ZDNet’s Barry Lubov has posted a review of Apple’s new DVD-equipped iBook. His reaction? “Given its extensive feature set, the new iBook isn’t just the portable to beat at the consumer level; it’s the portable to beat at any level,” writes Lubov.
Lubov says the iBook equipped with a combination CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive offers “the best bang for your buck.” He lauds some of the other features available to all iBook users, too — the tough polycarbonate case, magnesium frame, and rubber-mounted hard drive, for example.
Lubov notes that the iBook crept along in ZDNet’s Photoshop test at about half the speed of their PowerBook G4, but he’s forgiving. After all, Lubov said, the iBook didn’t have the same amount of RAM or the Velocity Engine-equipped G4 chip as the Titanium PowerBook. “Though the iBook can’t keep up with the Titanium, it’s still no slouch,” remarked Lubov.
Lubov is content with the iBook’s battery life, too. He said that playing DVD’s continuously, the iBook lasts for about two hours on a single battery charge. “With power saving features maxed out and a light workload, it ran for 5 hours and 16 minutes,” remarked Lubov.
“Ultimately, it’s tough to find anything at all to complain about in the new iBook,” concluded Lubov. “It has a compact, sturdy design, delivers more than enough oomph for ordinary tasks, offers all the ports and drive options you’ll ever need, and even — dare we say it — looks sexy. Unless you have very intense graphics requirements, you really can’t go wrong with the iBook.”
The new iBook gets an Editor’s Rating of 8.0, on a scale of 1 to 10 — the average of various criteria including durability, portability, battery life, performance, value and service & support. Based on more than 80 user responses logged in by ZDNet at the time MacCentral went to press with this article, though, ZDNet’s readers rate the diminutive Mac portable even higher — it’s clocking in around 9.2.