The Mac notebook that "thinks" it's expensive, but isn't

I've had three months to become comfortable with my new 12" iBook G4 before writing a qualified review, time which I feel is necessary when writing a review on just about any costly electronic device. Just for the record, this iBook is my first personal Macintosh, and it took me quite a bit of debating before deciding to jump off Microsoft's proverbial "Mega-Ship" and climb aboard Apple's "Life-Boat". In any case, it has been a decision that I have been extremely pleased with. That being said, I am still a partial Windows user, my primary desktop machine has thus far remained a self-built Pentium 4/Windows XP solution. Soon though (when the money materializes), I see myself replacing the machine with a dual G5 PowerMac. Anyway, whenever I write a review on a computer with hundreds of different configurations, I find it important to list my specific configuration, so without further delay, here it is.

Processor: Motorola G4 processor at 800Mhz
Hard drive: Mitsumi 4200RPM 60 gigabyte
RAM: 640 megabytes of PC2100 DDR SDRAM
Optical: Apple Combo Drive (DVD/CD-RW)
OS: Mac OS X 10.3 Panther
Extras: Airport Extreme 802.11g WiFi

As a budget-conscious student, when I decided that I needed to add a laptop to my tech-arsenal, it was a huge research project. I spent what I fear to be countless hours reading reviews on an array of notebooks, asking tough questions in forums, checking out models in person, in short- REALLY getting to know the market. Sooner than later, I began to realize that the popular crowd was siding more towards Apple, a company I had long ago dismissed. I always figured that Macs as a generalization were proprietary, fussy, niche type machines, and far too pricey for my modest budget. Still, after hearing quite a few geeks and friends of mine carry on forever about how great Macs were, I had to see for myself. After swinging by my local Apple Store, I suddenly realized what a superior world Macheads were living in. Macs look awesome; there are no boring beige desktops, the operating system feels incredibly responsive, elegant, yet amazingly intuitive. All of my necessary software could be found on the Apple platform, including Microsoft Office suite, the Adobe suite, the Macromedia suite and a plethora of other titles. While some of my gamer-friends told me that Macs suck for gaming, I saw enough of a selection for my tastes, and also realized that between my brother’s Xbox and my good old PlayStation 2, I was getting my gaming fix primarily on consoles, anyway. So finally, after spending what seemed like months researching a $1,000 purchase, I logged onto the online Apple store for education, and placed my order, saving about $100 or so through student discounts, bringing my grand total to roughly $999, not including my eventual RAM upgrade, shipping, or taxes.

I opted for two-day shipping on my new Mac, I ordered late Tuesday night, it arrived Friday morning. Being the week before my university’s spring recess, I had a hefty 10 days to play with my newest obsession. WOW! What an absolute blast those first few days were! Apple packed the iBook so thoughtfully I didn’t want to disturb the stellar packaging. I haven’t seen better packing on ANY product I’ve ever purchased; Apple puts Sony’s “above-average” packaging to complete shame! The box and the physical stature of my iBook was just the beginning of the love-affair. Upon powering up the iBook, I heard the familiar Macintosh “greeting chime” and OS X loaded just a mere moment after that, no ugly dark DOS/BIOS loading prompts, no logon errors. A neat, blue Aqua wallpaper appeared along with a colorful dock and a meaningful menu bar along the top of the screen.

OS X is simply a dream to use. While I couldn’t possibly get into too much detail, I’ll glaze over the OS anyway. The Finder makes everything you could possibly dream of accessing easy to accomplish. The bundled “iLife Suite” on Panther is great, iTunes runs circles around any other music player. I opted for Microsoft Office X as an option on my iBook and did not regret it; after all, I needed to retain support for old Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. Essentially, the iBook was everything I was looking for in a Windows-based laptop.

After the initial “shock” settled down, I began to feel the G4’s punch, it was speedy… not MIND-numbing performance, mind you, but it handled everything I asked it to do quite quickly and accurately. I played with some G3-based iBooks and there is no comparison to how much snappier the G4 iBook feels, I feel the G4 is comparable to Intel’s Pentium-M/Centrino processors.

The visual components of OS X are dreams come true. I really wanted to ingest the candy-coated buttons that line the top of every window… and the genie minimization sequence- YUM! Of course, Mac zealots know that all those awesome 2-D animations in OS X are made possible by Apple’s graphics process called “Quartz Extreme”, which takes the load off the G4 processor and puts it on the graphics card to achieve such dazzling sequences. Don’t miss the “screen cube rotation” if you put multiple user accounts on your Mac, that’s a really neat touch.

Physically speaking, the iBook is quite a tough little computer. It feels substantially more robust than the comparatively fragile aluminum PowerBooks. The iBook’s white high impact Lexan-plastic feels very sturdy and after three month’s of daily use and transport, my iBook’s finish appears as immaculate as day one. The iBook looks great, closed or open… it looks a bit like a piece of Chiclet gum when closed. Open, the lid really sells Apple with an awesome glowing Apple logo on the hood and a pulsating sleep status indicator that looks as if the iBook is breathing- a very nice touch that the ladies love!

The ports onboard the iBook are-a-plenty. Apple gives iBook users two USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire 400 port, 10/100 auto-sensing Ethernet, 56k modem, headphones, Mini-VGA output port, and a security slot. There is no PC-card slot or a full-sized VGA-out port, but from Apple’s perspective, certain “big” ports had to go if you want to keep the size down. That’s another plus, SIZE, this baby is small. Unlike certain behemoth Windows laptops (or even Apple’s 17” PowerBook) that weigh a dozen pounds and eat up space anywhere they’re set up, the 12” iBook measures a scant 11” wide and 9” deep… nearly sub-notebook sized! The small size makes it easy to take just about anywhere, be it a lecture, airline tray table, conference room or otherwise.

The iBook battery is particularly thrifty. In my tests, I had Airport Extreme (WiFi) turned on and managed 4 hours and 52 minutes of life on a charge, that’s PLENTY of juice for a cross-country airplane flight in economy-class with no power ports (a situation I have found myself in far too many times). When I watched a DVD movie (which may I add had PERFECT, flawless playback), the battery held on for about 3 hours, which considering that the optical drive was working nearly the whole time, is pretty commendable.

If you do go for an iBook, do add Airport Extreme. Airport *Extreme* is *extremely* convenient. Whether I am on campus, at Starbucks, in an airport lounge, or at my house- my iBook is hardly ever away from the internet, wireless internet is an amazing technology and Apple fully integrates it into your iBook for about $100, it’s pretty worth it. As far as security goes, there’s no need for too many firewalls or anti-virus applications on a Mac, they’re fairly resistant to common Window’s issues. If you are a paranoid user, there are plenty of programs available that further secure OS X’s already stiff security precautions.

Invariably, there are negatives to just about any product. The iBook’s pros out weigh the cons by an immense ratio, all the same though, there are some issues that bothered me.

Perhaps the greatest annoyance is the lack of faster hard drive options. Apple puts a fairly anemic 4200RPM hard drive into their iBook line. The drive does get the job done, but I can’t help but ponder if maybe the drive had an extra 1200RPM on hand, disk access would be quicker. Granted, the iBook is Apple’s consumer-grade model, so the experts at Cupertino are probably banking heavily on the fact that Aunt Esther and Mom won’t care so much about the drive speed… either way, the drive speed certainly gets the job done and if you’re looking for faster drive speeds, a PowerBook will get you to them.

Size may be a problem for some with the 12” iBook. Simply put, it’s a SMALL system. Complaints in this regard may range from the keyboard being too cramped or the screen being too hard to see. Basically, what you see is what you get. If you’re not finding the 12” to fit your needs right off the bat, there’s always the 14” iBook, or gasp, the 15” PowerBook. I figure that those who want a small notebook will enter into “the deal” knowing the notebook is small and accept the fact that mobility has limitations.

Apple’s standard warranty that ships with every new iBook is right on par with the industry as a whole, but still, it seems too short. One year of repair-support and 90 days of phone-support is a bit reserved… then again, it’s all a marketing plan in order for Apple to sell more AppleCare protection extension plans. Just the same, a portable system is more likely to get into sticky, warranty-needing situations, so some consolation would have been nice in this department… oh well.

Overall, the iBook is probably the best portable Mac value at this time. For the relatively small amount of money, you get one of the most competitive, stylish, sleek, desired and equipped machines in the industry. The software is the best around, the hardware is of awesome quality, and to put it lightly, it’s no surprise to most that Apple makes a “helluva product”. I’d recommend the iBook to students of all levels on a budget, teachers looking for a helpful aide, business people, lawyers, writers, creative minds and for the most part, anybody looking for an “easier, trouble-free” computing experience that Windows will rarely deliver. Those looking for a bit more power out of a system may go with a pricier PowerBook, but generally, I’ve always found that in a portable, few people need the raw power, short of those working with live-video, software development, or 3-D graphics.