Radical New iMacs Boast Power, Features at Competitive Prices (online at http://www.ptech.wsj.com/ptech.html)
I AM WRITING these words on the most radical-looking personal computer I've ever seen. It's a white hemisphere that sits on the desk top, sort of like a snow-covered basketball that has been sliced in half. A strong, but flexible, stainless-steel arm projects from the top of this mound. On the end of that arm, perched at almost any viewing angle you like, sits a bright, vivid flat-panel screen.
This is Apple's new, totally revamped iMac. It's designed to shock and surprise, and it does. Seen from a distance, or in publicity photos, with the arm and screen extended vertically above the base, the new iMac looks odd. Though the base is one of the smallest computer enclosures ever made, with a diameter of just 10.5 inches, it appears huge to my eye, and the whole thing seems visually off-balance.
But when you're actually working on the new iMac, with the screen lowered so it sits between your face and the base, it's a thing of pure beauty. You feel as if you're typing onto a gorgeous palette that's floating in the air. You're no longer conscious of the computer at all. With the touch of a finger, you can move the screen in any direction that's ergonomically comfortable -- even turning it all the way to the side to show someone what you're working on.
I'VE BEEN TESTING the new iMac in my home for the past five days, and despite a few drawbacks, it works very well. The screen is the most vivid 15-inch flat panel I've seen, and inside the base Apple has packed a surprisingly powerful computer with a fast G4 processor, ample memory and hard-disk space, and, in the top-of-the-line model I tested, a disk drive that can even create DVDs.
The new iMac has a dazzling array of ports and connectors. There are two high-speed FireWire ports, five USB ports (including two in the keyboard), a headphone jack, Ethernet, a modem and a connector for the transparent, high-end speakers that come with the two higher-priced models (the base model has only a built-in mono speaker).
There are three configurations, whose release will be staged over the next few months. Later this month, Apple will release the high-end model I'm using, which features 256 megabytes of memory, a 60-gigabyte hard disk, and the DVD-recording SuperDrive, which can also play CDs and DVDs, and record CDs. It will cost $1,799.
Next month, the company will ship a mid-range $1,499 model with a 40-gigabyte hard disk, a slightly slower processor and a drive that plays CDs and DVDs, and records CDs but not DVDs. In March, there'll be a base model, for $1,299, with only 128 megabytes of memory and a drive that can play and record CDs, but can't handle DVDs.
These aren't bargain-basement prices, but they are surprisingly aggressive for a flat-panel computer as well-equipped as the iMacs.
I went to Dell's Web site(www.dell.com) and priced a Dimension 4400 model with a 15-inch flat-panel, DVD-recording drive and roughly the same specs as the iMac, including the FireWire ports, and came up with a price of $1,991, about $200 more than Apple's. A similar exercise, roughly matching the specs of the low-end iMac with a Dimension 4300S, yielded a price of $1,461, compared with $1,299 for the Apple.
Of course, the Dell has a few things the iMac lacks, like a beefier video card, a floppy disk drive and expansion slots. But the iMac has some things the Dell lacks, like an optical mouse, a built-in antenna for wireless networking, and of course the floating screen.
PLUS, THE IMAC comes with Apple's four free programs for handling digital content -- iTunes for music, iMovie for editing video, iDVD for burning DVDs, and the new iPhoto for handling photos. These programs are simpler and more capable than most of their Windows counterparts.
In my tests of the new iMac, the machine handled everything I threw at it. It ran Microsoft Office handily, opening numerous documents created in Windows without breaking a sweat, and creating documents I was able to open instantly on a Windows machine.
I copied songs from a music CD to the iMac's hard disk, burned a couple of custom CDs, and created a couple of DVDs that played fine on my TV-top DVD player. When I plugged in a digital camera, the iMac imported the pictures with speed and ease.
I also installed an Apple AirPort wireless networking card and was on my wireless home network in minutes, sharing a high-speed Internet connection with several Windows machines.
There are some drawbacks. For the sake of aesthetics, Apple has placed most of the ports at the rear of the base, where they're hard to reach. Adding memory or a wireless network card requires turning the machine over and removing four screws that secure a metal plate on the bottom. Also, despite the iMac's power, the playback of music and video came to a halt briefly whenever I inserted, or sometimes even ejected, CDs. And it seems absurd that Apple didn't use a wireless keyboard and mouse.
Still, this is an excellent computer with plenty of power and an innovative ergonomic design. I didn't swoon over its looks, but I very much enjoyed using it.
