Apple iBook
From a pure specifications viewpoint, Apple's iBook looks like a bad buy. After all, it only has a 12in screen, no floppy drive, and a 600MHz processor. However, because it's not a Windows box, the comparison based purely on technical specifications isn't accurate or fair; Apple controls both the hardware and the software on its platform, and as such it can leverage power in areas that Windows cannot. Being an Apple machine, our benchmarking software wouldn't run on the iBook, so we can't give it a true comparative review; all we can do is comment on how it runs as a Mac notebook.
| Introduction |
| Acer Travelmate 223X |
| Apple iBook |
| Dell Inspiron 2650 |
| IBM ThinkPad R31 26562MM |
| Sony Vaio PCG-FX950 |
| Toshiba Satellite 1400 |
| How we tested |
| Benchmarks |
| Specifications |
| Editor's Choice |
The 12in screen may be seen as something of a drawback for the potential notebook buyer, although to its credit the screen itself is quite clear, runs to the entire edge of the casing and helps keep the notebook weight down to a breezy 2.2kgs - the lightest notebook in our budget feature, in fact. At budget prices you won't often see true portability like this.
The iBook is also the best looking notebook of our test models. Again, at budget prices you can normally expect to sacrifice snazzy design, and you have to like white quite a bit, but there's no denying that the iBook stands out.
While the all-white keyboard stands out, we weren't all that impressed by its responsiveness; in order to keep the entire unit as flat as possible there's very little travel on the keys, and we found this impacted our typing speed quite a bit. We also found that the screen didn't have quite as wide an viewable angle as on other notebooks, meaning anyone peering over your shoulder may have a tough time of it.
The iBook's main limitation is in the upgrade possibilities path. There's no PCMCIA slot, no way to upgrade the drives or swap in optional batteries or anything of the sort.
While it lacks the PC Card slots of its bigger PowerBook cousins, what it does have is a nice range of external ports; 2 USB ports, one firewire port, modem and NIC all manage to squeeze in on the left hand side of the iBook.
On the software front Apple offers the iBook with OS X. By the time you read this, you'll get OS X 10.2 ("Jaguar"), although the test notebook we examined was only running OS 10.1.4. Apple also supplies a copy of World Book OS X edition, Mac Internet Explorer and the full run of software that comes with OS X 10.2.
It's very easy for the PC Notebook market to scoff at Apples and make claims of being overpriced. While the 12in iBook does have its limitations, it offers a well powered attractive unit for a decent price, and once you get past all the silly "My OS is better than yours" posturing, that's what you really want from a notebook.
Apple iBook
Company: Apple Australia
Price: AU$2,960
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 13 36 22
