Home > Consumer Reviews > Apple iBook Laptop 12.1" M8758LL/A (800-MHz PowerPC G3, 128 MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Drive, CD-ROM Drive)

Being in graduate school I see a lot of laptops making there way to and from school. The functionality of the ibook is quite respectable for the price and the 12.1 screen is quite sufficient for school work. But, what is particular nice about the ibook, is its solid construction; built like a little tank! Last semester, 3 fellow students broke their G4 notebooks and those of us with ibooks didn't lose a single one.

As a writer for LowEndMac (http://www.lowendmac.com/), I know my Mac. I've had this comptuer for a few months now and absolutely love it! While it's not my main computer, I use it to take to class and around campus. Paired with an AirPort card it's awesome. For the price, this provides every I'd ever need. The small size is great to take around campus or anywhere, and everyone thinks it's so cute!

First thing I should mention: I bought this laptop at a spectacular sale price. I paid $729 for this machine with 640mb of RAM (maxed out) and an Airport card with it. I highly recommend that you do max it out. I played with the 128mb version of this in Compusa and I noticed it to be significantly slower. When maxed out, this machine will run significantly faster than my 1.67Ghz Windows XP desktop in any task you will throw at it. On top of that, the Mac OS is far superior to anything ever put out by Microsoft. It's stable, easy to use, it just works. I have OS X Panther on this and I highly recommend it. I could never live without Expose, Apples far superior answer to the PC bar at the bottom. For those who are not familiar with it, this new feature in Panther will allow you to push F9 on the keyboard and show every window that is open. It will show exactly what is happening in that window at the moment, meaning that if I were to have a video running on it, the video would play on the tiny window as I look for the window I want. I click the window and it goes back to normal, only with that window on top. VERY USEFUL.
Besides that, this machine is very well designed. The ports are on the side, no more reaching behind to plug it in. Its got a thick layer of plastic casing, yet is just over an inch thick. The 12 inch screen is amoung the clearest I've ever seen, and is suprisingly easy to use. The speakers are just okay, but you don't buy a laptop for speakers anyway. The snow colored design is absolutly beautiful, and is a nice plus. The screen is on a solid bar, not one of those flimsy PC hinges. This is the most solidly built, yet lightest, thinnest, most compact laptops I've ever owned or used. I have had several PC laptops before this one, and this is, by far, the best machine I have ever owned.
By the way, the battery life on this machine is, to sum it up in one word, unbelievable. I can get about 4 hours of battery life while watching VIDEOS on this, surfing the web I can get upwards of four and a half or more! The low power consumption of the G3 processor makes this an ultra-portable machine.
For those who are considering switching. Don't be discouraged by the OS right away. It is something you will need to get used to, but after a few days you will never know how you ever lived without it. I now go back to my PC and just absolutly despise it every second I use it. I have now gotten used to the Mac and enjoy it more than I ever did with my PC. You know what they say, once you've gone Mac, you don't ever go back.

Well, to sum it up, this machine is perfect. I have yet to come across any sort of flaw whatsoever. Mac has thought this thing through, their attention to detail is amazing. Everything down to the little hook that comes out just as you close the lid to lock it shut has been designed perfectly. This isn't something that has just been scrapped together by Dell or something, this is a powerful piece of computing genius that has been designed for people out to make the intelligent choice for their computing needs. If you're stupid, go the ways of the PC world and conform to the ways of Bill Gates If you're smart, buy a Mac, you won't regret it. I guarantee!

This is my first ever Apple notebook computer and I must say I am terribly pleased. At first I was worried about not having a G4 processor in it, but after recieving my G3 800 iBook and running osX and a few games I must say, I can barely ever discern a difference between this and my imac G4.

I ordered 256mb of ram with my iBook because this speeds it up significantly. You probably wouldnt notice many differences until you try to run more than one application at a time, then you start to feel a little sluggish.

This computer is great, I was worried that maybe it was one of the crappy logic board ibooks but nope, the serial number is far newer than the ones that are at risk for bad logic Boards.

And finally the look of the ibook is seriously cool. I can't wait to go to borders and study for awhile. While everyone else has the same colored gateway laptops plugged into the wall power that borders provides I can cruise with my trusty awesome looking ibook on battery. Also, the power adapter is small, and the thing about people saying the keyboard feels like plastic I disagree with, it is kinda ... hmm, hard to explain, but definitely a plus in my book. Im used to the hard cruching key boards and this one is much less crunchy.

Also, the 12 inch size is simply the best size for a laptop. Anythin bigger and portability almost seems like a hassle rather than a joy.

Awesome computer. Dont forget to pick up that extra 256 mb of ram to get it up to 384mb making it much smoother.. actually, completely smooth... Heaven on earth lol.

My girlfriend and I bought this computer for college for her and we both use it. Excellent Purchase

Pro- Great battery life (we've gotten 7-8 house using wireless and www/word/email
Pretty sturdy, not as much as my clamshell ibook but better than other laptops I've seen
Great display, clear and bright
Fast ENOUGH...

Con- Have had to repair it once for the display that stopped working, although the local repair center fixed it in 3 days and was covered under warranty

Would recommend that you buy applecare extended though.