Apple iBook Laptop M8861LL/A (800-MHz PowerPC G3, 128 MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Drive)
(4.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)It's a keeper!
I bought my ibook in November after dealing with a pc that just refused to go on-line all of a sudden, and no amount of help, phone consults or trouble-shooting could fix it--and on top of that, the warranty had expired the month before (But to be fair, the machine was over 3 yrs old). Anyway, I had my reservations about making the switch, having been a pc person for my whole life. I decided to check out the macs because they were priced more reasonably than most of the pcs I was considering. The smaller screen on this version of the ibook alone dropped the price significantly ($300+). As a grad student, my two main concerns were price and portability--this apple had that and more!
I love my ibook. It is not as fast as the pentium 4s out there, but it is fine for what I do, which is write, burn CDs, watch DVDs and surf the internet. The design is cool; it doesn't crash--EVER!, and it has more than enough memory to store whatever I might happen to need for the next several years. It comes with itunes to burn cds, iphoto which syncs up with digital cameras, imail, a basical email program and appleworks, which has a basic word processor among other things. I chose to install MS Office for Mac because Word is a necessity for my degree work. All of this software is more than enough for my needs.
But the biggest plus for me is the ultra-portability of this little mac, and I do mean little, in the best sense of the word! It takes up almost no room in my commuter bag, and better yet, it weighs less than 5 pounds (which is is nothing compared to my 10+ lb. dinosaur of a pc laptop), and the screen size is still very easy on the eyes even though it is smaller than most other notebooks. Plus, the battery life is incredible--I have gotten way more battery-time from the ibook than I ever did from a pc.
The only disadvantages that I have notices are 1) there aren't nearly as many games available for the mac os--but I'm not a big gamer, so this didn't matter to me. 2) you can't personal your desktop nearly to the same degree as you can with windows--no cool little icons, no personalized color schemes, no individual fonts for icon labels . . . this was a bit of a disappointment for me, but for the price difference, I got over it pretty quickly.
All in all, my friends tell me that Apple should hire me to do one of those commercials. I made the switch, and I wish I had done so sooner. It was easy, and I haven't looked back since.
(5 out of 5)Reality Check. . .Please
After reading Odessa's review I had to weigh in with my REAL WORLD review.
The 800mhz model is vastly superior to earlier iBooks running OS X. The 32mb's of VRAM (Video Memory) is to be credited for this improvement.
Apple positions this Mac in its Consumer line. As such, it should not be compared to someone's "Work" machine due to the fact that it is not in the same league. That said, the iBook's 800mhz processor is more than fast enough for non-professional uses of all of Apple's iApps (iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, Mail.app, etc). It's no Dual 1.25mhz Tower, but don't be fooled by claims of this portable being slow. It's simply is not.
Regarding claims of 1 hour battery life, that, too, is not accurate. Firstly, the 800mhz iBook, which Odessa reviewed, was introduced within the last two months (from the time I posted this review). So, the assertion that the battery was effectively dead must apply to an earlier model, and is considered a warranty item and would be replaced by Apple free of charge if true.
This is Apple's best designed, most durable, fastest, and easiest to use Consumer Portable ever produced. ...
The iBook ships with Apple's Combo drive which plays CDs, DVDs and burns CDs. It ships with 32mb VRAM, four-times the VRAM included with Apple's original Dual USB iBook. Jaguar 10.2 ships along with all of Apple's iApps. The entire package is covered by one year of AppleCare, Apple's "bumper-to-bumper" warranty program.
(5 out of 5)Near-Perfect Price Point
This model attains a near-perfect price point between performance and cost. While you can get the 14-inch iBook, it's important to remember that it has the exact same resolution as the 12-inch screen; all you're paying for is bigger pixels, not increased resolution. For me, the joy of the iBook (and I have a Titanium to compare it to) is that it's very small, and thus very portable, and about a half-pound lighter than the Titanium. In addition, the smaller pixel sizes on this 12-inch model mean a much finer quality of screen-rendering. The shades, fades and shadows of OS X are sharp and clean. The G3 on the iBook is rock-solid, speedy and more than appropriate for a product in this price range; only in high-end graphics and video functions is there any noticeable advantage in the G4 chip, and anyone doing that kind of work should spend for a Titanium. The G3 chip is fine for daily use, particularly if you have sufficient RAM. You most certainly need more than the included 128MB, however; I recommend maxing it out with a 512MB chip....
(5 out of 5)Great machine
Anyone who suggests a Celeron or Pentium instead of this laptop is missing the boat. With this one you get 5 hours use between charges; with those you get MAX 2-1/2 hours. As to the amazingly uninformed statement about the G3 being outdated, the G3 has been updated many times and is NOT the same chip that was introduced years ago. It works fine and competes very well in speed against all competitors.
This is just a GREAT machine. Polished, smooth ... it just WORKS. I use mine daily, and NEVER reboot. Just close the lid and it sleeps; open the lid and it wakes ... fast if you use OSX.
... For the price, you can't beat it. It just WORKS, and it works nicely.
(5 out of 5)why did i wait?
i dumped windows years ago, and have been using linux since. linux is nice, and the major headaches windows gave me were fixed by linux, but linux introduces a whole new share of headaches....
i have wanted to try a mac since OS X came out, but they are so pricey, right? wrong! sure you can get a cheaper laptop, but find one with 3-5 hours battery time and a CDRW/DVD for this price. there are none. then notice this thing is smaller than the closest competitor, and faster too. don't buy the mghz myth. this 800 speed laptop with only 128 RAM does most things faster than the 1.8 pentium desktop i compared it to. it is wonderful. and the design is sleek! just buy it and take it out to do a little writing in park or take it to class with you. strangers come up and ask to touch it. it turns heads.
as others have mentioned, this (and all macs) are not hardcore game machines. you want a game machine? buy a playstation. far cheaper than a computer. you want a headache, buy anything with windows installed. you want it to just work. buy a mac.
OS X is incredible. unix power and stability, but mac easy. that beats windows easy any day. just plug it in and it is ready! print? plug in the printer and hit "print"! wizards? install disks? forget it! just plug and work. forget plug and pray.
don't do what i did. don't regret spending $$$$ on RAM and video cards a monitors only to find apple had the answer all along. switch now. save the cash.