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Life with only a Notebooks, PC or Mac?
Part 1, mid-market class
Apple
14" iBook Combo, cont'd.
today to what is available for Windows computers. You may not have 10
different brands of a particular application type, but you will have
usually 3 or 4 to choose from.
AppleWorks 6 comes with the iBook and it will give you every “Office”
component you will ever need, or get from a comparable Microsoft Office
product, and it’s a lot easier to use to boot. I use AppleWorks
on a routine basis, as well as MS Office 2002 (2000 on a PC) and I don’t
feel Apple has left anything I need out of AppleWorks 6.
Does
it pass desktop muster?
You
just knew we’d have to get around to say this, Mac processor speed
numbers are deceptive at the least. I feel very comfortable saying to
you that you can take any G3 or G4 RISC Processor clock speed and double
it for the comparable Intel or AMD processor’s capability. This
is based on many real-world application benchmark tests by numerous
test labs, including our own. The iBooks 700 MHz G3 is easily up to
the challenge and equal to a 1.4 GHz P3-M. With 512 MB L2 Cache, applications
scurry along with a lot of flurry.
If there is one area that the iBook is a bit weak, it’s in the video card. This is an area that has been Apple’s downfall for some time. While the ATI Mobile Radeon is a very capable 2x AGP chipset, the 16 MB of RAM is insufficient for some really intensive video and graphics editing, and forget high-rez 3D game play. For the rest of your day-in and day-out application use you will never notice the lack of a bigger graphics RAM and as we said earlier, the display is awesome.
We like the way that the TFT display folds back and down behind the base of the Notebook on hinges that will never break, but it has a penalty. With this design, Apple has to put all the USB and Firewire ports on the left side of the iBook. That’s fine for out of the way connecting of a DV-corder or Digital Camera, but it’s the long way around for a mouse cable. Apple has also chosen to eliminate the Type-2 PC Card slots on the iBooks, some argue whether this slot has outlived it’s real value anyway. We think that there should be at least one Type-2 left on.
Conclusions:
Apples
iBooks, both the 12.1" and the 14.1" models continue to be a
major sales success. That alone should tell you something, it has to many
of Apples competitors that have copied many of the iBooks features. The
iBook has everything except a faster processor to really be absolute king
of the mid-market class. But don't let that stop you, the 14" G3
iBook is a real Desktop replacement to a great many users already.
Sony Vaio
PCG-VX89
In the last few years
Sony has emerged from a “me too” Notebook computer company
to a true innovator. The Vaio line is extremely varied in style, size,
price and market point. Some Vaio’s are either slightly better in
features or style than a comparable competitor, some Vaio’s are
dramatically superior to their equivalent competition. Two things are
a constant though and that is Vaio’s are always more expensive and
they are always great looking Notebooks. The Sony Vaio that they choose
to submit to us is the just released Vaio VX89, an extremely svelte and
lightweight portable computer. It’s so new that the two retail sites
we found that list it (mycomputersupplies.com and techonweb.com) are only
taking “reservation” orders. 
We’re
going to say this right up front; this is a great looking Notebook and
almost a perfectly designed one. However, it is no Desktop replacement
Notebook.
Sony went all out to make this relatively full size mid-market class Notebook as trim and light as possible, the target obviously being the Apple iBook. Even though it may not attempt to look like an iBook, some coincidental similarities are obvious.
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