feels like a missed opportunity. For one thing, people who use a different keyboard for accessibility reasons or personal preference will not be able to use Touch ID either.

It seems likely that a high-performance professional version of the iMac will appear in the future. Some rumors suggest that the M1X processor could have 12 cores and be absolutely powerful for desktop computing. Presumably Face ID will be included in the machine, if it is indeed to appear.