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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Wednesday, October 22, 2003Apple launches new iBook G4 systems ... What's the catch?I've been using a 500 MHz iBook G3 for over two years now (I bought it in August 2001), and have been thinking about replacing it all year. Originally I figured I'd get the 15-inch PowerBook G4, but portability is more important to me these days, so I turned my attention to the 12-inch model, which was recently upgraded to a 1 GHz processor. But now ... we have new iBooks and, like many potential customers, I bet, I'm confused. The new iBooks feature a G4 processor (finally), but the 12-inch version runs at just 800 MHz, and there's no upgrade option (on the plus side, it's just $1099). To get a speedier 933 MHz G4, you have to get the 14-inch version, which blows: I really like the 12-inch's form factor (which is virtually identical on the 12-inch PB). So what's the catch? Starting at just $1099, the iBook does seem like a good deal. There's just one problem: The PowerBook G4 systems include a whopping 512K of L2 cache, while the iBooks include just 256K of L2 cache. The video subsystem isn't awesome either: An ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM, compared to the PB-12's NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM (higher end PB's include an even better ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 with 64MB of DDR SDRAM). So... hmm. Is the iBook artificially hampered in an effort to keep the consumer device lest costly and less of a competitor to the high-priced PBs? Or is this still a good deal? [ Posted at 6:51 PM | Permalink ]
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