Apple iBook Laptop (500-MHz PowerPC G3, 128 MB RAM, 10 GB hard drive)

by Apple

Product Details

Product Manual [7.85mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 11.2 x 1.4 inches ; 4.9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005OMN8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 27, 2001

Product Description

Amazon.com

The iBook from Apple is an extremely portable, solidly engineered notebook for those who want a Mac system but don't have the budget for the Apple PowerBook. Its standout feature, a combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, gives you lots of options for multimedia use. At only 4.9 pounds and 1.35 inches thick, with a 5-hour rated maximum battery life, this is a trim, extremely lightweight unit that offers strong overall portability. The rest of the feature set is solid too: A PowerPC G3 CPU running at 500 MHz, 128 MB of memory (expandable to 640 MB), 10 GB hard disk drive, 56K modem, and 10/100 Mbps Ethernet networking. Our only quibble is the relatively small 12.1-inch screen, a design compromise in the interests of portability. The system comes with both the classic Mac OS 9 and the slick new Mac OS X installed.

Product Description

IBOOK G3-500 10GB 128MB DVD/CDRW 12.1-SVGA ENET 56K

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super-Solid Laptop for Anyone on a Budget, September 8, 2001

By 

Peter Sachs (Walla Walla, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apple iBook Laptop (500-MHz PowerPC G3, 128 MB RAM, 10 GB hard drive) (Personal Computers)

To put it simply, Apple's new iBook is an engineering marvel. The design is sleek and elegant, yet the case can stand up to a good beating. The iBook comes with an awesome set of features--pretty much everything you might need is already part of the package, including FireWire, CD-RW drive, and 10/100 Ethernet. Despite having a relatively small screen (12.1" diagonal) compared to some PC laptops, it still supports a full 1024 x 768 resolution at millions of colors. The screen is very bright, and the battery, while not quite the 5-hour powerhouse that Apple advertises, still manages about three hours doing normal operations. The 500-MHz G3 processor is spritely and gets things done quickly, although it doesn't have quite enough power to do a large amount of movie editing or graphics work.

A few drawbacks are as follows:
The internal CD burner is only 8x at this time, which is markedly slower than the 16x and 20x external FireWire burners available now.

The iBook comes with only 128 mb of RAM, which is just barely enough for most things. I would strongly encourage upgrading to at least 256 mb total, as RAM is very inexpensive these days.

The video memory in the iBook is only 8 mb, with a weak graphics controller as compared to what goes into the G4 desktops. As such, the iBook is only mediocre at gaming.

The 10GB hard drive is already pre-loaded with almost 5GB of software and sample mp3's, so I would highly recommend upgrading to at least a 20 GB drive.

In conclusion, the iBook is a solid purchase for anyone who wants many of the features of a desktop machine, but in a portable package. The drawbacks listed above are mostly forgiveable, as sacrifices had to be made somewhere to make this such a reasonably-priced machine. The new iBook no longer has a built-in carrying handle, but Apple has managed to trim quite a bit of weight and bulk, making it a joy to use on a daily basis.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 500 MHz ibook, November 24, 2001

By 

da bry (Overland Park, KS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apple iBook Laptop (500-MHz PowerPC G3, 128 MB RAM, 10 GB hard drive) (Personal Computers)

I bought a 500 MHz ibook.

While it's true that the 10 GB model does fill up rather quickly - be realistic - a laptop is a toy, unless you're truly using it as a total desktop replacement. I actually do more of my daily work on my ibook now than my regular Pentium 4 station - and that's a good thing. My ibook rocks.. now I just need an ipod. Granted, you will need to up the ram. I'm maxing mine out at 640 MB. I read one reviewer saying it was hard to exchange files between PC's & Macs... but exchanging files between pc & mac platforms isn't hard. Some programs haven't come to mac yet, but I seem to like the programs that mac has better - for example, itunes rules...

Anyway, I'm not gonna ramble anymore - just face the facts. Apple builds an excellent laptop (it's really eye-catching, and sturdy), and when you compare the two, there's no reason to get a PC laptop, in my view (though tons of people still do). :)

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best portable computer on the market, September 18, 2001

By 

D. Edwards (McKinney, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apple iBook Laptop (500-MHz PowerPC G3, 128 MB RAM, 10 GB hard drive) (Personal Computers)

This new iBook is the best portable computer on the market. Its capabilities are outstanding, the build quality is exceptional, the design is stunningly clean and efficient. This is a do anything, be anything computer that you can proudly use in just about any setting, for almost any computing task you can imagine. Sure, a new titanium G4 is faster, but it is so delicate looking I would be afraid of breaking it in daily use. Also, the iBook is roughly half the price. Even PC users are enamored with the iBook's style and capabilities. You will not regret a decision to buy this computer.