A joy to use!
Written: Mar 06 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: value for money; powerful; a joy to use
Cons: speaker quirks; no room for expansion
The Bottom Line: For people wanting to switch to a Mac on a budget, it is unbeatable
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| wowser's Full Review: Apple eMac 17 in. (M9252LL/A) Mac Desktop |
After coming into a tidy amount of money, I decided that it was time to make the switch. Coming over from a Pentium II 233, that switch was quite a relief. The price of the eMac was what attracted me to it, and i didn't share some people's opinions that it was 'ugly' (especially given that i was used to a beige, yellowing windows tower).
Setup
I put out the order to Apple UK (I'm a Brit, folks) it took around two weeks to arrive. When it came, it arrived at my campus post room and i'm very glad that i had help in carrying it back to my room as it came in a huge box and was very heavy and bulky - a point to note if it's not going to arrive straight to your door. It came very well packaged with a nice new Mac smell to it, everything in its own cosy polystyrene compartment. Again, beacause of the weight, i would suggest getting a friend to help you set things up.
One thing i did notice, unpacking, was the lack of manuals (a very thin OSX manual and ditto the eMac manual, proper). Ignoring the manuals i set it up, heaving the monitor section onto my desk (it is heavy, but very comfortable / ergonomic to lift). Setup is very easy! Glancing at the manual, i was left with a setup that left very few wires dangling around the back. Because of this, i was able to free up a whole 4 - way multi-plug adapter that i had used to plug in my pc's speakers, monitor etc. It is also very usefully has all the USB, Firewire, connectors located at the side.
Once setup, installing the OS X was also very easy, and after filling in my name, basic preferences etc, the system was up and running. This was also when i enjoyed the CD drive - a button on the keyboard ejects and closes the CD draw, and it does so in a very satisfying motion.
Mouse & Keyboard
The keyboard has a great, light and springy action to it, even better than the Microsoft Office keyboard i had been using. The keyboard itself is remarkably compact and makes for a setup that is ideal for users with limited desk space. The mouse plugged into the keyboard is also impressive. The one button, clear plastic mouse is easy and comfortable to use, and you get used to not having a right=click button. However, it must be said that the surface of the mouse is a hot-spot for picking up grime, so you need to wipe it every now and again. The underneath of the mouse picks up grime too, and although it is an optical mouse (wheel-free) it can get a bit scratchy, when it glides across a smooth surface when it is grimy. If you're coming over from a PC, it may take you time to get used to the fact that the mouse only has one button and no scroll-wheel, but you could also buy a new mouse if you didn't get used to it. The keyboard, as well as controlling the cd drive, also controls volume, which is very handy.
Monitor
The 17" monitor is a true flat screen and provides as good an image as i have seen on any monitor. I have it set at 1152 x 864, which provides a nice screen size at a very comfortable 80-mhz refresh rate. The whole -monitor / computer section of the eMac , despite being 17" takes up very little space on a desktop, more like having a 15" monitor or something similar. I have not seen any reason the get the (overpriced) swivel and tilt stand that you may have seen, as on a normal desk, the setup of the monitor is fine at the level that it is at.
Speakers
This is perhaps the downside of the package. Whilst they are clear in terms of sound quality (though a little shy on bass) they do cause problems at high volumes. Certain MP3s cause the sound to distort, and when it does so, the screen gives off slight ripples (only slight) though these are not terrible noticeable and it only affects the area above the speakers (darker colours emphasize the effect). I am not going to get new speakers, happy with playing mp3s at a medium volume (more than enough), but if you plan on using the emac as your default music player, consider new speakers.
Performance
The 1ghz G4 is of ample speed. It sound low, but seems to run quicker than Pentium chips in the 2ghz range. OSX never slows down, even after playing demanding games (you would often have to restart your computer after playing games in Windows). I upgraded the 128mb of Ram (painfully low) to 640mb, as whilst the actual operating system ran ok with the stock memory, running multiple applications would slow it down (though it is surprising that OSX runs with so little RAM). With the extra RAM, the computer flies, and i have never experienced slowdown (though i only use the web, word processing and games) The graphics card (a 32mb ATI card) is ok with most games (Age of Mythology works very well) but newer games (Unreal Tournament 2004) don't really work , but we are talking about games that have barely been released. I was satisfied with this, as I don't play many games, but this is not a gamer's machine. Not being able to upgrade the graphics card may cause some concerns.
Software
I'm not going to go into this in too much detail, as this is a review of the hardware. What i will say is that, as a switcher, OSX is excellent. As well as being great looking, the layout of folders and processes such as uninstalling programs are so much better thought out on the Mac. All Macs come with all the software most users would want, offering great mail / internet / media programs as standard. The word processor is the only thing that annoys me. Appleworks is not in Microsoft Office's league, but is fine for most users. One thing i will say, however, is that the viewing size of the text is often too small, and the program fits awkwardly onto the desktop. It can do footnotes, justified text etc, so it is fine for essays, though. Using OSX is a pleasure, where as using windows always seemed like a chore. Put simply, the Mac makes computing seems friendly and easy to use, which it is.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 916
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
wowser
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Location: Northern England
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
A student with an online shopping habit
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