Another Brilliant Apple Product Offering Value For Money (Apple iMac MB325B/A)

Member Name: BenEndeem

Product:	Apple iMac MB325B/A
Date:	10/06/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Appearance, Screen Size, Great OS, Security, Specifications, Resale Value

Disadvantages: Low Expandability, Lacks Certain Features Found In Much Cheaper Windows PCs

Having been very pleased with my MacBook but needing more power, I bought this iMac this January (2009) to replace my previous iMac G4.

The first thing that really jumped out was the sheer size of the screen; having never used a monitor larger than 19" before I was amazed at the vastness! I found it hard to image getting used to such a screen size, but as other reviewers have pointed out, you do; fast. Having such space allows you to not only do several things simultaneously, but also see them. For example, having two web pages open, one recreational and one for work.

As for the other factors, the iMac lives up to usual Apple standards for reliability. I bought the rock solid Apple Care protection plan with mine to bring total cover up to three years.

All of my power needs are met by the computer. My mid-level video editing is handled easily, as is the X-Plane 9 flight simulator. There is plenty of RAM (and room to expand to 4GB, as I did) to smoothly run pretty much anything from Textedit to the Adobe Suite. The dual core 2.8GHz processor and 320GB HDD are plenty for me and would be for most consumers, prosumers and some professionals.

Unfortunately, Macs have yet to feature Blu-Ray and the machine has only 3 built in USB ports, which may disappoint some. Those looking for a pure-power desktop machine will also be disappointed as the iMac uses mostly high end laptop components, rather than traditional desktop components.

Apple's Leopard OS is excellent, built on more secure, UNIX based, foundations unlike Windows. However there isn't quite the selection of software and while Macs are industry standard in creative professions, Windows still rules the roost in business (albeit that more and more are adopting Macs). But not to worry. Intel Macs can run (yes, not emulate) Windows under Bootcamp or even via virtual machine.

Overall I am very please with my purchase; at £1,200 including Apple Care I feel that I got excellent value for money. Now that the latest updates have been released (fairly minor updates with the exception of 8GB RAM capacity), this model can be had at an even lower price from the Apple Refurb Store, or other any other good retailer.

Summary: Not for the budget conscious or those who need masses of power, but great for those in between.

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