Hands on the New iBook

May 15, 2001
by Joe Kallo
Columnist

Since the announcement of the new iBook I have been caught in a quandry: whether to “upgrade” from my Pismo to one of the new machines. The very day Jobs announced the new PowerBook G4 I purchased my 500 megahertz Pismo G3. I am one of the rare people for whom the glitz of titanium did not inspire instant lust. I understand the positive impact the laptop has made on Apple's financial situation, but its "sex appeal" didn't sway me--I preferred the curvy lines of the old G4 form factor. That all changed last week with the announcement of the new iBook. I was pretty quickly left thinking that I'd bought my portable a couple of months too early. After getting my hands on the new iBook this weekend for an hour or so, I'm sure I did. I've decided upon three (admittedly very subjective) reasons why I think the iBook is superior to the Pismo.

1. Size. The new iBook is tiny. Its footprint really is about the size of a standard sheet of paper, and it's amazingly light. It is seriously dwarfed by both the Pismo and the Titanium. I felt as if I could pop it into a backpack and forget that I was carrying anything other than a book of about its size.

2. Build. After playing with the iBook, my Pismo feels flimsy. Apple claims that the new iBook is at least twice as durable as its predecessor and my observations lead me to believe them. When you pick the iBook up by the extreme of one corner, there is no perceptible flex across the bottom of the laptop. My Pismo, in contrast, flexes enough to make me worry about damaging it. For those who are lucky enough to have used (or who still, like my partner, use) an Emate, you'll find a similarly tank-like build in the new iBook.

3. Screen. Simply put, I think the new iBook sports the sharpest LCD screen in portable Apple's lineup. This may well surprise some: it certainly surprised me. I suppose the pixel density associated with packing 1028x768 pixels into a 12 inch screen explains why the screen looks so good. In comparison with a Pismo or Titanium, the iBook's screen appeared both sharper and brighter. OS X always seems a bit washed out on the screen of my Pismo--the horizontal lines in the title bars are almost invisible. The iBook's screen, on the other hand, rendered OS X very crisply.

The disadvantages of the new machine will be pointed out by commentators as it begins to hit the market, though I think they will have to hunt for them. The advantages listed above are open to debate, but they were the qualities that seemed obvious in my short examination of the iBook. These advantages, combined with much of the functionality of a Pismo 500 lead me to believe that, for my general-use purposes, the iBook is a superior laptop to the Pismo. My chance to handle the little laptop certainly made up my mind: just as soon as someone relieves me of my Pismo I'll be in the market for a new iBook.