How good is iMac M1 comparing to the M1 Macbook, is it better or worse

This fundamentally involves decisions only you can make.

The iMac is massively better than the MacBook Air M1 2020 and the MacBook Pro M1 2020.

The MacBook Air M1 2020 and the MacBook Pro M1 2020 are massively better than the iMac M1 2020.

The former if you’re stationary, or need or want a bigger display, and the latter if you’re routinely mobile, or need to lock away the Mac, or whatever your particular needs and preferences and trade-offs might be.

I’ve worked with more than a few folks that lied to themselves and bought a laptop here, too. And then never took it anywhere. Ever. Which was a particularly bad trade-off, in terms of price and capabilities and costs. How often you will haul the laptop around is all part of that decision and those trade-offs, too.

As for the graphics, a 24” screen is immense when compared to a 13” screen.

All models here use the built-in graphics of M1, so all graphics are entirely similar for similar M1 tiers.

For various folks, an iMac and an iPad can work well as an alternative, the iPad with or without a keyboard.

You’ll want to budget for a hard disk drive sufficient for Time Machine, or for a NAS with Time Machine Server support if you have the budget for that.

I wouldn’t buy Apple silicon with less than 16 GB memory, and would buy more storage than is currently necessary as Apple and app and my own usage is all only likely to increase over the lifetime of the Mac.

You may get a more useful response if you provide more information about better or worse in what respects.

I've owned MacBook Pros (but not the M1) and a M1 iMac. The differences for me were screen size (13" was fine for me, 24" also OK but larger than I need), portability (used to be a requirement but currently isn't). Most significant is that I have had keyboard and screen repair needed on both MacBook Pros and MacBook Air, while I have had no issues with the iMac; and if I ever do have issues with iMac keyboard or mouse or trackpad, they are relatively cheaply replaceable with new ones.

I would suggest looking at newer machines, possibly also at higher-end ones.

• Mac minis and Mac Studios are now up to M2-series chips
• iMacs, MacBook Airs, and MacBook Pros are now up to M3-series chips
• iPad Pros are now up to M4 chips (an indication that, within the year, such chips may be coming to Macs)

Within each chip generation, the chip level (base, Pro, Max, or Ultra) makes a huge difference in regards to several things:

• Number of "performance" CPU cores and "energy efficient" CPU cores
• Number of GPU cores
• Available RAM sizes
• Number of multi-purpose USB-C (USB, USB4, DIsplayPort, Thunderbolt) expansion ports
• Number of supported displays

The chassis affects some things, but the chip ({M1/M2/M3} {base/Pro/Mini/Ultra}) is a very strong predictor of the capabilities of any of the Macs that use it.

I can't personally compare them but the following may help:

From MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

• Retina display
• 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors
• Supported scaled resolutions: 
  • 1680 by 1050
  • 1440 by 900
  • 1024 by 640
• 500 nits brightness
• Wide color (P3)
• True Tone technology

and from iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

• 24-inch 4.5K Retina display
• 4480-by-2520 resolution at 218 pixels per inch with support for 1 billion colors
• 500 nits brightness
• Wide color (P3)
• True Tone technology

Actual diagonal screen size is 23.5 in

As a general rule of thumb, you almost always get a better experience using a desktop vs. a portable. What the choice ALWAYS comes down to is do you need portability or not. If the answer is yes even occasionally, then obviously you need a MBA or MBP. Another option is if you need portability take a look at what you need to do on the device and see if an iPad can do what you want. Certainly less money than a Mac and for most mundane activiies, e-mail, graphics, photo editing, web surfing and even MS Office documents an iPad works perfectly fine.

I have an old 2014 MacBook Air that I ONLY used when we travel (we are retired now so we are doing a lot of traveling) so rather than spending well over $1000 for another Mac, I got a new iPad Air (cost me <$675). I use it for all of the things I mentioned above and it works great. As all my documents are synced to iCloud when I get home I can just pick up where I left off on my. I got 2 accessories for the new iPad an integrated case / keyboard and a pencil, neither were Apple's as I think they are terribly overpriced for what they do. Total investment for the accessories is <$130.