17" Apple iMac - The Official SPCR Review

April 21, 2006 by Devon Cooke with Mike Chin

By now, most people are aware that Apple makes quiet systems, especially those based on Intel's Core Duo processors. We recently published a user review that said as much. However, until now we haven't been able to say exactly how quiet. An oft-repeated criticism of the user review is that the noise impressions were subjective and unquantified — not really a surprise for a user review, but a legitimate complaint for readers who wanted to know more about the product.

So, we pulled a few strings and managed to convince Apple Canada to send us a unit that we could measure and abuse in the comfort of our lab. On a rainy morning a couple of weeks later, a surprisingly small box showed up holding the most tightly integrated "desktop" system we've ever seen. In fact, with the exception of the full-size keyboard and mouse and the lack of a battery, the iMac might as well be a laptop, albeit a very full-featured one.

This modest-sized boxed holds a complete system, LCD monitor included.

Five minutes later, we had plugged the AC cord into the wall, hooked up the keyboard and mouse, and were happily surfing the internet courtesy of the internal wireless card. No drivers to install, no pop-ups asking if we'd like to purchase broadband access from a major Telecom, and no "friendly" reminder that we'd be locked out of the operating system if we didn't activate OS X.

Our impression was that the Core Duo iMac is very fast and snappy — much more so than the previous PowerPC Macs that we've used. We were pleased to notice that the operating system took very little time to boot (less than half of what we're used to), and the system didn't struggle at all with the heavyweight GUI that ships with OS X. Although detailed performance testing of the processor is beyond the scope of this review, The Tech Report recently did some extensive tests on the Core Duo and declared it the best Intel processor yet.

SPECIFICATIONS

For such a small package, the iMac is very fully featured. Wireless Internet, a webcam, and a HTPC remote control (and software) are all standard features. Things are the same on the software side of things. There is native support for .PDF files (and it's faster than Adobe's version for Windows), as well as GZipped archives and several common disc image formats. Apple's iLife suite of multimedia applications is more complete than Windows' offerings and, more importantly, is easier to figure out for first time users. It also comes with the ability to play (and burn) DVDs — something that requires bundled software on a Windows-based machine.

The complete system configuration is listed below, along with a cost comparison using the same or similar parts, priced as cheaply as we could find them using Froogle.

As configured, the iMac is only about 10% more expensive than the parts priced individually. Consider what you get for the extra $150:

• A fully assembled system, with the OS and software installed
• A very quiet system, with no tweaking required
• A more energy efficient system
• All components are purchased from a single vendor, and only one shipping bill needs to be paid
• A much more aesthetic and portable form factor
• A higher quality, 16x9 widescreen monitor
• A remote control and home theater software
• Built-in speakers

Apple's reputation for being expensive may be justified for some of their products, but the 17" iMac is not one of them. Time will tell, of course. Once big names like Dell and Gateway begin selling Core Duo-based systems, the cost of the individual components may drop, but for the time being the iMac is one of the cheapest way to obtain a system built on a Core Duo.

Although it is not the focus of this review, Apple's home theater software deserves special mention for being easy to pick up and figure out immediately. Anyone who has used an iPod should be able to figure out the interface in minutes. Surprisingly, the tiny Apple Remote, with just five buttons, is perfectly adequate for navigation. Its secret is tight integration with iTunes. Media is organized in iTunes (or iPhoto for pictures), where it can be sorted into playlists and identified by Title, Artist, etc.

Then, the home theater mode is activated by pressing any button on the remote. Icons and text are large enough to be seen at a distance, and selecting media to be played is as simple as navigating the menu system for the iPod.

Its biggest advantage over Windows MCE, iMon, etc. is its simplicity. It does not expect you to do everything by remote, and the options and everything else has been cut down to the bare essentials — making it simple to do what you want to do with a remote: Play media.