The new iBook is Undeniable!
Written: Dec 09 '02 (Updated Dec 13 '02)
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Pros: size, durability, value, looks, performance, versatility...
Cons: No right mouse button, DVD playing is not deinterlaced with TV DVDs
The Bottom Line: The iBook, already a very strong product, is now more powerful and more affordable than ever.
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| technolicious's Full Review: Apple iBook 12.1 in. (M8485LL/A) Mac Notebook |
I had been considering purchasing a laptop computer for some time, when I heard that Apple had updated the iBook lineup. Here is a quick summary of the new features:
The iBooks now feature the ATI Radeon Mobility 7500 graphics chipset; the lower-end iBook has 16MB VRAM, the other iBooks have 32MB.
The lower-end iBook has a 700Mhz G3, while the higher-end iBook has an 800Mhz G3 processor.
The prices are lower than ever, starting at $999 for the 700Mhz iBook.
I decided to go with the 800Mhz iBook, since they really offer a lot for the $300 more they cost than the 700Mhz iBook. The 800Mhz iBook gives you more speed, a CD-RW/DVD combo drive (instead of the CD-ROM in the 700Mhz iBook), 32MB VRAM instead of 16MB, and the same lovely case as the latest iBooks have had. The 700Mhz $999 model has a different case; it is white plastic everywhere, whereas the nicer iBooks are metallic-looking on the inside and white with clear lexan on the outer case, just like they have been for some time.
I also decided to go with the 12.1" display, since it has the same resolution as the 14.1" display. The only real benefit to the 14.1" iBook is that it includes a higher-capacity battery, which offers at most 1 more hour of use. The benefits of the 12.1" iBook are the following: weighs 1 lb less, 1.5" narrower, slightly more than 1" less deep, costs at least $200 less, and it has a more sturdy feel than does the 14.1" iBook.
Noticing that all of the iBooks have 128MB RAM permanently attached to the motherboard, I chose to populate the singe memory expansion slot with a 512MB SO-DIMM, which cost me $100 online (about $100 less than Apple sells it for).
Having read reviews on the IBM Travelstar 40GXN hard drive, I bought the iBook from an online store that offered the Travelstar as an upgrade (http://store.powerbook1.com/index.html). They charged me $50 to switch up from the standard 30GB model in the iBook, plus $39.95 for installation (included RAM and Airport card installation too). This hard drive really is great; it has 5400rpm instead of the usual 4200rpm, and has an 8MB buffer instead of the usual 1-2MB.
Anyways, I was of course delighted to get the package, since Apple always does an amazing job of packing things. The iBook package is a keeper. The iBook includes a power adapter, extension cord for the adapter, 6 foot phone line, and a VGA-output adapter. International plug kits are available from Apple, and composite/SVideo-out adapters are available for about $15. Setup was a complete breeze with OS 10.2.1, which is included as the default operating system. The iBook feels as sturdy as a rock. Much more professional-feeling than any PC laptop I've worked on, including the Pentium4 Lattitudes and Inspirons from Dell. The iBook is basically dead silent when operating. If you are in a library or something, you might hear the faint noises of the the hard drive, but then if you don't get a 5400rpm drive like I did, you might not hear it at all.
Performance is amazing. Quake III gets about 50fps in 1024*758 mode, just like Apple says. Wolfenstein plays very well at 1024*768, as does Alice. Everything is very snappy, and load times are not bad at all with the awesome hard drive.
DVD playback - of movies - is perfect. Never choppy at all, and beautiful. The ATI Mobility 7500 is pretty much taking care of DVD playback; I enabled the CPU monitor, and watched CPU utilization while moving the DVD playback window around on the screen. The movie continues to play smoothly, and the CPU hovers around 60% utilization. The 12.1" screen is beautiful, and I prefer it to my 17" Viewsonic monitor.
DVD playback - of interlaced material - is in need of deinterlacing. I found out the other night, while trying to watch a Simpsons Season 2 DVD, that interlaced DVDs show yucky interlacing artifacts in Apple's DVD Player, both in Mac OS 9 AND Mac OS X. I really hope Apple fixes this soon, since the ATI Radeon Mobility 7500 has hardware support for DVD deinterlacing as I understand. Typically, TV shows are 30fps interlaced, while movies are 24fps non-interlaced, so beware of buying TV DVD boxed sets until Apple address this problem - that goes for X-Files, Simpsons, South Park, Star Trek, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and so on... :(
Divx 5 full-screen playback is great, unless you try playing back really huge Divx movies such as 1024*768, which can get choppy. 640-wide Divx movies seem to play back fine.
Battery life is wonderful as well; when I'm just word processing, I get about 5 hours of battery time. When I'm on wireless networking, browsing the internet and downloading things, I get about 4 hours. When I'm playing Wolfenstein, I seem to get about 3 hours, but I'm not positive (time flies).
I'm playing with Virtual PC 4.04 right now, under OS 9. Windows 2000 feels just fine, like I'm using an older Pentium II or something, only the hard drive is much faster than an older Pentium II would have had. Browsing the net using IE6 feels just fine. I downloaded SP3 from outside the library at my college, since the library was closed. I was getting about 200KB/s on the built-in wireless. I'm only bothering with Virtual PC for kicks, and so I can shock my Mac-hating friends by running Windows full-screen on the iBook. Battery life is about the same as a PC laptop would have when running VirtualPC, funny enough - 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
Just for kicks, I took my PC's USB keyboard, optical mouse, and 17" monitor, and attached them all to the iBook. You have to make sure to plug the mini-VGA adapter in all the way. Anyways, everything just worked immediately. No plug-n-play delay or beeping as with WindowsXP. I then purchased the $20 mini-VGA to composite video/S-Video adapter that Apple makes, and proceded to hook up my iBook to my friend's 27" TV. Once I had figured out to plug the darned thing ALL THE WAY into the iBook, the resolution switched to 800*600 automatically and the TV lit up with Mac OS X. I switched the resolution to 1024*768, but the TV really did look better at 800*600, so I switched it back. Additionally, the S-Video looked much cleaner and sharper than composite video. Anyways, for $20 you can turn your iBook into a portable DVD-player for use on mom's TV - cool.
Considering that this iBook has 640MB RAM, CD-RW/DVD, a really great 40GB HD, an internal modem, 10/100 ethernet, internal wireless networking, a top-notch 32MB graphics card, firewire, 2 USB ports and VGA out, I think that $1600 was a total bargain. When you consider the features, size, weight, looks, and battery life, there is simply nothing even remotely as good in the Windows laptop world. When you consider that the primary operating system, OS 10.2, is built on an open-source Unix kernel, Windows is looking downright shady.
In conclusion, the new iBooks are faster, cheaper, have better CD burning performance (16x), about twice as good of a graphics card, and a better operating system (OS 10.2.1, aka "Jaguar") than ever. I may use a Windows computer at home, but I'm using it less and less; Windows XP really feels junky compared to OS X. Don't get me wrong - my Windows computer is fast and reliable, but I've not really touched it since getting the iBook...
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1600
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor: PowerPC G3
Processor speed: 701-800
Screen Size: 12 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
technolicious
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Reviews written: 10
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