Apple iBook G4 12.1" Reviews!

[Trente]

Hey,


I am taking this laptop into real consideration. the more I read about it, the more I realize it offers great value for my hard earned cash and infact, no PC laptop can match its price/performance ratio where I live!

I would like your help in gathering iBook G4 reviews available on the internet. I only found very few, mostly obsolete (either G3 based or early G4 versions) as I am mainly looking for reviews about the currnet entry model (small screen size) that can be obtained for $1099 in the US. Powerbooks are out of my tiny budget.

If anyone here wants to share his/her thoughts or point me to reviews you are more than welcome...


TIA

 

[zensafari]

I'd say you are making a fine choice. A buddy of mine has a 15" powerbook but he says that for the money, the iBook is where it is at. Although I do not know of any specific reviews for you to look at, I'll tell you what I know because I recently was shopping for a notebook (and went with a Dell Latitude for various reasons) and I considered the iBook a lot.

First of all, the iBook supposedly has *much* better battery life than a powrebook. Also, now that is has a G4 in it, its capable of doing many things that the powerbook could only do before. Its fairly light from what I've read and the keyboard feels great. Now it even comes with a slot-loading cd-rom drive. Its a nice machine.

I would say that you need to upgrade to at least 512MB of RAM. Thats what most powerbook users told me but suggested to go all the way up to about 1GB. The Mac OS has a tendency to use a lot of RAM. Also, getting Apple Care costs an additional $307 which you should factor in. I don't think it would be wise to buy a notebook without an extended warranty. It just seems too risky!

All in all, I think the iBook is an awesome choice!

Hope this helps.

 

[James3shin]

its great, i love it, its perfect school and work. I enjoy it.

 

[crabbyman]

I, too, was in the same boat for the longest time. I was wanting a laptop for portability sake. I told myself I would wait until the end of this school year to get one. Well, the computer bug bit...my desktop crashed and I was left with nothing. I decided there is no better time than now to get a laptop. I looked at all the options and for some reason I went with Apple after bashing it for years. I guess my previous experiences have been with older Apples. I ended up getting a 12" iBook, 40gb HDD, Airport Extreme, used the included 256mb RAM for a few days *bestbuy had a sale on kingston 512mb RAM for $80* and now at 768mb. I had one problem from the get-go, the famous logic board problem. After I got that fixed...its working great...and I don't know why I ever bashed Apple. The OS is great...many features I really like. I am still learning the OS, but it seems it is not taking me as long to learn a lot of the things as it did for me to learn Windows. As said, battery life is better in iBook. Mine ranges from 4-6 hours, depending on use, with average around 5 for IMing, surfing the net, and typing at the same time. I was stuck on the Windows thing mainly because what I had invested into it. I had a professor, thank god, that gave me the programs I really wanted and needed to use an Apple. That made that part easy on me. From a hardware standpoint...I dont like Apples mice. So I bought a Microsoft mouse. Works seemlessly, no problem. Um...I did have a problem..I scratched my LCD the first week..my stupidity, so you might want to look into a screen protector or something. This is my first LCD and laptop..so maybe its common for them to get scratched easily. I think my next computer, personally, will be apple again. I really am attached to it already. I really like the file structure...the included software is a huuuge plus...the keyboard is nice...screen is nice..the size is nice, despite people saying I should go larger...i love the auto sleep when you close the lid...the slot load DVD/cd rom ....battery life. I would seriously go for it! Oh..another thing...if you decided to sell it down the line...the iBook holds value A LOT better than Wintel laptops/computers. Just check ebay. If you have any personal questions...write me..email me..PM me...I'll tell you anything you want to know!

 

[Wuzup101]

As a new 15" powerbook user and first time mac user I'm going to have to agree with the posts above. The iBook is a really good deal especially now that they come standard with 1ghz G4s in the 12" models. They have good batt life and nice LCDs. You will probably want an airport card installed and atleast 512mb of extra ram. I'm not sure how much apple care would run you but it's different from machine to machine. I know that through edu purchase it's only $169 for an ibook and $269 for my Powerbook. I would strongly consider apple care... even though the current revision of iBooks are very solid and don't have any of the old logic board problems. OSX is a beautiful OS and IMHO is much nicer than windows XP in all standards. I used to bash macs for years... truth is they are hard to beat this day in age... I'm hoping more people realize this. Anyway like the above poster... I'll offer you to e-mail me if you have any specific questions. I'm not an iBook user as I said I have a 15" powerbook... anyway cjb266 (at) psu (dot) edu if you want... also check out www.macnn.com forums for lots of oppinions.

BTW, if you know anyone going to college you can get yourslef a 12" powerbook base model w/ wireless and bluetooth and all the goodies all built in for $1400... just another option if you want it (of course the iBook will also be cheaper like this).

 

[faolan]

Keep in mind Applecare is not an up front cost. You still get a year warranty, and can activate Applecare anytime during that to extend it out to year 2 and 3. I'm just about to get my Applecare kit for my Powerbook G4 that I bought last September.

 

[Wuzup101]

Drakino offers up a good point. I forgot to add that when I touched on apple care. Without apple care you get 90 days of free phone support and a 1 year warranty. Buying apple care any time within your 1 year warranty period extends your warranty AND phone support to 3 years FROM THE DATE OF PURCHASE OF YOUR NOTEBOOK (not applecare).