They like it, they really like it. Not only has the Boston Globe praised the “understated elegance” of Apple’s new iBook, but Wall Street Journal columnist, Walter Mossberg, also gives the consumer portable a thumbs up.
The columnist was never very impressed with the “heavy, wide design” and “miserly amount of memory and hard-disk capacity” of the previous iBooks. However, the totally revised version, a sort of “little brother” of the Titanium PowerBook, has a much improved set of features that will appeal to home consumers and students, Mossberg said. The columnist adds that it’s “the lightest, smallest full-featured consumer portable I’ve seen” and is reasonably priced.
“As always, Apple has gone for a striking design statement here,” Mossberg notes. “In a world of big, heavy, black laptops designed for home and campus use, Apple has created a svelte but robust machine with a snow-white skin encased in a clear plastic coating. It looks like a big ice cube, and fans on Internet message boards have already dubbed it the IceBook.”
He does have two complaints about the new iBook, however: the meager 10GB hard drive in the standard configuration and lack of an industry-standard PC card slot and floppy drive. He also notes that the white case shows fingerprints and scratches easily. Mossberg also wishes the new iBook had a slot-loading CD and DVD drive instead of its traditional tray-loader.
“Still, this is an excellent laptop with a very attractive and thoughtful design,” he concludes. “I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it for home users or college students.”