Apple iBook Laptop 14" M9627LL/A Review
Apple iBook Laptop 14" M9627LL/A Review from Czarina Domingo happy college kid. 98.9% satisfied, (Last edit: 5/9/05)
This is my very first Mac. I got tired of PCs when my 1-year-old Vaio notebook kept overheating and shutting down on me, so I researched on notebooks known for quality rather than quantity of memory, speed, etc. When I bought this iBook, I upgraded the RAM to 512MB because all the reviews for the last iBook G4 recommended it. I also opted for the 80GB hard drive, leaving me about 68GB of free space before installing other programs myself. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied.
What’s GOOD:
- The speed of this notebook surprised me. PC users, don’t let the 1.33GHz fool you. Compared to my 2.4GHz, 512MB Vaio, this iBook’s performance is the same, if not better. It runs very quietly as well.
- The battery life is quite impressive (my average = 6 hours). This laptop actually pinned down the most essential requirement of a portable device.
- The software bundle is awesome. iLife ’04 is very user-friendly, so you won’t need to touch an instruction manual to get the hang of things. Lately, I’ve been addicted with GarageBand–creating hip-hop beats have never been so easy.
- I thought the 1-button mouse thing was gonna be annoying, but after I plugged in my USB, 2-button mouse to the iBook, the right-click button actually worked! The little scroll wheel on the mouse works, too. The little menu that pops up have less options than Windows, but I think it’s a decent enough transition for a former PC user like me.
- iTunes is the most convenient music store I’ve ever encountered. I’m tired of Kazaa bombarding my computer with spam and damaged songs, so I thought buying music legally was worth a try. If you want to stick with free, p2p file sharing, then at least you’ll enjoy iTunes as a great media player. Wait till you see its visualizer…
- This iBook came with a built-in Airport Extreme. It’s WiFi certified 802.11g, so it should work with any standard wireless router. I connected seamlessly with my Netgear wireless router and a friend’s Linksys one.
- Running large programs like GarageBand and Adobe Photoshop CS showed no glitches whatsoever. Also, I often have Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator running simultaneously, and I never experience any technical problems.
- This thing fits perfectly in my backpack, and it has a light, yet very solid feel to it. Nothing rattles, sticks out or snaps off, making it very convenient as a portable device.
- Last and most important of all, this notebook has NOT slowed down, crashed, overheated, or blown up on me.
What’s NOT SO GOOD:
- Choices on Mac games are very, VERY limited. I bought this iBook realizing that I can’t install any of my current PC games in it (only Warcraft III was compatible). The video card is pretty low, too, especially for the latest games (Radeon 9200, 32MB). I really wish I didn’t have to sacrifice games for this Mac.
- The iBook does get warm whenever I’m installing a program or running large programs simultaneously. Fortunately, it’s not nearly as hot as my crappy Vaio.
- There are only 2 USB ports, so I have to do some plugging/unplugging between my printer, scanner, and mouse. This may be a bother to some people.
- The built-in speakers are somewhat lacking, which is a common issue with laptops. If you’re heavy into music like me, getting some decent speakers with a subwoofer is a must. I use the old ones I bought for my Vaio.
- Everything on the screen is anti-aliased, which means the edges of fonts and sharp images are blurred so their pixels won’t look so prominent. This attempt on improving monitor resolution seems to be a standard on all Macs. You’ll either love it, get used to it (like I did), or detest it like many former PC users do.
- Again, more conflicts with PC software. Having a Mac is the reason why I have to buy Adobe software (personally, I needed to upgrade my version anyway). This means that if you’re a recent Mac convert like me, you may have to spend some extra cash on new software, i.e. Microsoft Office, etc. (unless you use Kazaa again, of course… heh, good luck on finding Mac programs on that).
Despite a few compromises, I’m really glad with my purchase. Macs really shine when it comes to quality–once you see this notebook’s overall design, you’ll realize that the people from Apple really think of everything. Even the AC adaptor’s folding prongs, cord hooks and light indicator made it 10 times more convenient than a plain one. With its imperfections, the iBook still clearly deserves 5 stars.
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