My iMac Review
Well, I've got my new 20" iMac, with Bluetooth, Airport and 2GB of RAM. I had the old 17" 800Mhz iMac and still have a 1Ghz Powerbook 12".
The extra screen size of this machine will take some getting used to, but the white space at the bottom doesn't bother me at all - in fact, I think it would look weird without it. The screen is the best LCD I've ever experienced while the speed of the machine is phenomenal - I realize that may have something to do with the extra RAM, but I can click 'Next' in iPhoto with photos full screen and it goes right there - with other apps open. Having not had a new Apple desktop for over 2yrs one of the nicest surprises are the improvements in the keyboard and mouse area - I just wish they weren't white, as they'll pick up the dirt - that's not a minor quibble, I think Apple really should look at changing the colour or something. The speakers are also surprsisngly good, certainly superior to the G4 iMac and maybe even the G3.
Further qualms? I bought 'Republic' before getting the new iMac. On loading the game it says it has known issues with the graphics card. I would hope they would release a patch for this. I also had to reinstall Safari, as the transfer of data from my Powerbook made Safari crash every 5 seconds.
Generally I'm delighted. I never liked the look of the old iMac and missed the 'cuddliness' of the original. This doesn't quite go to cuddly, but it DOES have the sophistication of the iPod - it just looks right. Sleek, elegant and a masterpiece of engineering.
Mike
The extra screen size of this machine will take some getting used to, but the white space at the bottom doesn't bother me at all - in fact, I think it would look weird without it. The screen is the best LCD I've ever experienced while the speed of the machine is phenomenal - I realize that may have something to do with the extra RAM, but I can click 'Next' in iPhoto with photos full screen and it goes right there - with other apps open. Having not had a new Apple desktop for over 2yrs one of the nicest surprises are the improvements in the keyboard and mouse area - I just wish they weren't white, as they'll pick up the dirt - that's not a minor quibble, I think Apple really should look at changing the colour or something. The speakers are also surprsisngly good, certainly superior to the G4 iMac and maybe even the G3.
Further qualms? I bought 'Republic' before getting the new iMac. On loading the game it says it has known issues with the graphics card. I would hope they would release a patch for this. I also had to reinstall Safari, as the transfer of data from my Powerbook made Safari crash every 5 seconds.
Generally I'm delighted. I never liked the look of the old iMac and missed the 'cuddliness' of the original. This doesn't quite go to cuddly, but it DOES have the sophistication of the iPod - it just looks right. Sleek, elegant and a masterpiece of engineering.
Mike
Comments
Originally posted by imac600mhz
I saw one today, the screen looked really big. It was pretty poor with only 256ram everything was jumpy, still glad i ordred one tho
Yeah, I had a quick play with one that had 256 MB of RAM in it, and it wasn't too impressive. I'm sure if they at least doubled the RAM, potential customers might get a better first impression.
Still, I saw it at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon and they only got it that morning. m.
Originally posted by Merovingian
Yeah, I had a quick play with one that had 256 MB of RAM in it, and it wasn't too impressive. I'm sure if they at least doubled the RAM, potential customers might get a better first impression.
Still, I saw it at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon and they only got it that morning. m.
i played with a 1.6combo and luckily they had stuffed an extra 512RAM in for 768 and that machine was zippy. seems like no question its a little ram starved.
I agree about the John Kerry chin. When you are using the iMac, it just kind of disappears completely. I'm glad that it's largely unbroken in appearance as that's what makes it disappear.
I'll second that the sound is really great.
It ran surprisingly well with the stock 256. It only hicupped when I loaded up Nanosaur 2 to evaluate the graphics. I had all the settings on maximum and once it was loaded it ran very smoothly. I didn't have any more intensive software to throw at it, but since I'm only a casual gamer, I'm no longer worried about the bargain-basement FX 5200.
The cost? Well, it should be less than $200. And you will thank yourself later.
And of course 256 MB is probably more than adequate for email, web and light iLife use, so most customers will not notice the difference. On the other hand, power users will upgrade the RAM anyway (you gotta admit, 1 GB is the minimum hah)!
Of course, I currently have an 12" iBook G3 700 with 640 RAM, so I am making my judgment based on that. It's much faster, has a much better video card, a larger screen and can burn CD's (or DVD's).
Overall, I was impressed with it, and plan on ordering one just after the first of next year (saving to pay cash instead of charging it). I will most likely order the 1.8\\SD\\AE\\BT K&M\\80HDD\\1GB RAM. The 1GB RAM upgrade from Apple is $202.00 on the education site, and that really isn't much more than anywhere else. Also, that will cover the RAM under AppleCare.
The only other "toy" I would like to add is a 40G iPod, but I will have to see how generous Santa is this Christmas! :-)
I'm still at the stock 256MB RAM and performance definitely takes a hit due to this. I've got 2GB on order through newegg.com ($330 for 2GB? Sure!) so that will alleviate the RAM issues. Other than that this machine flies.