Customer Reviews

Apple iMac MB323LL/A 20-inch Desktop PC (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive)

5 star:		(117)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I will break this review into three parts: (1) The Machine (hardware), (2) its Mind (OS X.5 and other included software) and (3) Everything else

(1) The Machine:

Let me just state that in order to truly appreciate the beauty of this computer you have to admire it from two feet away! Words can't do justice to such wonderful piece of artful engineering - ultramodern, sleek, stylish and yet eminently environment friendly. Solid anodized aluminum body with shiny black glass front and matte black metal back barring the shiny apple logo - it is perched on a strong tiltable base in a seemless fashion. There are 2 firewire ports (400+800) and 3 USB2 ports on the back, right lower portion along with a gigabit ethernet port. Theoretically the only wire you will need to run this gorgeous yet ferociously fast beast is the power cable! As it ships from amazon it comes with a wired beautiful, very low profile, solid aluminum base keyboard with white keys and a wired mighty mouse. If you order it from Apple store online, you can choose the wireless (bluetooth) keyboard+mouse as an option for extra $40. It is probably the only computer that ships with a black suede-ish polishing cloth - to keep your machine at its shiny best.

It boots up very quickly and runs whisper quiet. You do not hear hard drive spinning sounds or fan noise when performing processor intensive tasks. As for performance, the 2.8 GHz dual core processor with 1066 MHz front side bus and 2 Gb RAM gets you through your tasks sliding smoothly like you are skating on ice. Let me get to the important part - the screen, some people harp on that issue quit a bit. I just adore the ultra-sharp glossy screen with 1920x1200 pixels (more than enough pixels to see 1080p HD video). It is very bright even at the lowest brightness setting, with extremely good contrast, and the colors are rich and vibrant. Your average photo will look terrific on this screen - you have to see it to believe it! Yes, as it is designed with glass in the front, you only get the glossy screen and no option for the older matte screen. And I am using the machine in the worst case scenario - with three windows right behind my chair! So understandably, I was quite worried by those criticisms that it might be unusable in my desk. When the machine is sleeping, you will see the black glass screen reflecting the whole room like a dark mirror - but once you wake her up, you will notice that the reflections almost completely disappeared as your eye's focal plane automatically shifts from the reflective exterior surface to your desktop displayed crisply on the LCD screen, several mm deeper from the surface. So yes, if you want to refocus your eye and just keep seeing the reflections, you could choose to - but chances are you will most likely notice that the reflections have magically disappeared once the screen comes to life. Also let me further qualify that I am not a professional in photo/video field - but I am a serious amateur photographer and am very happy with editing my pictures in this machine (love Aperture 2.0).

(2) The Mind

(i) OS X.5 Leopard: I will not rattle out all the 200+ new features on this current version of the Mac OS compared to Tiger. But I will tell you my favorite ones - (a) Time Machine - backs up the entire system every hour with zero intervention from the user's side. It runs for 2-10 minutes in the background backing up only things that have *changed* in the last one hour of usage. It is the best back up solution I have encountered thus far. (b) Coverflow with Quicklook - more useful than you might think, for navigating through the average folders. This feature gives gives a preview (actual view - not an 'icon') of the document without having to open the application and you can flip through the contents like they are pages of a book, by just scrolling your mouse wheel. Just amazing. (c) Multiple desktops - group together the applications you use together in their own desktop without being distracted by other open applications/windows. You can quickly flip through upto 16 desktops although I don't use more than 2 currently (could be a great boon for multitaskers) (d) New Mail and Calendar: Now google's IMAP mail and apple mail work wonderfully well together better than ever before. Calendar runs in the background all the time and dates and events on your email are automatically understood and underlined - you can add them to your calendar without opening calendar at all. (d) Widgets and Spotlight launch faster and perform better than in Tiger (e) As mentioned before, boot up times are extremely fast, although I have already 80 GB of data on the hard drive and tons of applications installed. However, unless a software update asks for a restart I don't do it - putting it to sleep is quite energy efficient and the iMac doesn't slow down at all even if it is running for weeks without rebooting. (f) System wide spell checker, grammar checker, dictionary and thesaurus. Now the dictionary/thesaurus includes an apple help/reference guide as well as wikipedia! I think I can go on and on with all the little features that I discover everyday - but the bottomline is if you are upgrading from *any* operating system, 10.5 will thrill you.

(ii) The bundled applications are top of the class programs (called "Apps" for short in the mac world) that are extremely well designed and are ones you can actually use - as opposed to the crapware, trial ware and bloatware that comes bundled with PCs. iLife suite is a gem - although for my photography needs, I use Aperture 2.0, which is bought separately, instead of iPhoto which is very good for the average user. It even comes with all the drivers you need for booting Windows XP or Vista on a separate partition (BOOT CAMP) if you need that at all for some reason or other.

(3) Everything Else:

(a) Just one power cord for the mac and one for the Time Capsule (read about it elsewhere) replaced *EIGHT* power cords and power adapters I had before. Just imagine the jungle of wires that just disappeared with this all-in-one.

(b) Unparalleled esthetics and the legendary ease of use

[...]
I personally do not have ANY negatives after 3 weeks of using the machine and will update this review if I find one.

This 24" Imac with the 2.8 gig core 2 duo just cannot be beat. Don't get the 20" when for only $400 or $500 more you can get all that extra screen real estate, a bigger hard drive, and faster chip. The screen is the real star here though-- just soooo beautiful and increases work capacity by allowing you to write or work on a spreadsheet while having your supporting data up next to it. The machine is whisper quiet, looks gorgeous on a desk, has all the power you could ever want, comes with the best operating system and additional software on the planet, and the giant screen lets you work efficiently and without eye strain! Leopard was meant to be run on a screen this big as it really let's you take advantage of spaces, widgets, the dock and even spotlight and finder.

I've only had this Imac for 3 days, but so far the performance is dizzying. I typically fire up my Toshiba laptop (Pentium M 1.86 w/XP Home) in the morning and go and pour a cup of coffee before I even get to my login screen. Then I login and take another minute to 3 minute trip while i wait for it to boot up. On this Imac, you push the discreetly concealed button on the back and in less than 10 seconds you are ready to go. Shutting down is the same. Opening up the apps is super fast as well. I plan on putting photoshop on it soon, and I expect it to be great with the 2 gigs of ram that comes with it, but its easy enough to upgrade to 4 if necessary.

I honestly can't imagine anyone would be less than 100% satisfied with this computer. Check out CNET's review if you don't believe me--it's pretty stellar.

I purchased this imac at the end of August 08. It worked fine for 2 or 3 days, then it suddenly began to shut off for no reason. The computer would often reboot, cycle on, then reboot again. I called Apple for support but was told they would not give me any phone support because my computer had originally been purchased in May 2008. Not by me, of course, but by Amazon. It was bought new from Apple with 90 days free phone support. Apparently, the fact that I had purchased it new from Amazon in August doesn't matter to Apple.
I,m angry at Amazon for not informing me that my phone support had already expired and my hardware support was 3 months gone before I even bought the computer. I'm not so happy with Apple either. They told me that Amazon wasn't an "authorized reseller".
I had to ship the computer to an Apple store 200 miles away for repair. They replaced a faulty power supply. I decided to buy an extended warranty to protect my investment.
The computer seems to work fine now. I'm hoping this first "issue" with apple will be uncommon.
I know things can go wrong when you first buy something like this. So I'm a little surprised at this warranty situation and I wonder if it is true of many of the items from Amazon. I've been a long-time customer of Amazon, buying numerous products in the past. Are my warranties and support there when I need them? You may want to consider buying this item directly from Apple.

My daughter--a busy MD, mom, photographer-hobbyist--suffered, in the middle of her hectic schedule, the loss of a computer and asked me for a recommendation. Powerbook or iMac? 20" or 24"? Which 20" or 24"? Apple Store or Amazon? After some deliberation and "research" (an overused and abused word by consumers these days for "shopping"), I recommended the recently tweaked and revised iMac 20" 2.66 Ghz for the following reasons:

1. Someone with her busy schedule doesn't need to think about dragging a computer on her travels. Her PDA served her well during med school, but now she has to be person-focused at all times. A desktop machine tends to force its owner (like a piano) to make time as well as a work space for the machine, rather than have it constantly serving as a distraction. I would no more allow a notebook computer to replace my desktop machine than an electric piano replace my acoustic model, or a cell phone my regular home phone.

2. The 24" model admittedly has acquired glowing reviews from pros and consumers alike and doesn't cost a whole lot more for the extra real estate. But it's a massive screen, not only devouring valuable living room space but threatening to absorb too much of the owner's and the kids' attention, as well as serve as an attractive danger to the prying hands of curious 1 and 3-year-olds. The graphics have a slight advantage over the 20" inch because they display well laterally, but lateral sight lines while good for movies are not what a serious user needs, whether for photography or professional practice. Finally, to make that 24" inch screen work up to its potential, you really need to add costly extras (or pick up the 3Ghz model with a different, more powerful graphics card--being shown at the Apple site but not as yet on Amazon).

3. The CLINCHER. I thought the entry-level 2.4Ghz would be more than adequate (it probably is) until I read the most recent reviews at Macworldddotcom. The 2.66Ghz 1. comes with double the Ram (easily and cheaply installed by the user, I'll admit) PLUS 2. a speed boost, 3. a slightly bigger hard drive, and 4. a slightly better video card--for less than $300 more. It didn't require Macworld's pointing out that the 2.66Ghz represents the better value. Moreover, their tests of the two machines revealed that the slightly more expensive machine was actually a greater improvement in terms of speed than its published stats--a mere .266 Ghz increase--would suggest: their testers registered processing times for the 2.66GHz model that were 13% faster than those recorded for the 2.4Ghz model.

4. Finally, the choice of seller. In the past I've scrutinized the numbers closely, trying to determine if the deal from Apple Store, even with Educators' Rates and various incentives like free printers, was truly better than Amazon's. At best, the numbers were "close," and were never conclusively in favor of Apple Store. And I've never realized any non-monetary advantages by purchasing Apple products from Apple Store, whereas Amazon has shown its customer-centric colors in my favor on a number of occasions, including my last two computer purchases. Apple Store, on the other hand, has in the past come up short more than once. (They certainly weren't helpful when they kept calling me about purchasing extended service contracts.) Moreover, simply checking out from Apple Store after a purchase amounts to an exercise in self-control because of all the "add-ons" they try to convince you to purchase before clicking on the "done" button. So once again, I'm giving Amazon the opportunity to disappoint me for the first time.

I'm very happy with my new iMac. It's fast, has a beautiful screen, and I like how it looks and operates. The glossy screen works well for me, and any reflections disappear when I power it up. I can also run the few Windows programs that I need on it if I so choose. This iMac gives me the best of both worlds, really. I've been a Windows user for many many years and started making the move to Apple about a few years ago when I bought an iPod, then a Mac laptop, and now replacing my Dell desktop with this iMac. I haven't regretted switching for a moment.

I recently purchased the 20' iMac with the 2.4 GHz Intel Dual Core processor and 1 GB RAM. This is the aluminum version over the previous plastic one.

First of all, I was shocked at the size of this monster. I have a 17' monitor at work and pretty much measured out how large this one should have been. Boy, was I off the mark. I swear this thing comes in at close to 30' diagonally. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I'm just glad I didn't get the 24' unit. That would have been larger than my TV.

I had eye strain problems with my 13' MacBook so this definitely is a welcome change. If you can't read this screen you really need to get a guide dog.

Now for the good points:

' Bright screen, great graphics. Some complain that the glass screen reflects glare. If it does, I haven't noticed it.
' Thunderous sound coming from two discreet bottom firing speakers. Good enough that I stopped using my external Bose speakers. Not great in the bass department, mind you, but enough for most users.
' Takes all of 30 seconds to boot and 10 seconds (or less) to shut down. Keep in mind that the boot up time is NOT when you see the screen (like Windows) but the time from when you push the power button until the computer is ready to use. It's even quicker now that I've added another 3 GB RAM.
' Unlike Vista which requires at least 1 GB RAM to run and prefers 2 GB, you can have Leopard zipping along with just 1 GB. The more the merrier.
' Ever try to download a file over 2 GB with Internet Explorer? If you said no, there is a reason. You can't download a file over 2 GB with Explorer. Safari, Apple's browser, doesn't care what you download.
' Using wireless? Apple's wireless N will suck in signals you didn't know existed. While at work one day it inadvertently locked on to an unsecured signal from the neighbor next door which happened to be stronger than my work signal. Making matters even more bizarre is the fact that my neighbor is a private college that apparently assigns various wireless signals to students. Before I realized it, my iMac was sucking in signals such as 'Student 1', etc and even went as far as to lock onto faculty signals. Good thing I'm not into grade changing.
' Solid aluminum structure with enough heft (around 30 pounds) that a casual bump will not send it flying. I've knocked my flat screen monitor around at work with a slight bump. You'll probably break a collar bone long before you budge this one.
' Wonderful keyboard that has minimal bulk. It's so thin you'd think it would skip around a desk, but it doesn't. Crisp keystrokes and solid, sure footing.
' The CD/DVD super drive seems to burn disks much quicker and easier than my Windows unit. Some of that may be due to the Toast software I added, but not even Nero on Windows could burn disks as quickly.
' Much better graphics capability than the MacBooks (expect Pro). I was watching TV on it and the quality was just as good as the set I normally use.
' Loading a new program on Windows can be a trick. You have to insert the disk, wait for Windows to find it (sometimes go fishing when it doesn't), and then wait until Windows decides whether or not to accept it. If you have Vista, you have to wait for a security check. With OS X on Apple, you get an on screen icon that advises you to drag it to the applications folder on the HD icon. Drag and drop and that's it.
' Want to delete a file in Windows? You can do it the right way or the wrong way and it seems no matter which you chose, it's wrong. Invariably you end up with scraps that will interfere with something. If you want to delete a program in Apple, merely go the Applications folder, find the offending program, and drag it to the Trash can. In less than 5 seconds it's gone. Just how easy is this?
' You can run Windows faster on this Mac than you can on a similarly equipped Windows machine. You can use Boot Camp (which comes standard), Parallels for Mac, or WM Ware to create a second Windows partition on your Apple. Pretty neat, actually. Don't even think of trying to run Mac on your Windows machine. Aint' happening.
' The button-less mouse is unique. Took some time to get used to a mouse without buttons but I did. Uses finger pressure to determine what you want. Would it be worth $50 or $60 as a separate purchase? No, probably not, but it is unique. Love the 360 degree roller ball, though. You can have on screen windows dancing all day with it.
' Got a printer or camera and lost the drivers? No problem, just plug it in and the computer will search for the appropriate drivers without your intervention. Windows claims to do this but, more often than not, it failed miserably.
' Customer service is tops. I had a problem the first day when an Apple download went awry because of a dropped Internet transmission. The machine went into an endless loop. I called Apple's toll free number expecting somebody with limited English from a foreign country I couldn't locate with a map. I also expected to wait a good half hour to get a human. In the end I got an American within 5 minutes who took the time to correct the situation in all of 2 minutes. I had a previous laptop from a company I won't mention that claimed their service was tops. After talking to some guy from a country I'd never heard of I finally gave up when our conversation consisted of me asking, 'What did you say?' and 'I can't understand what you're talking about'.
' How much would Mac OS X Leopard cost in all of its variations (comes standard with the computer, but if you have an older machine you might want to upgrade)? $139 for the basic, $139 for the intermediate version and $139 for the advanced version. Fact is, only one version exists and it costs $139 ' period. If you opt for Vista you have your choice of Basic (so lousy it's free with most computers), Home Premium (about $199), Business (about $300) and Ultimate (sky is the limit). What's the difference? From what I can figure, about $100 per upgrade level.

Bad (needs improvement) points:

' The keyboard has 2 included USB ports which is great, but they are hidden under the out edge lip of the keyboard. No way of connecting anything without lifting the board. If you have a fat USB dongle, forget it (it'll make the board wobble when connected). By the way, if you opt for the wireless keyboard you do not get the extra USB ports.
' The built in super drive is great until the CD/DVD refuses to eject. I had a CD that was slightly warped (I didn't see it, the drive did) and got jammed in the system. It finally came out but not without some finesse. Sometimes a door is better. Also, it's side mounted which means you can't have anything within 4 to 5 inches of the right side of this unit. If you have limited space, this could be a problem (maybe a top loader?).
' Fat chance you're doing any internal work on this puppy anytime soon. Looks to be a seamless piece of aluminum with just one screw and that's the RAM replacement door.
' It weighs 30 pounds and has a stand that flops around when you pick it up. It doesn't fall off or come loose, but it does hit you at the most inopportune times (and the stand must weigh 10 pounds itself and is solid metal).
' For aesthetic reasons, the USB, Firewire, and Ethernet ports are on the back. This keeps the wiring from interfering with the beauty of the aluminum front. Great until you need a port quickly. Minor irritation.
' Earlier iMac versions could be wall mounted, but not this one. It weighs too much. Would be nice since this is such a nicely designed unit.
' Limited programs as compared to Windows. Go into any office supply store and you'll find hundreds of Windows programs and maybe 4 or 5 Apple versions. Oddly enough, in most cases the Apple programs work better than their Windows counterparts.
' No card reader? C'mon, even the cheapest desktop has a card reader, but not the Mac. Sort of behind the times there, Apple!

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm somewhat partial to the newer Intel based Macs. Mind you, I used Windows from the early 90s to present, but got tired of misfires such as Me and Vista. My last Vista laptop made it all of roughly one month before it dropped to the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and wiped out years of records. Making matters worse, when I got another Windows system with the same Vista level (Home Premium) it wouldn't allow the transfer of records because the machine I used before had a newer service pack than the one I just purchased. I had to download a GB of useless updates to get transfer records. Any wonder why Windows users are clamoring for XP?

Of course, most potential Apple buyers worry about the initial cost. My unit cost $1,100 and that may seem high, but do some comparisons. If you want a Windows desktop unit you first have to buy the CPU (about $600 with decent quality specs), then a monitor (about $250 for a decent unit) so you're out $850 already. Most Windows buyers will also opt for an upgraded keyboard and wireless mouse so add about another $75 to that and you're not far off the mark in the cost. Also, check on eBay and you'll see that used Macs go for substantially more than used Windows computers. An iMac that is several years old may still go for $400 whereas a Windows desktop from the same era is considered a really nice paperweight. In fact, early clamshell Apple laptops running at less than 400 MHz still cost over $300 to buy in decent condition and these are computers over 10 years old!

I was a Windows/PC user for 15 years, which is more than half my life. When it was time to buy a new computer recently, I waffled about making the leap to Mac and eventually turned coward. Three weeks ago I bought a new PC. I spent almost three days setting everything up and dealing with Vista. On the fourth day, it wouldn't recognise its monitor any more. I was done. I took it back and bought this beautiful baby.

I'm absolutely in love with it. The screwy secured wireless network my husband set up in our house? It took three hours to get the PC to recognize and accept it. This Mac? One minute. Everything's been like that -- beautifully simplistic and intuitively easy to use. I've cut the clutter on my desk by 2/3rds. And sweet heavens is this baby fast. The screen is gorgeous and my kids keep begging to be allowed to play with it. Not going to happen. The iMac is mine, all mine!

The only drawback I've found is that I haven't found a personal finance program that competes with Microsoft Money. I've tried out three so far, all of which have had issues, and the reviews on Quicken are god awful. But that's okay, because I can use bootcamp and run XP and Money. Beautiful, I'm telling ya!

Ok, so I'm a Mac newb. I've been a die-hard Windows user since 3.0. I used to hate the Mac's because I always thought they were too expensive and the fact that it was such a closed system, you could never tinker with it.

Well, I've grown and matured. We recently purchased this iMac 24" and when I took it out of the box and powered it up, we all just stared at it in awe. The fit and finish is just amazing. The screen, including the resolution, brightness, is just out of this world.

When we finally came out of our trance from just looking at the machine, I decided to poke around the OS a little. For the most part, it's very intuitive. It wasn't until several weeks later that I realized I could program the 2nd mouse button on the mighty mouse. Once I did that, all my frustration went away. But before then, I have to say, I didn't realize at how addicted I am to the right mouse click.

The bundled software included on the Mac is fantastic. The iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD products are not only very useful, they're just plain fun to toy around with.

My only gripes with the Mac are mostly based on what seemed to be a slighly buggy OS. The most unreliable applications are Safari, and Firefox. Oddly, I installed Firefox because I was getting to hate safari. There's still a huge number of websites that don't recognize it as a real browser.

We debated on whether to buy MS Office or iWork. We opted for iWork, which for the most part I'm happy with. However, it's still just a very rudimentary Office bundle and doesn't quite have all the features I was hoping for. However, the built-in templates are very cool.

The only thing I did to make the transition from PC to Mac better was buy a copy of VMware Fusion and converted our old PC into a VM. When ever we're stuck and have no patience to figure something out, we jump start the old PC in Fusion. BTW, if you're an old PC user and haven't checked out fusion, do so now!!

Overall, we are so pleased with the iMac. The hardware is just fantastic and the OS has become a pleasure to use. I would highly recommend this to anyone considering making the switch or if you're in the market to upgrade an older Mac. You won't be disappointed.

I have iMac for a couple of weeks now. This completes the switch of our household from Windows XP to Mac OS. Before we had Windows desk-top and lap-top. Lap-top was replaced with MacBook 13 in half-a-year ago, and now the desktop is replaced by 24-in iMac. I was somewhat worried about need to learn a new OS. I am still going though some minor pains of figuring out how to do this and that, but overall the Leopard looks fantastic, and transition process in much easier than I've expected. Unlike other reviewers, me and members of my family have absolutely no problem with the glossy screen. My wife and I watch movies on it. I've also got a 500 GB WD hard drive with firewire which I use for Time Machine. That was easy, and the Time Machine is the coolest application I've seen. Overall, this is the best computer I've ever had.

We originally bought this 20" iMac to replace our two PCs that have recently become paperweights. The computer and OSX are amazing - I agree with every raving review here. We also got the wireless keyboard and mouse which are well worth the upgrade.

I could not live with the low-quality TN screen however. I was not aware of the issue when I bought it. After setting it up, I noticed that the color tone and contrast would shift drastically as I moved my head only a few inches up and down. Granted, most LCD screens will do that to some extent, but I have never seen such poor viewing angles on a screen. For instance, in iTunes, the white and blue horizontal bars in the songlist panel would shift if I went from a slouching position to sitting straight - white bars shifted to blue, blue bars to white. There is also a very noticeable gradient vertically across the screen - the top of the screen is darker, while the icons in the dock appear washed out. There is no amount of calibration that can change this; it's simply the quality of the screen.

After reading up on this issue online, I learned that this is indeed a problem with the new 20" iMac, and that the 24" iMac uses a superior screen. I went the Apple store to take a closer look and sure enough the 24" did not have this problem.

We exchanged the 20" for the 24" and are absolutely thrilled with it. I suggest you take a close look at the two screens in a store before you buy (the Apple stores' evenly lit ceilings can be deceiving though). Look at the screen head-on an bob your head up and down. Do the same with the 24" and notice the difference. If that difference is worth $300 to you, then I highly suggest the larger screen. To me it was worth that and one star.