Stephen Williams says that Apple’s iBook is “refreshingly simple, and, by extension, eloquent.” His comments come in a recently published review in the Baltimore Sun entitled Apple has winner with its iBook.
Williams recounted his experience at Macworld Expo this past January when the new PowerBook G4 was introduced to “borderline hysteria.” Getting his hands on one didn’t live up to Williams’ expectations, though, and that left him waiting for “the next best thing” from Apple — the iBook.
Williams lauds the long battery life, ingenious hinge apparatus and low weight. He said that the iBook’s screen is well suited to watching DVDs (a DVD-ROM and CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive are available as options, you’ll remember), with bright colors and sharp details.
“The top-end iBook is the digital equivalent of a long weekend at Disneyland: a CD-recordable/DVD drive, 10-gigabyte hard drive, 128 megabytes of memory, FireWire and USB connections plus an Ethernet port for a cable modem or DSL line, and a very capable 500MHz PowerPC processor,” wrote Williams.
Williams knocks the iBook’s 10 gigabyte hard drive, and notes the lack of a floppy drive, although he admits he has no use for one — his external floppy, purchased for his Power Mac G4 Cube, has gone unused since he bought it. More serious is the lack of a PC card slot — a familiar refrain from many journalists who have seen the iBook.
“They’re comfortable to own, to use, to look at,” said Williams.