Customer Reviews

Apple iBook Laptop M8600LL/A (600-MHz PowerPC G3, 128 MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My iBook is my favorite computer of all those I've ever owned. The 600MHz G3, complete with 100 MHz system bus, is more than adequate to serve all my needs while on the road. Beyond that, it has a very clear and bright screen. And all of this is wrapped in a very light and small package that looks fantastic.

And MacOS X, well, it's the best operating system ever. And I've used everything from MS-DOS 3 to Windows XP, from Solaris to OpenBSD, and all points between.

Buying an iBook was, quite simply, the best computing purchase I've ever made.

I think the iBook is a wonderful machine. I'd been looking for a new notebook for home and decided to forego a pc and look into the new iBook. I plumped for the 600Mhz machine with the combo DVD-RW, and an airport card. I upped the ram to a beefy 384Mb because I knew that like most modern operating systems Mac OS X runs much more smoothly with more memory.

This is is most enjoyable notebook I've ever had the pleasure to own (especially after years of pc notebook use). The iBook is light and robust and has some design touches: for instance, the retractable latch which prevent breakage, and the clever power adapter. I ordered the airport card and extra memory separately so I had to install those at home. This was a snip - two small latches at the top of the keyboard slide back, allowing access to the airport and memory slots underneath.

If you have a broadband connection at home, I would recomend that you get Airport. It's very enjoyable to be able to sit whever you like in your home, enjoy a cup of coffee and use the iBook for browsing the web or picking up email.

The CD burner seems very reliable - in fact, much more reliable than my Dell Dimension machine - and DVD playback is good. I ordered an Apple AV connnection so I can connect the iBook to the TV in the bedroom and use it as a second DVD player. One small caveat - don't expect theatre quality sound from the internal speakers (this applies to any laptop not just the iBook).

Battery life is good. I curently get over three hours on a full charge. I need to investigate the effect on battery life of turning the airport card off when not needed because this will probably increase my battery time.

Highly recommended.

I don't understand the negative comments posted about the processor speed and screen size. For the cost of this notebook the processor is more than adequate. If you shop around for a Windows based laptop you will get a Celeron processor in the same price range as this notebook. I wouldn't rank the Celeron in the powerful chip category. For what most people will be looking to use the laptop for (Email, web browsing, and word processing), the processor is more than adequate. I'm sure everyone would love to have a G4 or Pentium IV in their notebook but considering the different prices this one is just fine for the average home user or student.

The same goes for the screen size. Sure we would all love a 15 inch screen but there are weight and price negatives to that choice. If you are looking for ulta portable, which this notebook targets, then 12.1 inch is the standard. You can get a 14.1 inch on a Windows based PC in the same price range but you won't get the quality that you will get with this notebook. Apple is rated in the top for customer satisfaction and quality for their notebooks.

So don't listen that you are getting taken by a slower notebook with a small screen. That is exactly what this notebook calls for, if you are looking for a ultra portable 4.9 lbs notebook at a resonable price. If not, check out the G4 Powerbook but make sure to open up your pocket book to pay for the difference.

Without a doubt, this is the perfect laptop. I have owned the ibook now for over 6 months and I can say in all honesty that this is the best laptop I have ever owned bar none (realize this is my 5th laptop all the others were PC based). Here's what makes it so great. 1)The size. I am a college math student and I bike to campus everyday. This laptop is smaller than most of my text books so it doesn't take up valuable realestate in my backback. 2) Battery life. I keep the computer on all day. I never need to plug it in or even worry about the battery dying. 3) It is gorgeous. 4) Embedded with Darwin Unix.

Now some complain about power and memory. First off, because I read the reviews here before I bought the computer, I purchased 256 Megs of RAM. I have never used less with this computer so I cannot comment on what it is like to use less, but the fact is if one were to get a PC laptop you would need 256. Now about power. This is a laptop. I use it strictly as a laptop: wordprocessing, writing programs, mathematical manipulation...It is not my game machine. You want to play games build yourself a desktop PC for couple hundred bucks.

In the end, you have to ask yourself what type of computer user you are. If you are heavy computer user and you can only buy one computer than this is probably not the computer for you. On the other hand, if you have a desktop computer, or truly want a laptop to do laptop type things on then this computer is perfect.

A recent "switcher" from the PC platform, my admiration for the OS X / Apple hardware experience blossomed after just a few weeks. Why so long? For me, the "click-flow" for tasking took a little getting used to; however, I am beginning to experience the simplicity of usage much touted over the years. I upgraded the memory in my iBook to 600K+ and the processor is @ 700MHZ with the 12" screen. This change was initially a challenge as my last laptop was an IBM with 15" screen and 850 P3;the transition was easier while gazing at the beautiful display, the ability to run the Mac version of Office Pro (for file sharing and seamlessness with the remainder of my PC crowd company)and the still to be mastered features such as ical,imovie etc.,(all of which i enjoy more as I learn). So, the switch is fun, new and has come for me with a limited amount of excess stomach acid.

Almost all of the SPECs on this baby are just what you want in a laptop -- just over 1 inch thick case, less than 5 pounds, 5-hour battery. In person, you won't believe how small and truly portable this machine is. It's great for reporters on the go such as myself, or for students in a cramped dorm room. It has all the right ports, and appears to be made with quality in mind.
The screen is exceptionally bright as well.

That said, I have a few complaints.

1) The low-end model skimps horribly on the memory (128 MB). You can upgrade the memory easily enough aftermarket cheaply, but that's an annoyance (128MB is the MINIMUM required for OS X, BTW).

2) The 600Mhz and 700 Mhz processors in these models are extremely long in the tooth. While that will not prevent you from taking advantage of productivity programs and Apple's free iSuite (iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie), these processors are essentially two years out of date and will crimp your style if you are a gamer. Keep in mind that the lower speeds help preserve battery power, but it's hard not to get a case of Mhz envy when the person next to you is toting a 2Ghz Pentium4 notebook (even if it does weigh 8 pounds and crashes all the time).
Memo to Apple: you will keep losing market share until all of your computers have a Ghz, not Mhz!

3) The screen is a fairly miserly 12.1 inches, although it is active-matrix and high-resolution. Now, keep in mind that this contributes to the low-cost, svelte form factor and long battery life, but I wouldn't mind having a 13-14 inch screen when I'm squinting at text all day. I generally solve this problem by upping the size of the fonts, but still, this screen is rather small. If you buy one of the higher-end models, say the one with the Combo drive, you may find that watching a DVD on this small screen is not exactly the cinematic dream that you find on the amazing Titanium Powerbook G4 (with its glorious ultrawide 15.3" screen.) The 14-inch iBook is good, and superior to the PC equivalents, but it looks and feels too bulky for daily portability needs.

4. The low-end model comes with just a CD-Rom at a time when cheaper PC models are coming standard with Combo drives. A CD burner or DVD drive should be the minimum offered on an Apple machine. The parts only cost them a few bucks more!

5. This is a minor quibble, but the bottom left handrest can get quite warm. A little better insulation/heat dissipation is needed here.

Hopefully Apple will fix these issues soon. What consumers want:

A 1Ghz processor (!) (G4 anyone?)
256MB standard on all models (They charge [price] for the upgrade, but an extra 128 MB costs them about [price]!).
A 13-14 inch screen.
Same 5-pound form factor.
Standard CD burner or Combo Drive.
Under [price].

Enjoy!

the ibook is perfect for me i am a student and wanted a cheap portable small and light computer, it has all the software i need, my first upgrade will be 512mb more of ram. but i can use it just fine. it is well built much much better than my old compaq and the battery life is excellent. poeple might say the 12 in display is small but if you had a bigger screen it makes it heavier, and larger i wanted the 12in because of the size and you do not ahve to squint all the time. the best thing about this laptop is that it was mad e by the same company that makes the os so it works in perfect harmony. 600 mhz is mine but big deal ot runs faster than my girlfriends p3 hp. so get the ibook the end

Having been a Macintosh user for 12 years, I found it difficult to abandon Apple as I was purchasing a computer for college. This gem was by far a good buy. For its price, the iBook is powerful enough to do all standard work on the go - wordprocessing, e-mailing, browsing the internet, listening to music, and really any non-gaming task. The built-in 128 megs of RAM was not enough memory, so I upgraded the RAM to 384 Megs (OS X is RAM-hungry).

My experiences on-the-go have all been really good. The sleek, light design of the iBook makes it easy to take with me while travelling. Its battery life is very good - especially running OS 9. Speaking of which, OS 9 runs awesome on it! If it wasn't for the fact that OS X is much more stable, I would definitely be using 9.

The gaming power is all that limits the iBook. Partially this is because the processor isn't high end. Also, the 16 meg ATI Radeon Mobility video card leaves a bit to be desired. However,the new editions of the iBook have 16 and 32 meg ATI Radeon 8500 Mobility cards which probably help speed up gaming.

All in all, the iBook is a great value for a laptop. With the new lower prices, they are an even better value for somewhat powerful, portable computing.

Not long after Max (my iBook) arrived Ruin13's fiancée walked up to me and said "I hear you got a new iBook."

I replied. "Yes! He's cute!"

I believe this just confirmed his opinion of me as a slightly off center weirdo. Eh. Truth hurts more if you don't just accept it from the get go.

Max is cute. He's all white and the little apple on his cover lights up when I have him on. Total strangers have cooed over him as if he were a particularly adorable baby and some of my friends are plotting getting one of their own.

~So what's so great about Max?~
First of all, he's a Mac. This translated into common tongue means that Max is super easy to run. Turn him on and he goes. Just like magic. I'm a junkie now. Sit me down in front of a PC and I'm apt to spent a lot of time cursing it when I can't quit an application with a simple keystroke or navigate Excel with one finger.

Then there's all the cool stuff Max came pre-loaded with. There's the usual stuff, mail, Internet Explorer, Appleworks (a lesser word processing program with greater art capabilities than Word), Sherlock (which is a shortcut file finder), and Quicktime. Do PCs come with that stuff or do they figure they have you over a barrel after you spent less on the machine so they make you pay, what, [price] for Word? Thank you, sir, may I have another?

Max also came with (for free and nothing) iTunes, iMovie, and iPhoto. ITunes is probably the easiest MP3 dealie on the market. It took me about 20 minutes to master it because I assumed it was more difficult than it was. I haven't played with iMovie yet and I haven't even loaded iPhoto because I'm still too enchanted with iTunes to be bothered. I have absolute faith that once I start playing with those applications I will be entertained for months after a short introductory learning session. ....

Max is packed with memory and charges up really fast. I'd tell you how much memory, but those numbers didn't mean enough to me to stick in my mind. It's probably enough for me to edit a 2 hour movie without having to delete my game. I did, however, run him down to nothing on his battery shortly after arrival and it took between 90 minutes and 2 hours to charge up.

And there's one stupid Mac trick that makes me smile every time. When you click on a file to open it, it bounces while it's opening. Yes, it's stupid, but it never fails to bring a goofy grin to my face to see the iTunes icon bouncing up and down. And if you want to pretend don't have the most fun as well as the best machine going, there's a downlaod you can get to make it stop. You can also set the icons on the genius bar to magnify when you pass the cursor over them which is also a lot of fun, but gets in my way.

~The upgrades~
I didn't order the stripped down iBook. Oh no, I needed, required, could not live without DVD playing capabilities. And I'm actually impressed. I was afraid it would look like a big screen projection TV. It doesn't. The picture gets faded or darkened depending on how far off center you are, but the screen is only 9.75 inches wide, how far away did you think you were going to get? Three people could sit abreast and watch a movie without trouble.

I also got (but don't tell my husband, it's a surprise for his birthday) a CD burner. Yes, inside Max's guts hides a CD burner. ITunes being the super simple process that it is, all you have to do to burn CDs is click a button. No, I'm serious. There's a button on the screen that says Burn CD. Click it and wait a few minutes. I think it took 20 minutes or half an hour when I tried it.

~What's not great about Max?~
Not much, but there are a few things. The speakers aren't so great, but I didn't expect much from a speaker the size of my thumb. The help section is nearly impossible for me to navigate. It sort of works like Ask Jeeves. You type in a question and it provides you with likely topics for your answer. I labor with the handicap of an English major so I know how to research and this kind of help just isn't helpful for me. I'm also not crazy about the mouse pad thing. I'd be happier if they just took that out and put in hole for a removable mouse. Steve, if you're paying attention, that's the only thing I really want.

The only thing that truly bugs me is the color. (I'm such a girl that way.) I actually liked the colored clamshells. I'm sure Yoko Ono approves of the all white design, but I'm just worried about getting it smudged. I haven't taken the plastic cover off the battery thing because I want to keep it from getting banged up. So I guess there's another thing I really, really want. Color. Can you see Max with a nice sapphire blue case? He'd be really cute then.

I recommend Macs to everyone except game junkies. There isn't much in the way of games and what there is comes out months after the PC version. I, however, find that to be a boon. If Max and the Blue Meanie could play lots and lots of wonderful games I would be forever playing games and never writing. The world would be poorer by 2 romance novels in the last 6 months alone. (Stop laughing, it is too a loss.)

Get an iBook and discover how accessible computers can be. I must be off. I'm either going to watch my DVD of Earthquake or I'm going to finish that CD I started to assemble the other day. Or maybe I should be writing. The world needs more quality romance novels.

Here are the pros: Great design, sleek look, beautiful screen, great software (I love i tunes-put all of your cd's on the hard drive), appleworks word processing, lightweight. Here are the cons: no manual, slow processor, the cd door gets stuck, very difficult to use netscape as your browser as it is set up for explorer and doesn't seem to accept netscape, no way to back up your data (!) unless you buy space on the web, difficult to use mac software set up for os 9 as this is os x. I tried to load up some mac games and spent all day trying as the ibook wouldn't accept the software because it was written in OS 9 and the ibook is Os X. It also gets hot if you have it on for more than 20 minutes. Still, I am very happy with it and think it is a great deal for the price.