Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2005 > September > 01 > Entry
Winner: iBook
The laptop search is over. The winner is Apple’s iBook G4 14-inch notebook.
It had stiff competition. The Dell m700 was my favorite of the also-rans, but its screen was just a hair too small for me (despite its undeniable brightness and sharpness) and the price it would have cost to outfit it with a DVD burner and other goodies to match the iBook’s feature would have priced it about $500 more.
I also looked at some 14-inch Toshiba models. I was looking for a laptop with a screen smaller than 15 inches, which seems to be the standard now. My last laptop (which is getting some cosmetic surgery before I donate it to my shutterbug father-in-law) had a 15-inch screen and it was so heavy it hurt to carry it around after a while. But the Toshibas I saw would have cost more when factoring in the 3-year warranty plan I added to the iBook and when it came right down to it, I liked the idea of having a Mac in the house to complement the two desktop PCs my wife and I own.
The iBook won not only on price, but also on the extras deal being offered (a free iPod mini as well as $100 off an HP printer, both offers my wife and I took advantage of), and on the amazing amount of software that comes preloaded onto these things right out of the box. OSX: Tiger has proven to be even more amazing than has been written; the Dashboard and Spotlight features are innovations that Microsoft would be smart to steal (er, borrow?) for its upcoming Windows XP successor Vista.
You get a month-long trial of Microsoft Office and the iLife software, including iTunes, iDVD, the built-in mail and address book programs and the great Safari Web browser make having to buy a lot of extra software a moot point. I haven’t found anything software-wise I can’t download for free as shareware that I might need for my new Mac except World of Warcraft,” which runs just fine off the Windows/Mac hybrid discs I already owned.
So, not to sound like those annoying Apple “Switch” ads, but everything about buying my first Mac, from finding info about it online to making the purchase at the Barton Creek Apple Store was so smooth and heartening that I’ve found myself giving my Frankenstein Windows PC in my home office dirty looks from time to time. “Why can’t you have a shiny white exterior?” I’ll ask. “Why can’t you Plug-‘n-Play like you’re supposed to instead of giving me weird USB errors and deleting my files?” My wife hates it when I talk to the computer out loud like that.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Computers, Shopping
Comments
By Kyoko
September 6, 2005 9:20 PM | Link to this
yay! macs are excellent. i grew up with them and didn't use PCs until university. Just bought a 14-inch ibook and am loving it.
By Parklyn
September 5, 2005 10:42 AM | Link to this
i am just about to take the MAC plunge, even shopping at the Barton Creek store like you. Tell me, 1 - was it hard to switch to MAC from PC? and 2 - why did you get the iBook and not the G4?
How much is the Office Suite after the trial period? oooops that's 3 questions. Thanks for your article, Lori