Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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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
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.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The perfect Reporter's or student's notebook., September 26, 2001
Almost all of the SPECs on this baby are just what you want in a laptop -- fast processor, 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 dorm room. It has all the right ports, and appears to be made with quality in mind.
The screen is exceptionally bright as well.My only two complaints: 1) The low-end model skimps horribly on the memory (for shame, Apple! They could have added another 64 MB). You can upgrade the memory easy enough aftermarket, but that's an annoyance (128MB is practically required for OS X, BTW). 2) 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 mine 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 DVD 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.)
Enjoy!
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great laptop! *****, October 19, 2001
Apple has reinvented the iBook as one of the best laptops. Not just Mac, but in all of the PC world. The second generation of this version has a faster processor, a larger hard drive, and still looks great. People are drawn to look at this machine from the time you pull it from it's case. I would certainly recommend a RAM upgrade. 128 is okay, but it is just barely getting by. I'd suggest at least doubling that. Since the iBook only has one RAM slot, you may want to do that on ordering. However, you can get quality chips for less from other sources, and since it's a fairly simple install you can do it yourself in a few minutes.I use my iBook as a webmaster with Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop, and iMovie 2. My digital camera mounts as an external hard drive. My digital video camera links through the Firewire port with no fuss at all. Overall, I would highly recommend the iBook.
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