Researching 12" iBook G4 1Ghz

[fatman]

Hello,

I've been lurking about for several weeks now and I decided I wanted to post to get some feedback.

I’m a 1st year uni student majoring in Accounting.

I’ve been a PC user for 15 or more years, but I have had some Mac experience.

I currently using a laptop – Pentium 4 m 1.7Ghz, 768DDR RAM, 30 GIG HDD, Geforce 2 Go, 8x DVDROM, 14” screen. It’s about 3 Kgs (~6.6lbs) it gets about 2 hours on a full charge. This laptop is not mine but my dads.

I live in Australia and the educational discount of the 12” iBook is great value and all the new updates to the iBook line make it a great all round package. At the end of the month Apple will stop the current 3 year warranty to change it to only 1 year warranty on educational discounts (Australia only, I'm not sure about other countries), so I must make a decision relatively quickly. Although I have enough money for the laptop I don’t want to jump into anything without first researching thoroughly. The $1500AUD price tag may not mean much to some but it does to me.

My main concerns are heat.

I’ve read a lot about this laptop and from what I’ve gathered I came to the following conclusions:

The good – It very portable, light, fast, has a slot loading DVD/CDR combo, good dedicated graphics card, bright screen, good battery performance, keyboard is good, a very nice OS, with recent updates it makes it a great bang for your buck laptop.

The bad- heat heat and heat – heat on the left palm

The ugly- Combo drive is a bit noisy, display has poor response rate and average viewing angles(but being a portable device you can’t expect much)

The only problems I see in this laptop is heat. From what I’ve read, the hard disk drive is located under the left palm rest which gives out quite a bit of heat which can become quite uncomfortable.

In the laptop I’m currently using I actually upgraded the memory and I was wondering if I could reuse the memory in the iBook. Currently I have this memory (http://www.geilusa.com/proddetail.asp?linenumber=32) and the specifications seem to match fine.

The only other problem I have with getting this laptop is being that I have access to my dad’s laptop which can perform all the functions I need. And can I justify the purchase especially since my Uni course is business and not computer science?

The most important thing is - why do I want it? Well I want to be able to do my homework (especially Law) obviously, I want something portable to take and carry around and with good battery life. I will not be gaming at all.

You’re probably thinking I’ve over analysing the situation but that’s just me. I’m sorry this turned out to be so long but any comments and/or suggestions are very welcome.

 

[vuschejan]

Hello,

I've been lurking about for several weeks now and I decided I wanted to post to get some feedback.

I’m a 1st year uni student majoring in Accounting.

I’ve been a PC user for 15 or more years, but I have had some Mac experience.

I currently using a laptop – Pentium 4 m 1.7Ghz, 768DDR RAM, 30 GIG HDD, Geforce 2 Go, 8x DVDROM, 14” screen. It’s about 3 Kgs (~6.6lbs) it gets about 2 hours on a full charge. This laptop is not mine but my dads.

I live in Australia and the educational discount of the 12” iBook is great value and all the new updates to the iBook line make it a great all round package. At the end of the month Apple will stop the current 3 year warranty to change it to only 1 year warranty on educational discounts (Australia only, I'm not sure about other countries), so I must make a decision relatively quickly. Although I have enough money for the laptop I don’t want to jump into anything without first researching thoroughly. The $1500AUD price tag may not mean much to some but it does to me.

My main concerns are heat.

I’ve read a lot about this laptop and from what I’ve gathered I came to the following conclusions:

The good – It very portable, light, fast, has a slot loading DVD/CDR combo, good dedicated graphics card, bright screen, good battery performance, keyboard is good, a very nice OS, with recent updates it makes it a great bang for your buck laptop.

The bad- heat heat and heat – heat on the left palm

The ugly- Combo drive is a bit noisy, display has poor response rate and average viewing angles(but being a portable device you can’t expect much)

The only problems I see in this laptop is heat. From what I’ve read, the hard disk drive is located under the left palm rest which gives out quite a bit of heat which can become quite uncomfortable.

In the laptop I’m currently using I actually upgraded the memory and I was wondering if I could reuse the memory in the iBook. Currently I have this memory (http://www.geilusa.com/proddetail.asp?linenumber=32) and the specifications seem to match fine.

The only other problem I have with getting this laptop is being that I have access to my dad’s laptop which can perform all the functions I need. And can I justify the purchase especially since my Uni course is business and not computer science?

The most important thing is - why do I want it? Well I want to be able to do my homework (especially Law) obviously, I want something portable to take and carry around and with good battery life. I will not be gaming at all.

You’re probably thinking I’ve over analysing the situation but that’s just me. I’m sorry this turned out to be so long but any comments and/or suggestions are very welcome.

Well, I have never had any heat problems except for the bottom and its not even that bad. Battery life, I use my laptop for school and i get excellent battery timing 5-6 hours usually... As far as memory goes you absoulutley HAVE to have the exact type it needs. Check apple's site for more information. Its your choice, I love my mac and will for the rest of eternity

 

[Aptmunich]

i agree, then left palm rest does get a little warm, but not much warmer than your average notebook, plus you don't really notice it unless typing for extended lenghs of time and even then it's not disturbingly warm...(kind of like a built in hand warmer... oh i suppose you wouldn't have much use for that down under??)

But the benefit is a fan that seems to be off 98% of the time so the computer is virtually silent.

The drive is quite noisy though, but seems alright playing dvd's and the like (seems to be noisy spinning up and then quiets down..)

for university it's great, battery life was a main concern of mine (even though there are ac sockets everywhere here, but nothing beats doing your homework in the english garden in munich on a hot day )

I say go for it!

 

[fatman]

being silent is also another great feature I forgot to mention. My dad's laptop runs very hot to touch and it has a very noisy fan just doing basic word processing (nothing taxing)

I've heard mixed reports about build quality. I.e creaky is there but very minimal. I guess I'm just going to have to go into my local Apple store soon to check it out myself. Thanks for the replies! Keep them coming!

 

[vuschejan]

being silent is also another great feature I forgot to mention. My dad's laptop runs very hot to touch and it has a very noisy fan just doing basic word processing (nothing taxing)

I've heard mixed reports about build quality. I.e creaky is there but very minimal. I guess I'm just going to have to go into my local Apple store soon to check it out myself. Thanks for the replies! Keep them coming!

Yeah its completely silent unless its too hot then the fan comes on which is quite silent too, you have no silence problems to deal with with an ibook!

 

[MoltenLava]

My iBook doesn't get any hotter than other laptops that I used before, whether it's Powerbook, Thinkpad, Sony VAIO, etc. I don't think iBook has a fan in it (or mine never turned itself on yet), and that could explain why it could be perceived to get hotter. When it does get hot, it takes longer to cool down without a fan.

You can use any DDR 2100 or above memory in your iBook G4. There is no such "memory built just for your laptop". Just get ones with good quality chips, such as Samsung or Hynix.

 

[The mac 13]

yes, the memory ccan b used...yeah ma lappie gets VERY hot on normal usage..sdo windoze...is there any soecial accounting software that u need for yr course?if there is, i advice u do switch. unlesss theyhave a mac software for it..n about the memory, bcareful..eventhou can, mac r famous for notworking with new memory added even if its fr apple themself...

 

[Aptmunich]

Concerning creakyness: I'd say it is a bit, but you don't feel it unless you pick it up and press the creaky parts...

For example if it take the left bottom corner between finger and thumb and press it, it'll creak a bit... But if I rest my hand on it and type, it feel rock solidish..

Definetly a better creaky factor than my dad's gericom pc laptop...

But i stress again how quiet it is... you hardly hear it most of the time, the only time the fan has been audible is when i've been playing tony hawk and the book is standing in the sun...

 

[fatman]

Thanks for all your replies

I'm researching a bit deeper now and I came across this thread at Mac Rumors:Forum (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=73947&highlight=ibook+g4)

The thread talks about the key's letters and numbers wearing out and not due to over abuse or long period of time. This really concerns me not because I can't type but if a year or two I decide to sell it, it would put buyers right off.

I can't tell if this was due to a bad batch, but I'm wondering if people have experience keys fading with only light typing.

Thanks

 

[Mojo027]

Can the iBook 12" 1ghz play warcraft 3 well? And be able to micro units without lag? lol.

 

[Aptmunich]

What are micro units?

I don't know about the keyboard, but so far mine is holding up... besides, you can get a replacement keyboard if it should become too bad...