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June
1st, 2001.
by rob
ART morgan,
Bare Feats Mad Scientist
The original
iBook looked like a toilet seat to me. But this
2001 model is very cool. It's several ounces
lighter and half the cost of the 400MHz Titanium G4
PowerBook. But how does it perform?
PERFORMANCE
ANALYSIS
When testing the
iBook 2001 against Titanium G4 PowerBooks, I
couldn't stop thinking about the price difference.
Many of my readers are asking, "Is the iBook a
better buy than the 400MHz version of the TiBook?"
In terms of cost/performance ratio, I'd say, "YES!"
If you are a
FireWire "Freak," the
iBook is up to twice as fast as the
Tibook.
I did add a $28
128MB memory upgrade to the base model iBook but
that only brought the total cost to $1327. Compare
that to the $2599 you'll pay for the cheapest
TiBook.
But there are
trade-offs. The 12 inch screen seems tiny compared
to the 15 inch screen of the TiBook. And the G4
does run significantly faster for Photoshop and
Final Cut Pro functions.
I included the
Pismo G3/500 because there's some great deals on
used and refurbished Pismos if you want a larger 14
inch screen. If you don't mind the bigger size and
extra weight, the Pismo is equal or better in
performance to the iBook 2001.
I also included
the Wallstreet model of PowerBook with the
PowerLogix BlueChip G3/500 upgrade. I came close to
selling my upgraded Wallstreet to buy the iBook
2001 until I used the keyboard. The keyboard of the
Wallstreet is far superior in feel to iBook 2001
(and any of the other models of PowerBook including
the Lombard, Pismo and Titanium). The iBook's
keyboard not only looked cheap and felt flimsy, but
the keys kept coming off. I couldn't get the DELETE
key to stay on. Bare Feats is about measured
performance but a lousy keyboard can definitely
slow you down.
I know, I know. I
didn't include the iBook 2000 (466MHz) in the test.
Just use your imagination to picture a laptop
that's thicker, larger, heavier, and slower than
the iBook 2001.
To help the
Titanium seem worth the extra scratch, Apple should
announce version 2 this July with the nVidia
GeForce2 Go graphics chip (or Radeon Mobility),
improved FireWire controller, and slot load
DVD/CD-RW.
RELATED
LINKS
Bare Feats
compares various models of Mac running a FireWire
external drive. The
iBook is twice as fast as the
TiBook!
MacSpeedZone
claims the Titanium G4/400 blows away the iBook
2001 G3/500. My figures above dispute that but go
read their report
anyway.
Bare Feats
compares the iBook
466 with the PowerBook Pismo
400.
Bare Feats
compares the G4
Titanium with two PowerBook
upgrades.
MacWorld Labs
compares
the G4/500 Titanium with the G3/500
Pismo.
XLR8YourMac tests
the G3/500
Pismo PowerBook.
XLR8YourMac tests
the G3/500
BlueChip
PowerBook CPU Upgrade.
WHERE TO ORDER YOUR APPLE PRODUCTS
When ordering products from Apple Store USA, please click THIS TEXT LINK or any Apple display ad as your "portal" to the online store. In so doing, you help to support Bare Feats.
Small
Dog Electronics
offers new and refurbished iBooks and
PowerBooks.
MacGurus,
Other
World Computing
(OWC), and Small
Dog Electronics are
selling the BlueChip G4/500 upgrade for Wallstreet
and Lombard.
Trans
Intl has
newest, fastest IBM
TravelStar 32GH (32GB 5411
rpm) 2.5
inch drive. If that's too rich for your blood, try
the 20GB
TravelStar 4200rpm.
It's almost
as fast
for a lot less.
Other
World Computing
and Small
Dog Electronics
have heavily discounted upgrades from Newer
Technology (rest in peace).
TEST
HARDWARE
Test machines included the G3/233 Wallstreet
PowerBook (with G3/500 upgrade*), G3/500 Pismo
PowerBook, G3/500 iBook 2001, a G400 Titanium
PowerBook, and a G4/500 Titanium PowerBook. Each
laptop had between 192 to 256MB of RAM.
(*
PowerLogix
BlueChip G3/500 with 1MB L2 cache was installed in
the PowerBook Wallstreet G3/233 along with an
optional 20GB
TravelStar 4200rpm
courtesy of Trans
Intl.
)
© 1995-2007 Rob Art Morgan
"BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS"
Email
, the webmaster
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