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Apple 12.1" iBook G4 Notebook (1.2GHz PowerPC G4, 256MB DDR, 30GB, CD-RW/DVD-ROM, Mac OS 10.3 Panther, 12.1" LCD - MPN: M9623LLA)
Description: This model is configured with a 1.2GHz PowerPC G4 processor, a 512KB L2 cache, a 30GB ATA/100 4200rpm hard drive and 256MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM (expandable to 1.25GB). The iBook 12" features two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 400 port and a CD-RW..... Read More Description: This model is configured with a 1.2GHz PowerPC G4 processor, a 512KB L2 cache, a 30GB ATA/100 4200rpm hard drive and 256MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM (expandable to 1.25GB). The iBook 12" features two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 400 port and a CD-RW. For your communications needs, it contains three integrated solutions: an integrated 56K V.92 modem for dial-up, an integrated 10/100 Ethernet controller for connecting to your home or office LAN, The ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 graphics controller with 32MB DDR SDRAM delivers crisp images on the 12" TFT XGA display at resolutions up to 1024 x 768 in millions of colors. It comes with a rechargeable Li-Ion battery pack, a full-size keyboard and a trackpad. Mac OS X version 10.3 Panther is pre-installed. Minimize |
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| Date Reviewed: 05/28/2005 |
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Strengths: 5 hour battery life (stays in sleep mode for days which means you never have to shut it down)
Lighter and easier to carry than any other laptop i've seen
Extremely quiet! (is this thing even on?)
Weaknesses: There are a few programs that can't be run on Macs.
The backspace key is called 'delete' and there's no real delete key.
Summary: This is my first mac and, well.... I will NEVER, EVER buy a PC again. This laptop is the most refined, well-thought-out dream-machine I have ever seen.
I've extensively used laptops made by hp, dell, toshiba, acer and others. None of them even come close to impressing me like my iBook has. Some more of the great features:
Mac's are more compatable with windows than you think. They've come a long way since OSX came along. Most programs like microsoft office and adobe software are 100% compatable. I figured I would have needed to install virtual pc with windows XP, but there's no need. Hardware compatability is 100% too. old parallell port Projectors, your 2-button mouse, usb, firewire, headphone, power, phone and internet jacks...
the trackpad is actually useable! it requires less finger-pressure than all other laptops so I actually don't mind using it when I don't want to haul out my mouse.
Details, details, details.... The usb and other hookups are on the side instead of the back. Trust me, it's better. The power cord is smaller, has a charging/charged indicator light, has a little thing to wind the cord when not in use and a removable extension cord. The outside of the battery has an indicator showing how much charge it has. OSX shows you on the desktop how much battery time you have left, wireless signal strength, volume, vpn status... on the desktop for you to see instantly. the capslock and numlock indicator lights are inside the keys not over in the corner. This is the best looking laptop i've ever seen (although it's getting the ford-mustang-you-see-one-every-three-seconds syndrome). People will come up to you and say to you: "that's the coolest laptop i've ever seen" "where'd you buy it?" "how much are those? i want one?" "can i buy it off you?" ..... It has a slot loading cd/dvd drive. smart. Stronger hinge than anything i've ever seen. reboot? shutdown? you have performed an illegal operation? what's that?
You might think it's expensive for the slow specs. (only 1.2 GHz ... what is that???) There's two defences to this:
1: It's not slow. mac's don't 'age' as you install and unstall programs, load up your hard disk with movie and music downloads, etc. They stay as fast as the day you turn it on. Programs don't freeze as often as windows XP and when they do, 'force quit' actually works, unlike XP. Unix takes advantage of ram better than windows. You can have 15 programs running at the same time (i upgraded to 512 mb of ram) without ANY loss of speed. I've used 3 GHz computers with 1028 mbs of ram that i wanted to throw across thre room because they were slow and froze up. I do the same ram-intensive work on my 'slower' iBook and never get frustrated with it's speed.
2) the iBook is more expensive than hp's and dells because they are higher quality. That's why BMW's are more expensive than kia's. hp's generally start overheating and breaking after three years or so and dell's are hit and miss with quality. I've never heard of anyone having to 'fix' their iBook. Conversely, I've heard horror stories from toshiba, dell and HP (especially HP).
So, what's bad about this thing?
It's white. I've only had mine for two months now so it's still clean. I have however seen some iBooks and PowerBooks that had dirty trackpads and keyboards. It will probably need a semi-annual cleaning.
It takes a whole 1 minute to learn how to use Mac OSX. I could have used that precious time rebooting Windows.
BUY ONE!!!!!!
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| Date Reviewed: 07/12/2005 |
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Strengths: Sleek Design, Mac OS X (no viruses, spyware etc), ease of use, lack of Windows frustration factor, can easily talk to PCs, open PC files, networks, etc. Small and light, Battery life excellent.
Weaknesses: Screen resolution is smaller than i am used to. 1024x768 is a little small, i prefer a bigger desktop
Summary: 2005-07-12 04:13:44 Well, where to start...
With the Laptop itself:
Its small (fits neatly into my backpack with college text-books), light, has built in Wireless, and basically is very well built. It gets a little hot on the left hand side sometimes, but nothing major. Battery life lasts for up to 5 hours ish!
This is my first laptop at all, having migrated from Windows Desktops, and it is a breath of fresh air. THe only complaint i have, is that the screen has a maximum res of 1024x768, which i find a little too small. The next model up still has this reolution, but i would like to see a model with a larger screen which had a bigger res. This isnt a real problem, i dont get headaches or anything, but i like my desktop to be spacious.
The Highlight: Mac OS X
Its fast, easy to use, doesnt get viruses, "Force Quit" actually closes a program if one does missbehave, and... yeah. Its amazing. For a windows switcher like me, my first experience with OS X was opening the lid on this laptop. And after about 1 minute i worked everything out.
5 mins out of the box, it was on the net, its simply that easy. The only problem i fouhnd, was trying not to thing in WIndows terms, ie thinkign "How do i do this?" and having to hunt in menus and right clicking (yes a 2 button USB mouse works out of the box) until i realised, do the most sensible thing. Want to install an application? Drag it to the applications folder. Want to delete an application? Drag it to the Trash. Want to move a file around? Drag it. Drag and drop works so much better on the mac, you just have to try it to believe me.
Yeah. If you are looking for a reliable, small and light laptop, which wont need formatting/reinstalling/trashing in 2 years time, get this. It rocks.
94% of People (17/18) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/07/2005 |
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Strengths: Battery hours; Neat design; Mac Tiger; The shortcuts;
Weaknesses: Weight; Memory&Disk size; Expensive accessories; Sound Sys;
Summary: 1. Outlook:
-Elegant and handy. I like the design of adapter so much.
-Harder than most other 12'' PC notebook though.
-The price for this white beauty is you have to purchase all accessories from apple, unless you want to break the style.
2. Screen:
-14'' defintely brings more visual comfort, but it's too big for an ibook in my opion. 12'' is generally more cute and istyle.
-In fact, all icons and fonts can be easily adjusted through shortcut keys.
2. Battery:
-You can totally rely on it for at least 5 busy opr hrs in the first couples of usages.
-Don't know what's going to happen after six months though.
3. Mac X Tiger:
-Tons better than Windows, if just for home business. Work quiet and fast
-Self optimization took place right after new installation. You have to take a look at the disk system to see how different it's from windows and you'll see why everything comes so safe and reliable.
-You can create shotcuts for almost every command and action. Run free of mouse and trackpad! Windows also have shortcuts, but I don't think they help as much as here.
-Currently no problem reading FAT or NTFS formate disk.
4. Software
- Mail is not comparable with outlook. It's just too simple, even can't receive news group.
-Many free small software available on the internet. They are often very helpful, and much better graphic design than the Win version.
-Mac seems to be designed for graphics. Pdf are built in in the safari and opening such files are unbelievably fast.
-Micro Office are still slow in the Mac version. Wondering if there're any alternatives.
5. Hardware
-Works well with the 256M memory and 30G disk if you are not with heavy task.
-Definitely need to upgrade the memory and disk some day. Upgrading the memory can be easy, but to upgrade the disk you have to dismantle all the parts, I believe.
-Other built-in hardware are up-to-level, airport extreme, bluetooth, combo drive, etc. As for the optical drive, I don't think the super drive will be of much use, however it depends.
-Sound sys just so so.
-I'm not fond of the trackpad here, doesn't feel good compared with my old compaq. My PC mice doesn't feel the same way here on the ibook too. That's why I have to recommand shortcut again. Maybe it truely the thing for ibook.
92% of People (11/12) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 04/14/2005 |
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Strengths: Size, price, OS X, it is not a Microsoft product!
Weaknesses: Needs more than 256 RAM.
Summary: I traded in my 17" Powerbook for the 12" iBook based on portability and the fact that I'd have less to worry about when taking this machine everywhere. I love the size. Airport reception is better than any other laptop I have used.
88% of People (23/26) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/22/2005 |
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Strengths: Long life battery, light, quiet, compact and portable, sleek design
Weaknesses: Accesories are expensive, obviously some windows programs can't run on Mac.
Summary: I am a switcher from a PC to a Mac. I bought this model only because it was the cheapest one. I at first thought that with 1.2 GHz and only 256MB of RAM, it was probably going to be slow. But I was wrong as anything. This laptop is FAST! It opens files fast and is indeed much more stable than Windows. The included AppleWorks serves as a basic alternate to Microsoft Office. The other programs are quite sufficient to perform most daily tasks. I do also have an iPod, so compatibility there is certainly no issue. I'm totally impressed by this notebook. It does a very good job with almost anything. I doubt I'll ever go back to Windows now.
83% of People (5/6) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 03/10/2005 |
- POrseck
from TX
- Member Since:
Feb 2005
View Member's:
Reviews
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Strengths: Excellent keyboard response. Quiet operation. Easy to transport. Good looking case.
Weaknesses: Left side heats up. Difficulty meshing with Airport Express.
Summary: Our first MAC product, so it's taking a while to adjust. Very quiet and smooth operation. Well designed and compact, it isn't as heavy as we thought this notebook would be. Only one game built in (chess), which is fine with us. Came with 256mb but recommend upgrading to 512mb of RAM.
68% of People (19/28) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 01/17/2005 |
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Strengths: Size, easy to tote 5 lbs. around. Airport extreme built-in. Upgradeable RAM.
Weaknesses: Keyboard is cheap looking. Limited software for Apples. A little pricey. White color is boring, but better than gray or black.
Summary: Wish Apple had more available software, different colors would be nice and a 13" widescreen version. Price aside, this ibook is perfect for college students or home users. However, if you're into gaming it's not for you, the newer software is not available and it's not upgradeable for gaming.
65% of People (34/52) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 07/24/2005 |
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Strengths: Portability, Power, Price, & Speed
Weaknesses: Haven't found one.
Summary: This little gem gives up very little when compared to my 14" 1.0 GHz iBook. Although the screen is smaller, and appears to be slightly less crisp, it is more than made up for by the perfect overall size. For those that carry their laptops a great deal, this is the ticket! The keyboard looks to be about the same size, and the speakers are neither better nor worse than the 14". When upgraded to OSX 10.4, and bolstered with added RAM, this iBook makes performing tasks (or cruisin' the web) an even greater pleasure!
63% of People (5/8) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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