A TechTV report compares Gateway’s new Profile 4 and the new 17-inch iMac.
Though TechTV notes that there are some obvious advantages to the Profile (the ubiquitousness of Windows and lower price point on the low-end model), they still rate the iMac a better system. The high-end consumer edition of the Profile — the 4XL — boasts a 17-inch LCD and costs about as much as the high-end iMac, which sells for US$1,999.
“It comes with a whopping 120GB hard drive and 512MB of RAM,” TechTV says. “Compare that to the 17-inch iMac, which has a wide display, not a standard 1280×1024, and you lose 40GB of hard-drive space and get 256MB of RAM. However, what you don’t get on the Gateway, not even as an option, is the SuperDrive, which lets you burn both CDs and DVDs. You also don’t get iDVD, Apple’s consumer-friendly and very easy-to-use DVD-authoring software. With the iMac you also get a better video card, the Nvidia GeForce4 MX.”
The article concludes that the Profile is a “great attempt at an all-in-one LCD-equipped PC,” you should note the “fine print” in its ad that shows the machine bouncing over a lineup of iMacs. The fine print notes that the Profile 4 doesn’t bend and move like the ad shows. The Profile 4’s LCD can only be tilted up and down, where the iMac’s LCD not only tilts up and down, but moves side to side with 180 degrees of motion.
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