Yeah, yeah I know. You can’t get as much work done on a Mac as you get done on Windows. Totally different microprocessor architecture and the fact that it was always meant for the well heeled due to its astronomical pricing as compared to its Windows counterparts. But one look at the form and all this just fades into insignificance. Price be damned! Today I’ll be reviewing my friends Dads Apple iMac G5 who is a professional photographer and has been using Macs since er.. a long time.(imagine when a kid of like 13 sees a computer like the Tangerine!!!!)
I admit he had this Mac since some 6 or so months and there have 2 developments to it. Why the time gap you ask??? Cos I wasn’t bitten by the reviewing bug back then. Enough crap talk lets get on with the review already.
Looks
Steve Jobs (Stevie, if you will) has always kept his company at the forefront of design and the most jaw dropping designs usually come from his stables. And more often than not, they look sexy all the time. Even when they are not working!
This one’s no exception. Its got clean yet sophisticated looks. The whole CPU, the DVD-RW are integrated right into that 2 inch thick LCD panel!!! I know u fell of your chair. Relax, drink some water and start reading the review again.
Hardware
It’s got a 2GHz proccy with a bus speed of 667MHz and 2GB (!) of RAM. Also a 250GB HDD to store all your data.
There is also a DVD-RW that literally supports all DVD formats. DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, dual layer media. Smart.
And the things got an ATI Radeon 9600 chipset! Very much necessary for that cool (It’ll be oft repeated through this review. Cant help it.) looking interface (we’ll come to that later).
On the connectivity front its got USB 2.0, Firewire, AirPort Express. Bluetooth & Infrared. I had no problems in pairing my cell phone with the Mac (Techtree.com had reported that the LG M4410 had a problem with connecting with PC’s. No such antics here). Also there is a stereo speaker
OS and Interface
This beauty is based on Apple OS 10.4.4 and the interface is visually very appealing. The way the icons dance in the side bar, the way a window minimizes. All of them are very slick. Also from this version on Apple employed widgets for different apps and uses. There was a small commotion when it was launched saying that it could be an entry point for a hacker. But all that doesn’t matter much when you launch a widget from the Dashboard. There is a ripple kinda effect when you launch it and when u minimize or close it. Looks delicious for an effects starved Windows XP user like me.
Also the sidebar is damn useful, but you can get an almost similar for Windows, courtesy MobyDock or something similar. BTW it’ll show the whole video preview tucked away smartly in the sidebar.
Performance
This is what the Macs are famous for; hardware that works so well when integrated together that they would give Bill Gates and co. fair bouts of insomnia. The only Windows comparable app I could fire up was Photoshop CS2 and so I did. And it was damn fast for a 2Gig proccy. Plugins and all.
The library of games too is very small for the Mac’s, and hence I couldn’t test the ATI Radeon to its full potential.
But to be fair to the Mac, if it were possible to install Windows over this piece of sexy machinery, I am sure it would have easily humbled a few 2.2 – 2.6Gig processors. Its that good.
Final Verdict
This is one helluva machine if all your work involves is Photoshopping and playing around with MS Office files. It may be pricey but then , hey, exclusivity is priceless, innit?
I admit he had this Mac since some 6 or so months and there have 2 developments to it. Why the time gap you ask??? Cos I wasn’t bitten by the reviewing bug back then. Enough crap talk lets get on with the review already.
Looks
This one’s no exception. Its got clean yet sophisticated looks. The whole CPU, the DVD-RW are integrated right into that 2 inch thick LCD panel!!! I know u fell of your chair. Relax, drink some water and start reading the review again.
Hardware
There is also a DVD-RW that literally supports all DVD formats. DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, dual layer media. Smart.
On the connectivity front its got USB 2.0, Firewire, AirPort Express. Bluetooth & Infrared. I had no problems in pairing my cell phone with the Mac (Techtree.com had reported that the LG M4410 had a problem with connecting with PC’s. No such antics here). Also there is a stereo speaker
OS and Interface
This beauty is based on Apple OS 10.4.4 and the interface is visually very appealing. The way the icons dance in the side bar, the way a window minimizes. All of them are very slick. Also from this version on Apple employed widgets for different apps and uses. There was a small commotion when it was launched saying that it could be an entry point for a hacker. But all that doesn’t matter much when you launch a widget from the Dashboard. There is a ripple kinda effect when you launch it and when u minimize or close it. Looks delicious for an effects starved Windows XP user like me.
Also the sidebar is damn useful, but you can get an almost similar for Windows, courtesy MobyDock or something similar. BTW it’ll show the whole video preview tucked away smartly in the sidebar.
Performance
This is what the Macs are famous for; hardware that works so well when integrated together that they would give Bill Gates and co. fair bouts of insomnia. The only Windows comparable app I could fire up was Photoshop CS2 and so I did. And it was damn fast for a 2Gig proccy. Plugins and all.
The library of games too is very small for the Mac’s, and hence I couldn’t test the ATI Radeon to its full potential.
But to be fair to the Mac, if it were possible to install Windows over this piece of sexy machinery, I am sure it would have easily humbled a few 2.2 – 2.6Gig processors. Its that good.
Final Verdict
This is one helluva machine if all your work involves is Photoshopping and playing around with MS Office files. It may be pricey but then , hey, exclusivity is priceless, innit?