Tuesday, August 31, 2004

iMac G5 - Initial Reaction

Well, the "hurricane" of the Keynote came and went. Cleanup ensues.

I was a little shocked, to be honest, not a lot shocked, a little. I assumed that the "all in the monitor" rumors had some truth to them. I feel like I shouldn't be shocked at all, but I am.

First the exterior. It is neat. But I like the sunflower iMac the best as of this point. The big white space at the base of the monitor is ... *okay*. Not sure they could have done much else with it, though. I am a huge J. Ive fan, and this is no exception to his excellent work. But I'm not sure it is his best.

But I still like it. It may become the iMac of preference for me soon enough as I'm a big fan of future-looking devices. I like that on the iMac page (graphics) Apple says that you can purchase a mount for the iMac and hang it on a wall or desk-mount device. Now that's cool.

Overall it does look neat to me. Okay, as I type this out, I'm liking it more ... I'm trying to resist. Must ... maintain ... composure.

Interior is neat. Clean, simple, powerful. Design feat.

Video: This is the first real thing that got me. The second is the *optional* bluetooth. A unit this slick should be wirless from the git go. Not a good move, IMHO. But the video. 64MB?! So it can run Doom III, but golly gee, guys!! 128 should have been the starting point. And there is no option to upgrade.

Granted, video cards produce a lot of heat. Maybe the beefier cards just couldn't pass the temperature muster, or the size muster given the need for a fan on the card. But still.

Bluetooth: $50 option alone, but if you purchase the system and there is an option of "Bluetooth + Apple wireless keyboard and mouse" for only $99. That's a good deal.

Other gripes: Base RAM. Still at 256MB. Not good. Wireless ready. The top two models should have it built-in, so the cost of this puppy keeps going up.

Would I buy one. If I had the money, yes. After all you other folks jumped in first to work out the bugs and stuff :-). Give me the 20" model with a 250MB HD upgrade, AirPort Extreme, bluetooth/keyb/mouse deal, 2GB RAM. That'd work ... that is, except for the price: $3320.00 in USD. Granted, I could get the RAM cheaper elsewhere, and probably would, so knock off $1125 from Apple.

Desktop space (and floor) is a premium in our house, so though I'd rather the full power of dual processors, this would do.

How about you? Like it, hate it, jury still out?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Y'know, I hadn't thought of comparing it with the PowerMacs. The iMac with everything came to $3302.00--I didn't get an Airport base station (though I did get the card).

So what will my $3302.00 buy me in the PowerMac realm?

Okay, I can get the Dual 1.8 GHz with the 20" screen for $3298. I get an extra processor, faster bus, FireWire 800, expansion slots, and $4.00. I lose a ton of memory (256MB vs. 2GB), a ton of hard drive space (80GB vs. 250GB), no AirPort, no Bluetooth, and I'm stuck with a wired keyboard.

Hm. Interesting choice.

Anonymous said...

If the space at the base of the monitor was gone, you would lose the classic Macintosh look. It harkens back to the original Macintosh of 1984, the original iMac, etc. That is the face of the all-in-one Mac. The space itself is great for stickies. But without the space, the iMac would look generic.

Anonymous said...

The ONLY sticker that should be used on one of these would be circular, stuck right in the center at the bottom, and look like a Click Wheel from an iPod.

Darren Mahaffy said...

The iPod click-wheel sticker is a great idea. LOL. Given Apple's marketing of the iMac next to the iPod, it makes sense.

Thanks for the comments. Good stuff to consider. The "loss" of the Classic Mac look is true. There's always something at the bottom - EXCEPT for the sunflower (previous) iMac. That was, IMHO, on its own design-wise.

This new one does - straight on - look more like the eMac. From the side, it's a different story.

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