The (underpowered) quality laptop (Apple iBook G4 M9164B/A)

Member Name: failme

Product:	Apple iBook G4 M9164B/A
Date:	24/10/04 (672 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Build, Looks, Ease of use

Disadvantages: Power, Speakers

I chose an iBook because I found the quality of the PC laptops equivalents somewhat lacking. I didn't want to spend several hundred pounds on something that was just going to break in a couple of years. This is my first Mac and my first laptop but it took nothing to become used to, just a few minutes - I was expecting difficulties given my past 5 years of using the (godawful) Windows operating system (OS). Mac OS X isn't flawless but it's certainly a lot better than Windows.

Despite the low power (1ghz) and stingy memory (256mb) it doesn't often struggle, I guess it's because it isn't as loaded with crap as Windows often is. For £799 the power is mediocre considering you can buy PC laptop equivalents with up to 3.0ghz and a lot more specification for a similar price, but you get what you pay for I guess...

Treading shallower issues, the looks of the iBook (especially the dinky 12" monitor version I have) are great; simplistic, attractive, and absolutely nothing ugly or cheap-looking about it (unlike just about every PC laptop). The Apple logo that lights up on the back of the monitor when you switch it on is novel and a cute idea - just another example of the thought that goes into their products

Build quality really is good, but not perfect. The hard plastic skin is prone to scratching and the keys on the keyboard can become "sticky" and the backspace even fell off, but it clicked back into place, so no harm done.

The speakers are very inadequate, I've heard better sound quality from £5 radios. I suppose it's just a ploy to get you to buy their aftermarket speakers but I usually just use headphones or plug it into my stereo.

To sum up it's a great starter Mac, and a great starter laptop but rather expensive and underpowered. If you need the power start saving for an Apple PowerBook or buy a PC laptop.

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