Switched from PC to iMac and have not looked back!
Written: Oct 23 '03 (Updated Oct 23 '03)
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Pros: iLife Apps, Design, Ergonomics, Display, Easy to Use
Cons: User switching (improved with Panther release), Limited Ability to Upgrade (Hard Drive, Video Card, Etc.)
The Bottom Line: More than the sum of its parts. The iMac is beautiful, well-built and easy to use. However, it is the software that really makes it an incredible machine to use!
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| mdarren's Full Review: Apple iMac G4 17 in. (M8935LL/A) Mac Desktop |
Why was I so drawn to the iMac? You see, for the last 11 years I have been using Microsoft Windows-based machines. Each version of Windows has been getting better, and XP in particular is quite good. In fact, going into this purchase, I was quite happy with XP.
Still, roaming the aisles of CompUSA I felt myself being drawn to the iMac. For a few reasons actually. First, I had continually heard that the Mac made it super easy to manage digital photos and create movies. Second, I found the design of the iMac very appealing. I still use a Windows machine for work, so I figured I would take a chance and buy an iMac to replace my Micron PC at home - and I haven't looked back since.
INITIAL CONCERNS
Prior to the purchase, I did a bit of research to ensure I wouldn't be making a big mistake. My home computer had been used primarily for managing photos, creating and editing Microsoft Office documents, videoconferencing (using Messenger in XP), and surfing the net. With the iMac, I wanted to add making movies to the repertoire. One thing that I discovered that eased my decision was the fact that MS Office documents now share the same file format for Mac and PC. My assumption was that the Mac version would require different file formats (requiring a conversion at either end), and this is not the case. Discovering that I could create a Word, Excel or Powerpoint document and e-mail it to a PC without any worries was a beautiful thing.
The other thing that was a concern was videoconferencing functionality. We have family on the other coast, and used the videoconferencing capability built into XP's Messenger to virtually visit these relatives. The version of MSN Messenger for the Mac does not have this feature, which was initially a bit of a bummer. However, there was an easy solution. Yahoo Messenger does have videoconferencing capabilities built-in, and works cross-platform (Mac to PC). In addition, the iSight camera that is available for the Mac is incredible. It is auto-focus, and the image quality is excellent. Yahoo also offers better video quality as compared to MSN and the built-in version of Messenger available with XP.
If there was one other thing I worried about, it was processor speed. Owning a PC for so many years gets you caught up in thinking about speed simply in terms of the processor speed. The new PC's were shipping with 3 GHz processors, and here I was contemplating the purchase of a machine with a 1 GHz processor. What was I thinking! I was told that the Mac and PC process information very differently, and the 1 GHz processor was equivalent to a much faster processor on the PC side. I put a bit of faith in this explanation, and never let it get in the way of my purchase decision.
Once I found that MS Office and videoconferencing would work for me on the iMac - and put aside the processor speed concern - I got out the credit card. Actually, I bought it from CompUSA and opened a CompUSA credit card account to get 5% off my purchase as well as 6 months of no interest financing. They also gave me $50 toward the purchase of accessories, which I put toward the purchase of a Canon S400 (which is phenomenal).
OUT OF THE BOX
One thing that really bugged me about my PC was the sheer number of cables, connectors and general mess it seemed to create on my desktop. It was so nice taking the iMac out of the box, placing it on my desk, connecting the speakers, keyboard and Ethernet cable to the iMac, connecting the mouse to the keyboard, and done. I am stating the obvious when I say the iMac looked stunning. It truly is a piece of art, and the build quality is very impressive. The bottom of the iMac was even finished off beautifully with a circular piece of brushed aluminum (which looks very much like a larger version of what you'd find on the back of a fine watch).
Another aspect of the design that is very nice is the fact that the system is very ergonomically pleasing. It is amazing how much more comfortable it is (especially at 6'3") to have the screen up nice and high. Apple used a unique mounting system for the monitor which makes it easy to manipulate the screen placement with just one hand with very little effort. The range of movement is vast. Being tall, I have the screen very high, but someone who likes it lower can lower it all the way down so that the bottom of the screen is only a half inch from the surface of the desk! From the highest to the lowest setting, there is a range of movement of 7.5 inches! The LCD flat panel I had on my PC only pivoted up and down to adjust the viewing angle, but it offered no actual vertical movement as with the iMac. I found that once I started using the iMac, I got way fewer headaches. With my other monitor, even though the viewing angle was correct after it pivoted upward, I was still looking down at it quite a bit. This caused the back of my neck to strain after a while, which would sometimes lead to headaches. The iMac monitor also pivots from side to side, which I haven't found all that useful - but I guess people will use it when they want to show others their work, etc.
FEATURES
The iMac is very full-featured, especially considering its diminutive size. I think anyone buying simply on specs will probably buy a PC, as they are leading the pack from a hardware per dollar standpoint. I was more concerned with real world usability. Still, for those that must know, here are the specs:
1 GHz PowerPC G4 Processor
133 MHz bus speed
17" widescreen digital display
DVD/CD burner (read: 32x CD/8x DVD; burn: 8x CD-RW, 16x DD-R, 4x DVD-R)
80GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 64MB video card
256MB DDR SDRAM (Max 1GB)
56K V.92 internal modem
2 Firewire ports
2 available USB ports (after the speakers, and keyboard/mouse are connected)
Apple Pro Speakers (the translucent round speakers)
This is probably a good section to comment on the speed of the machine with the 1 GHz processor. While I have no 3 GHz windows machine to directly compare it to, I can say that I now have no worries about performance. Probably the most processor intensive task I have undertaken on the iMac is movie editing. For this, I found the iMac to be plenty fast, and at no time did I feel like I needed more speed. I really feel that the Mac world is more focused on usability than raw speed, as is the case with the PC world. The PC world is filled with specs and benchmarks, and you don't see this nearly as often in the Mac world (although you do see it).
The first thing I did to my iMac was to add memory. From a performance per dollar standpoint, nothing beats additional RAM. So I purchased a 512MB memory board from CompUSA for around $120 to bring the total memory up to 768MB. I have upgraded the memory in all the computers I have owned, so I didn't even bother trying the machine with the 256MB. Therefore, I couldn't compare the iMac with the standard versus added memory. My recommendation would be for around $100 get the extra memory - it's a no brainer.
From a hardware perspective, I should also note that you can get an internal wireless card for the iMac. The Airport Extreme wireless card for the iMac works with the AirPort Extreme Base Station using 802.11g for up to 54 Mbps, which is about 5 times faster than the currently most popular standard of 802.11b. The Airport Extreme Card is also compatible with 802.11b if you already have a wireless router based on the older standard. I have a wireless network in my house, but have the iMac sitting next to the router. Therefore, I just connected it with an Ethernet cable. However, if I was to place it elsewhere in the house, the internal wireless feature would be nice as it would eliminate an external box. I have actually thought about putting it in the family room, and since it looks so nice, it would fit right into the decor. Actually, it would probably enhance it.
Another internal option for the iMac is a bluetooth adapter. However, be aware that this option is only available if you buy your iMac directly through Apple - something I was not aware of prior to purchase! Since I bought my machine through CompUSA, I wasn't able to get the internal bluetooth. All is not lost however. First of all, I don't currently have a need for it. And second, you can buy a tiny D-Link DBT-120 bluetooth adapter that plugs into a USB port for about $50. The D-Link adapter is tiny at 1.81" x 0.73" x 0.37", so you just plug it in and you don't see it.
One thing I would advise is to replace the Apple Pro Speakers with a better system if you are going to do a ton of music listening, as the Pro Speakers have absolutely zero low end. So far, I have kept them - but I will replace them at some point.
GETTING STARTED
I turned on the machine and went through the setup procedure. In a matter of minutes, all the necessary information the machine needed was entered, and it had auto-discovered my internet connection. I was ready to roll.
When first using the iMac, one word comes to mind, and that is "slick". Everything looks so nice and crisp and stylish. The way the icons look, and the way the applications launch. It's all, well, very slick! The 17" widescreen display is absolutely stunning. The images seem to jump off the screen they are so lifelike. Unlike most PC's that convert the digital image to analog, where it is sent through a cable to the monitor, the iMac display has a direct digital connection to the video card. The high-quality of the monitor combined with the digital connection is what makes the monitor look the way it does.
I started playing around with the applications, and they were very intuitive. Anyone used to a Windows machine will find it very easy to use the Mac. Sure, it is slightly different, but the general concepts of pulldown menus are the same. The one thing I did notice however is that I missed a 2-button mouse. I have no idea why Apple choose not to include a 2-button mouse on this machine, as the OS X operating system supposedly does support 2-button mouse operation (although it supposedly doesn't offer as extensive support for 2-button operation as compared to Windows). The mouse it ships with actually doesn't have any buttons at all. Rather, you simply push down on the mouse itself and the whole mouse "is" the button. Since you can use any portion of the mouse to click, I found myself "thinking" that I had clicked the right side and waiting for a menu to pop up. However, that was not the case, as there really was no second button to click. I have contemplated buying a 2-button mouse, but the mouse it ships with matches the unit and looks so darn nice with it that I haven't bothered up to this point. I figure Apple will eventually smarten up and offer a 2-button version.
Another area where the iMac was lacking was in user switching. My wife and I had separate user accounts on the XP machine. We could switch back and forth on the XP machine, leaving applications open. When we switched back, anything we were working on would still be there, ready to work on. With the Mac and OS X (also called Jaguar), you need to completely log off (and close all applications) in order to switch between users. This may not seem like a big deal, but if you are both home throughout the day, and want to jump on the computer from time to time, it becomes an annoyance. The good news is that the next version of software, called Panther, is due out from Apple on 10/24/03. Panther adds a number of features, and one of them is user switching similar in functionality to XP.
One other minor issue that took me a little time to get used to was the differences between the "home" and "end" keys. With the Mac, the "home" key takes you to the beginning of a document versus the beginning of the line with a PC. The "end" key on the Mac takes you to the end of the document versus the end of the line with a PC. To go to the beginning or end of the line on the Mac, you need to use the up and down arrow keys. Minor quibbles of course, but anyone used to Windows would find it a bit confusing at first - in practice.
Other than the issues mentioned above, I found the iMac and OS X to be very easy to use. Keep in mind, this was just basic usability, nothing application specific. Read on to find out how the iMac stacked up from an applications standpoint.
APPLICATIONS
The iLife suite of applications (which come with the iMac) was one reason I went with the iMac. This includes iMovie, iTunes, iPhoto and iDVD. To summarize each application:
iMovie - import movies from your camcorder and edit them
iPhoto - import, manage, edit and print photos, easily order prints or photo albums
iDVD - put your iMovie projects on DVD and/or create DVD-based slideshows of your photos from iPhoto
iTunes - import, manage music from your CD's or downloaded music
Since the iLife applications are so central to the iMac experience, I wanted to really focus on them from the standpoint of "how" I use them and how easy they are to use. I really wanted to make movies from the footage I took on my digital camcorder. I also wanted to better manage my digital photos. I found it to be exhausting and tedious to try to find the best application for doing these things on the PC. There were way too many choices. If people were raving about the Apple applications and how easy they were to use, and I didn't have to go on a search to find the best movie application, best photo application, etc., I would be very happy. So after playing around with the iMac and getting a feel for it, the next day I focused on the iLife applications.
Over the past few years, I have accumulated many hours worth of video featuring my now 2 year old son. I had been itching to put them on DVD, but it seemed like such a chore. I did fool around a little on the PC trying to make a movie, but I didn't find it all that intuitive, and it seemed a little flaky. About an hour after launching iMovie, my first DVD was DONE, and it looked GREAT. It even had transition effects (e.g. fade in, fade out), titles and credits, and a few songs I imported from some CD's! It was so easy you cannot even imagine. I simply connected my JVC MiniDV camcorder and pressed a button to import the footage. The iMovie application seems to detect the various points in the video where I stopped and started recording. So different pieces of footage that I took on the same tape were stored on the "storyboard" as individual clips. Then I simply took the individual clips and dragged them into a timeline at the bottom of the screen. One clip would run into the other. However, if I wanted to put in a transition effect between the two clips, I simply selected from a list of effects and dragged the effect icon between the two clips on the timeline. Super easy, and super intuitive. You can name each clip, then see a list of the clip names in order to build a "scene selection" for a DVD (same as the scene selection feature on DVD's you rent). I then used iDVD to burn my movie, and I was loving life. The experience of making my first movie exceeded any and all expectations I had going into the process. As for performance, it was great. I would describe it as very responsive, and at no time did I wish it was faster.
iPhoto and iTunes are equally as impressive as iMovie and iDVD. iPhoto stores all your photos in a library. After your photos are stored in the library (which by default is organized by "roll" of digital film which is dated and can be renamed to whatever you'd like), you create albums. You then select pictures from the library and drag them into an album. You can edit the pictures in the album, and also have a copy of the original stored in the library if you ever want to revert to the original image. I have found iPhoto to be very easy to use and have not even scratched the surface of its capabilities. For instance, I know you can put in descriptions of individual photos, then search all of iPhoto for photos that contain a keyword. The nice thing is that iPhoto presents you with a super simple and clean interface. The advanced features are there, but they aren't "in your face" like they are with PC applications. Once I got some pictures from my digicam into iPhoto, I also found out how easy it was to e-mail photos to my friends. With my PC, e-mailing photos that were compressed down to a manageable file size was a big pain. I would open the photo, resize is, save it as a compressed JPEG, then open Outlook and attach the images to an e-mail and send it. It was a labor intensive process. With iPhoto, you simply select the photos you want to send, then press the e-mail icon at the bottom of the iPhoto interface. It brings up a window which allows you to select a size of small, medium, large or full size as well as two check boxes asking whether you want to include comments or titles, and that's it. I usually select medium (which is 640 x 480). So in other words, I select the photos, click e-mail, click "medium", then press "compose". This automatically opens up an e-mail with the photos attached, at which time I write my e-mail text and hit send. So easy. iPhoto also makes it extremely easy for the novice to post their photos to their own internet site with the addition of the .Mac service, but more on that later. Lastly, you can click on "order prints" or "order book" to get your photos professionally processed or to order a hard-bound book containing the photos from any of your albums. When you order prints, the order is handled by Kodak. Not sure who makes the albums, as I have not done this yet, but they look beautiful. They are hard bound and covered in linen in a variety of colors. A 10 page album will run about $30. Prints are $0.49 for 4 x 6, $0.99 for 5 x 7, $3.99 for 8 x 10 and go all the way up to $19.99 for a 20 x 30. These services are commonplace for PC users, but the fact that they are so tightly integrated into iPhoto makes the process of ordering them MUCH easier. It takes so little time that it is actually fun versus a laborious task.
iTunes along with the Apple Music Store makes it a pleasure to get into music on your computer. This is something that has been intriguing to me, but have never done it because it isn't all that intuitive on the PC. It's not that it isn't possible. It's just that I never wanted to take the steps to learn. With iTunes, there is no learning. You just pop a CD in, iTunes opens, and you can either listen to it or drag songs into your music library. It couldn't be easier. iTunes works like iPhoto in terms of having a library and then playlists (equivalent to albums in iPhoto). All your music gets placed into the library, then you create playlists which organize the music in the library. So I may drag one song into my "Mellow" playlist, and another in my "Classical Music" playlist. You name the playlists however you want, and organize them accordingly. Another very nice feature of iTunes is that along with your library and playlists, iTunes also has a "Music Store" icon. Select this icon and it connects directly into Apples online music download service called the Apple Music Store. The beauty of this is that it doesn't open an internet browser, necessitating a second interface to deal with. Rather, the music is right there in iTunes. When your music library or playlists are selected, the search bar at the top of iTunes lets you search your own music for a group or a song. When you select the Music Store, the same search bar lets you search their online database. If you want to buy a song, you do it right within iTunes. After the song is downloaded, you can simply drag it into one of your playlists just like any other song. It is very simple, and very easy to do. Notice that "easy" seems to be a recurring theme here?
I would say that Apple has not done enough to promote the iLife applications. Sure, the thought of these built in applications was appealing to me, and was a reason for purchasing the iMac. However, I didn't expect them to transform the way I used a computer. These applications far exceeded my expectations, and if I was running Apple I would make even more of an effort in promoting them. With my PC, even though it was capable of making movies and managing music, I had never actually done it due to the fact that it was too much of a bother to figure out. With iMovie and iTunes, it was a joy to do both. Also, iPhoto makes it much easier to manage and share your photos, which means that I feel confident my photos are where I want them, and easy to get to - versus lost in the midst of some folder somewhere.
In addition to the iLife suit of applications, some other applications the unit ships with are iCal, iChat, Address Book and Mail. Obviously the person who decided not to put an "i" in front of Mail and Address Book is no longer with the company! iCal is obviously a calendar application (not a calculator, but the iMac does come with one of those too). iChat is an instant messaging application that works between Macs and also is compatible with AOL Instant Messenger. iChat does not support cross-platform (Mac to PC) videoconferencing, so I have not used it yet. As I mentioned earlier, I am using the Yahoo Messenger for this.
Address Book and Mail are just what they sound like. They are both very basic applications, but they do have one advantage. That is, they integrate well with other Apple software. If you are used to Outlook, you will NOT like Address Book, Mail and iCal, as they are all SEPARATE applications. No idea why Apple decided on this. It's actually not quite as bad as it sounds, as the applications do offer some integration/interaction with one another. For example, if you are in Mail, you can click an e-mail and select "add this person to your address book", and it will add that contact to Address Book (without having to open the Address Book application). Still, if you are an Outlook fan, then Microsoft Office X comes with Entourage X, which is a Mac version of Outlook. I loaded Entourage X to try it out, and I liked it very much. However, I eventually stopped using it in favor of the Apple applications. Not because I thought they were better, but rather because iCal, Address Book and Mail seemed to integrate better with the other Apple applications. For example, when I wanted to e-mail photos from iPhoto, iPhoto does offer you the option of selecting Apple Mail or Microsoft Entourage as the default mailer. However, when I tried to have iPhoto send photos through Entourage, I got an error message. I switched it to Apple Mail, and it worked flawlessly. That was enough to sell me on the idea of sticking with the Apple Applications. Hopefully they will improve them over time. I have the luxury of managing my calendar and the majority of my contacts on my work machine, which is a PC running Outlook. So my iMac is primarily used for e-mail and managing some personal contacts. If I managed my business contacts on the iMac, I would definitely toss iCal, Address Book and Mail in favor of Entourage.
INTERNET AND THE .MAC SERVICE
I didn't find much of a difference between the PC and Mac from a web-surfing standpoint. One thing I guess I did notice was that Internet Explorer offered slower performance than it does on the PC platform. The iMac does come with its own browser called Safari. Safari does offer faster performance, and seemed much more responsive than Internet Explorer. This makes a lot of sense since IE was built for the PC and Safari was built for the Mac. After using both, I actually preferred Safari, primarily because it offered tabbed browsing - which I had never experienced before. To explain, when you open a link in Internet Explorer, it will override the existing page, causing you to have to hit the "back" button to get back where you were. IE also offers the ability to open the link in a new window, which means you don't override the page you were on previously, but now you have two windows open. Tabbed browsing simply allows you to open a link on another tab, within the same window. If you click a link in Safari, it will override the existing page just like IE. However, if you hold the apple button on the keyboard down when you click a link, it will add a tab at the top of the browser and open the new page associated with the new tab. You can then click on the different tabs on the top of the browser window to switch between the pages, as well as click on the "x" on the tab itself to close the tab. You can have many tabs open at once, and switching between them is very simple since each tab is labeled with the title of the particular page it is associated with. Personally, I like the concept of tabbed browsing, which is why I preferred Safari. I also like the performance of Safari over IE.
Another hidden gem I found on the Mac post-purchase was the .Mac service from Apple. At $99 a year, it certainly isn't the cheapest hosting/e-mail service around. However, it is much more than that. For a novice who wants to put up a web page, and I mean a TRUE NOVICE, there is no better solution. The .Mac service has pre-formatted web page templates for just about everything, including templates for a homepage, file-sharing, photo albums, movies, writing, resume, baby, education and invitations. Furthermore, it doesn't allow the user anywhere near any programming code where they can screw anything up. For example, areas where text can be added only allow the user to put in their own text and move on. I believe you can make minor changes, such as text color and size, but that's it. Experienced web designers will find the .Mac templates to be far too simple and inflexible. However, novices will get a big grin on how easy it is and how they can't mess things up. Especially when within 5 minutes (no lie) they will have a web page up with photos!
Speaking of photos, the .Mac service seamlessly works with iPhoto in what has to be one of the greatest feats of integration I have ever seen on a personal computer...and it works! Let's say you have taken pictures with your digital camera and imported them into iPhoto. Now you want to put some of those pictures on the website you created through the .Mac service. All you need to do is launch iPhoto and select the photos (by clicking on them) you want to put on your website. Once you select them, you simply click on the "homepage" icon on the bottom of iPhoto window. This brings up a window which shows what your web page, complete with the photos, will look like. It also adds a title of the page, which you can overwrite, as well as an area where you can write a description of the event related to the photos on the page. After you write whatever you want, you click on a "theme" from a number of designs that the .Mac service offers, which are various designs of borders that go around the photo (such as wood frames, frameless, push pin, etc.). Once you select the theme, you hit "publish", and THAT IS IT! Not only does it automatically publish the page, but it also adds a link to that photo page on your home page! You can then go back to your homepage in .Mac and edit the text for that link. Down the road when you want to delete the photo page, you simply login to .Mac and it shows you a list of the pages on your site. Select the one you want to delete and it not only deletes it, but also gets rid of the link to that page on your homepage. In other words, you don't need to worry about the impact that changing or eliminating one page has on another page. In fact, you don't need to know the first thing about designing a website. iPhoto combined with the .Mac service makes it easy for ANYONE to put up their own website. I can't stress enough how easy it is. Also, it gives you the option of password-protecting the site, which is a nice feature in this day and age. For instance, I have lots of pictures of my house and family that I wouldn't necessarily want just anyone to see - which is why I did password protect my site.
The .Mac service also offers integration with iMovie for posting movie clips to your site, although I have not investigated that yet. In addition, you get all sorts of free software and special offers (that are actually worthwhile) through .Mac. The .Mac service also offers all sorts of online training for many applications, such as the iLife applications. The other "services" it offers are e-mail, server space for backup, as well as an interesting way to backup and allow you to access your bookmarks, calendar, contacts and files over the internet. The .Mac files and folders are available to you on your iMac through a disk called the iDisk (Apple really loves the letter "i", especially in lower case)! The iDisk looks like just another disk on your iMac, but it is actually a virtual disk that is located at Apple on their servers. This is where your website and backup files are located. iSync automatically synchronizes information such as your calendar, contacts, bookmarks and files between your hard drive and your iDisk and makes them available to you over the internet through any web browser on any computer (PC or Mac). iSync also performs various synchronization feats between your iMac and other Macs, as well as with Palm PDA's and bluetooth mobile phones.
Once you get an understanding of how .Mac integrates with your iMac, and all the services it offers, $99 seems like a relative bargain. I am very glad I have the .Mac service. I should also note that more experienced website designers can upload their designs to the .Mac web server if they feel the .Mac templates are too simplistic.
WARRANTY
Apple warranties the iMac for one year.
SUPPORT
Apple provides complimentary phone support for 90 days from the date of purchase. Since I was new to the Mac world, I purchased 3 years of support for $169 (called the AppleCare Protection Plan). My assumption was that since I was new to the platform, I'd need the support more than the average person. Well, I haven't called yet! I'm almost hoping I will have a minor issue just to get some sort of payback on my investment! Actually, the AppleCare Protection Plan also increases the warranty of your hardware an extra 2 years, to make it supported fully for 3 years on both the hardware and phone support. It also includes onsite service versus having to send it - or drive it - back to an Apple authorized service center (which is the case with the standard 1 year warranty).
COST
I don't understand why many people say Apple's are more expensive than PC's. When I was shopping, I found that the PC's from Dell and Gateway were MORE expensive for a similarly equipped computer. I paid $1799 for my 17" 1Ghz iMac.
For example, at the writing of this review (10/23/03), I went to the Dell website to try and price out a PC which was as close to the specs of the 17" iMac. Here are the details of the Dell system, which was based on a 2.6 GHz Dimension 4600C, which is their ultra-compact desktop (which most closely matches the footprint of the iMac):
Dell Dimension 4600C
Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.60GHz w/800MHz front side bus/ HT Technology
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
17 in 1703FP Ultrasharp™ Digital Flat Panel Display
256MB Dual Channel shared DDR SDRAM at 400MHz (2x128M)
80GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive
No Floppy Drive Included
4x DVD+R+RW Drive CD-RW including Sonic RecordNow and MyDVD LE
COMPLETE DVD/CD Burning, Copying, Backup-MyDVD Dlx and RecordNow
Dell® Quietkey® Keyboard
Dell™ Optical USB Mouse
Microsoft Worksuite® including Money®
Front/ Rear IEEE 1394 Ports and Dual Front PCMCIA slots with Data Fax Modem
64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4 MX™ Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI
Integrated 5.1 Audio with Dolby Digital 5.1 capability
Dell Media Experience™
Altec Lansing® ADA215 Speakers
Dell Jukebox Premium powered by MUSICMATCH
Dell Picture Studio, Image Expert Premium
Microsoft® Plus! Digital Media Edition
56K PCI Data/Fax Modem
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year At-Home Service
Belkin SurgeMaster Gold - 10 Outlet with Coax
The Dell system priced out at $2,033. A few hundred dollars more than the 17" iMac! Granted, if all you want is a bare bones computer that will get the job done, you can get a much less expensive PC. However, you get what you pay for. I believe that the Dell above - with the options listed - most closely matches the iMac, and is more money.
SUMMARY
I really couldn't be any happier with my purchase of the iMac. It has been the most satisfying consumer electronics purchase I have ever made...period. It is beautiful. It is easy to use. It gets things done quickly. It is fun. What more could I ask for?
For those worried about comparing the specs of the Macs to the PC's, I say get over it and move on. Once you sit down and use the Mac, you will see that the whole is much more than just the sum of its parts. You'll forget all about processor speeds, caches and different types of RAM. Rather, you'll just enjoy the experience of using your computer.
Since Windows is pretty much universal on PC's, PC purchases usually boil down to how much hardware you are getting for your dollar. It is this mentality that causes people to miss out on the beauty of the Mac. The Mac purchase is really about software. Sure, you have your hardcore Mac fans who spend countless hours debating how fast something will get done on a Mac G4 versus G5. But for the average consumer who just wants to their computer to work effortlessly, it really comes down to the software. And it is the software that really makes the Mac shine. Of course, the fact that it looks so nice is an added bonus!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $1799
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: SuperDisk
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
mdarren
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Location: Boston, MA
Reviews written: 12
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