A nice blend of features, size, and performance
Written: Aug 06 '02 (Updated May 15 '04)
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Pros: Great design, Solid performance, Mac OS X easy to use, Nice Application bundle
Cons: No monitor spanning, newbies might not like support options
The Bottom Line: A versatile notebook with a great blend of features and software, with the design and ease-of-use of Apple. For PC users looking to switch - this is an ideal notebook.
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| mark_ufl's Full Review: Apple iBook 12.1 in. (M8485LL/A) Mac Notebook |
[UPDATE: May 14, 2004]
It appears that this review is still being read somewhat, so I'll make a few additions to reflect the current iBook lineup.
With the 1 GHz G4 Processor, the iBook is now well positioned to handle even more than before. Video editing and other graphics intensive applications will be very usable, with the G4's Altivec engine helping with such applications. Other enhancments include the beefier Mobility Radeon 9200 with 32MB of memory, which also helps the graphics performance, especially with Expose on dual monitors.
The iBook now comes with 256MB of memory, which is tolerable under OS X 10.3, although I recommend a bump to 512MB for real use. It comes with 10.3 Panther as its Operating System, which includes refinements and additions such as Expose (a feature that allows you see and switch between all open document windows easily). Also, the base model is now at $1099, considerably cheaper than the iBook I had purchased two years ago. It's an excellent buy for college students and people on a limited budget. You won't sacrifice anything with this laptop though... it's easily the best bang for the buck 12" laptop on the market.
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After several years away from the Mac, I've finally decided to return and try out the iBook. I'm currently using the May 2002 iBook 700 Mhz, 12.1" combo-drive model, and it's a great little notebook.
Specifications:
- 700 Mhz G3 Processor, 512K L2 cache
- 128 MB ram standard, 384 MB as reviewed
- 20 GB HD, 8x8x24 CD-RW/8X DVD Combo drive
- 12.1" TFT-LCD display, capable of up 1024x768 resolution
- ATI Radeon Mobility grahpics with 16MB VRAM
- 2 USB, 1 Firewire, 10/100 Ethernet, 56k modem, A/V port with S-Video/Composite and VGA output, earphone port
- Internal Airport (802.11b wireless) slot
First Impressions:
When I first opened the box, and took out everything, I was pleased with the layout of everything, and it took seconds to get everything out. You can see that Apple takes great care in the layout and presentation of everything they do. I looked at the manual and found it to be a very short one (about 40 pages), with numerous graphical illustrations showing the basics of where things are on the iBook, as well as a brief overview of OS X and the main applications such as Mail, iPhoto, and iTunes. I went ahead and just plugged the power adapter into the outlet and the iBook, turned it on, and about 2 minutes later, OS X appeared right on screen. So far no problems.
Usage:
The iBook is an extremely well-built notebook, and runs very well. Don't let the 700MHz fool you, it is very "snappy" and is enough processing power for most tasks, even the occasional Photoshop should be fine. It runs all preinstalled applications well, and OS X is an extremely stable OS. Built on BSD Unix, it allows the freedom for beginners to use OS X without the terminal, and for advanced users to launch the terminal and get straight into all the Unix stuff. Either way, the stability is incredible; I have run many applications at once, and the system doesn't crash. If, by chance, one of your programs does freeze, a control-apple-escape key combination (similar to control-alt-delete in Windows) will bring up a force-quit screen where you can quit the misbehaving program. I did find that running several apps can cause the system to become slower, but this is due to a lack of RAM. When I upgraded the RAM to 384MB, I found that multitasking became much smoother, and all applications open in 1-2 "bounces" now, versus the 5-7 bounces with 128MB. The Radeon Mobility graphics is a welcome addition, as the 16 MB of ram will help the more graphics-intensive applications. In addition, this allows the iBook to take advantage of Quartz Extreme graphics acceleration in Mac OS 10.2 (Jaguar) coming out late-August. 20 GB of hard drive space should be plenty for most consumer and student uses, and the combination CD-RW/DVD drive. If you need more space, you can customize one with 30GB or 40GB at the Apple Store online.
After running the iBook for a while the area to the left of the trackpad becomes quite warm, as well as the left half underneath. Not hot enough to cook anything on, but it does get a bit warm. I find that it's much warmer when the AC adapter is plugged in... when it's runnning on the battery it is just a little warm, and not very noticeable.
There are several little features on the iBook which are very nice. For example, there is a button on the battery you can press which allows you to check the battery life, and 4 lights indicate the battery status. In addition, when you put the iBook into sleep mode by closing the lid, the area to the left of the latch begins to pulsate a white glow, as if it's breathing (Oh my!) which is pretty cool.
It has excellent battery life, under normal use you'll get a solid 4 hours(if not more) out of a fully-charged battery, while watching DVDs you'll probably get closer to 2.5-3 hours, still enough for those long movies.
Applications:
The iBook comes loaded with its own suite of imaging and audio applications: iPhoto for importing/basic editing of photos, iTunes for organizing and playing mp3 music, and iMovie for editing your own movies. All of the programs are well laid out and show off the ease of use with which Apple takes care to put into each of their products. iPhoto makes it quite easy to store and organize your digital photos. The recently updated iTunes will burn mp3s from your audio CDs, organize them and even create "Smart Playlists" that allow you to choose a couple options and automatically make a playlist based on your selections. It also features a rating system to help make it easier for you to get your favorite tunes. Although I don't use digital video, iMovie will help you to edit movies, place in transitions and other effects into your movies easily. In addition, it comes with Appleworks, Apple's basic office suite with a word processor, spreadsheet, database and presentation program. While it's no Microsoft Office, it'll get basic office tasks done, and you can always purchase Microsoft Office for OS X if you find that Appleworks doesn't suit your needs.
For internet use it comes with AOL, Internet Explorer, Quicktime, and an e-mail application. Quicktime has been recently updated to version 6, and is a very nice program that supports the newer MPEG-4 open standard as well as "Instant on" streaming for movies that have been enabled with this functionality, so you can skip to any part of a movie streamed from the Internet without any delay. It's built in Sherlock tool allows you to search the Internet, look up products in stores, search the news, as well as Apple's support sites all from one application. To round things out, it has World Book Encyclopedia, as well as three games: A nicely designed Chess game, Otto-Matic, and Deimos Rising.
For developers, OS X also comes with free Developer tools which allows you to create your own Carbon and Cocoa OS X programs in Objective-C as well as Java.
One thing I've found very nice with OS X is the basic installation proess for most programs. To install a program, simply open up a disk image, and drag the contents into the Application folder. To uninstall, simply select the item and drag it to the Trash and empty it. It can't possibly be any simpler.
Gripes:
- Monitor spanning. The iBook only allows for video mirroring at resolutions up to 1024x768. It would be really nice if spanning was enabled on the iBook. Right now, only the more expensive PowerBooks supports spanning.
- PC card slot. While not necessary because of bult in modem/ethernet as well as Firewire and USB ports and an Airport slot, it would have been a nice addition for expandability.
- Support options. For some this may be important. It comes with a one year parts/labor warranty, but phone tech support is only for 90 days, afterwards it's $49/incident unless you buy Applecare ($249) that extends your warranty to 3 years parts/labor and 3 years phone support. While some may find this as a lack of support, the users in the Apple support forums as well as various Mac forums on the internet are very enthusiastic about Apple, and it's not very hard to get advice online.
Conclusion
Overall the iBook is an excellent notebook with just about everything you need. With a fairly fast processor, ample hard drive space, a combo drive, the stability of Mac OS X as well as Apple's easy to use programs, it's a well-rounded notebook. Whether you go with the 12.1" screen that's 5 lbs, or the 14.1" screen at 6 lbs, it's something that you'll take around everywhere, and it looks great as well. My only suggestion would be to upgrade the RAM to 384 MB, as it can get a bit sluggish with only 128MB. If you're a PC user looking to switch, take a definite look at this notebook. It's arguably the best priced offering from Apple, and it will satisfy most people's needs.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1499
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor: PowerPC G3
Processor speed: 601-700
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
mark_ufl
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Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me:
UF student majoring in computer science. Wish me luck!
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