13 replies to this topic

[sheepdog43]

Ok, I happenned to go into the local Comp USA today and had the chance to play.

Note* Do not take this as flaimbait, it is an honest review of what I saw today. I know many people want these, I do too (in 12in laptop). I only mention this because some people will call it that as they hate criticism of Apple aparently. It is not intended as such, it is simply what I observed.



At the store they had:
G5 Imac
Intel Imac
Macbook Pro.

First off, the good news...
Reports of being unable to play full screen without skipping at 1080p is incorect, at least on production models.  Also, the desktop seems to respond nicely, unlike my clone. As good as the G5 so far.

Now the bad news.
Watching V for Vendetta trailers on the Intel Imac, blew chunks, LOADS of banding. Looked like 24bit playback. On the plasma screen nearby (Media Center PC), there was some, but not even half as much. Same trailer.

It felt laggy when launching programs. Now, some people think the duo is a badass procsessor, I have heard it is ok. Felt like crap to me. My personal system (p4d 2.8, 2gig ram) runs faster as far as programs went. The G5 worked smoothly and seemlessly, no matter what was open (mine slows as a lot starts openings). The Duo just ran terrible as soon as anything was openned. Now granted I have more ram, but the G5 and duo had equal and it multitasked far better than the duo. Once openned most apps ran ok though. Just launching in particular seemed sluggish, almost like it was strapped to a laptop drive while the g5 had nice 7200 sata. Should be the same drive as the G5, so I am not sure why that was.

I did not do the water crash test, probably would, since so many have done it.
Oh, and the G5 had 10.4.3, not sure how much difference that made, but figure I should clarify.


The Macbook on the other hand...
While I only tried it for a short time. I have to ask, why the one button touchpad? They could easily have at least made it 2, but made them work as one, so you had the option if you want it.  

It seemed quite cheap. I am not sure if it is the exact same keyboard as the Powerbooks, but dang, it was thrashed. One key was broken already, and the whole keyboard looked warped, it had a huge hump in it. It looked tired. How old is it? Meanwhile the G4 near it, that has been there for over a year,  looked fine. Same with the dingy Ibook.


The new mouse...
Got to play with that some as well.
While better than one button, but itwas not as intuitive as a normal 2 button mouse. Sometimes left click ould work as a right click, or you would be touching the ball and push down and all ythe widgets would pop up, normally, pushing on the wheel opens a new tab.  Also, scrolling it, blows. Better than nothing I gues



Basically,  I was not impressed. I would definately guy the G5 over the Intel right now. While not a definative test, I did mess with them for over an hour doing normal browsing, watching movies and such. I was honestly hoping for better. Side by side, you will have a hard time getting an uninformed person to buy the Intel as opposed to the PPC models.

Edited by sheepdog43, 26 January 2006 - 05:36 AM.

[Swad]

Thanks for the review, sheepdog!

[kday]

sheepdog43, on Jan 25 2006, 11:38 PM, said:

The new mouse...
Got to play with that some as well.
Also, scrolling it, blows. Better than nothing I gues

Funny.  That's the only part of the mouse I actually liked.

[Mr. Bond]

sheepdog43, on Jan 26 2006, 05:38 AM, said:

Basically, I was not impressed. I would definately guy the G5 over the Intel right now. While not a definative test, I did mess with them for over an hour doing normal browsing, watching movies and such. I was honestly hoping for better. Side by side, you will have a hard time getting an uninformed person to buy the Intel as opposed to the PPC models.

That's exactly it. Why are Macintel sales doing worse than expected? It's because most consumers honestly don't see the difference. What's it to Average Joe if his iMac has an intel processor inside? Absolutley nothing, as long as it runs everything like a real Mac should. I think it was Mashugly who said that the only people who truly understand the gravity of this decision are us geeks...

[Metrogirl]

Absolutely right, MrBond.  And if there's one thing I dislike about my Mac G4 powerbook, it's that one-button touchpad.   I *really* hoped they'd put 2 buttons on the new models.   It's not like the hardware isn't available.  Big mistake in my view.

Great review, Sheepdog43.   Nice work.

[da_hammer]

sheepdog43, on Jan 26 2006, 12:38 AM, said:

The Macbook on the other hand...
While I only tried it for a short time. I have to ask, why the one button touchpad? They could easily have at least made it 2, but made them work as one, so you had the option if you want it.

I find it hard to belive it was the MacBook Pro @ CompUSA. They dont list it on their website.
All the information that I have seen, shows shipping mid February to everyone. I would like to think the Apple stores would get it first. The Apple Store in Atlanta did not have it as of yesterday.

Are you sure it was not the powerbook?

da_hammer

[sheepdog43]

da_hammer, on Jan 26 2006, 08:11 PM, said:

I find it hard to belive it was the MacBook Pro @ CompUSA. They dont list it on their website.
All the information that I have seen, shows shipping mid February to everyone. I would like to think the Apple stores would get it first. The Apple Store in Atlanta did not have it as of yesterday.

Are you sure it was not the powerbook?

da_hammer

I am pretty sure it said Intel. I would not bet any money on it though. Just as easily could have been a G4 with an ad for the new one coming. Like I said, I did not play with it much. The Imac was eaier to reach, in better shape, and a bigger screen (plus a mouse).

Even then, if the Imac was not that good, I do not see how the book would be any better.

[da_hammer]

Yup.....

I have been waiting to get to see one. The Apple stores in ATL will not have it until 2nd week of Feb. I just figured the dealerships would be 1st.

[ripoflive]

Quote

I am pretty sure it said Intel. I would not bet any money on it though. Just as easily could have been a G4 with an ad for the new one coming. Like I said, I did not play with it much. The Imac was eaier to reach, in better shape, and a bigger screen (plus a mouse).

Even then, if the Imac was not that good, I do not see how the book would be any better.

I hate saying this guys but it sounds like u were running a powerbook. Dude, all u had to do is go about this mac or watever and make sure. But I agree with every1 that the applestore would get it first not compusa. When I went to frys electronics they had a similar sign of "macbookpro" next to the powerbook to fool people....please go back and make sure......

[iMaurice]

i hardly believe mac sales are sluggish, in fact they like own amazon's top sellers in computers like all the time
also, i believe you were prob using a powerbook
you have to consider though, this is a huge change going from ppc to x86, and apple has done it way better than they couldve ended up doing it
plus they are ahead of shedule
and the core duo, its a mobile cpu so you should try comparing it to a pentium m :thumbsup:

[Metrogirl]

I went to CompUsa in Austin today.   Asked to see the Intel iMac, was proudly shown the machine with the specs ticket on it Dual Core blah blah Intel....   Checked the system config - huh, this is a PPC machine.   So what they claimed to have on display and what they actually had were not quite the same thing!   Then the sales cretin person told me that the PPC machine was lots better than the new Intel version...

[ripoflive]

TOLD YA SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL....... Compusa employees=morons.......

[sulfo]

i got to play with a new 20" iMac last saturday at the german electronics store media markt (I was quite surprised to find that they had anything apple besides ipod...)

i actually experienced the machine as quite responsive and quick. however i can only compare to my 1,33 Ghz G4 PB and not to a G5 since i've never owned or got to play with one. anyway im looking forward to see how my (to come) mp will perform next to my old pb.

i guess all apps run with rosetta get nowhere close to native g5 performance at the moment, but since it's only a matter of time since the unibins release, i'd get a intel imac over a g5...

just my humble opinion...

[A_Pickle]

"sheepdog43" said:

It felt laggy when launching programs. Now, some people think the duo is a badass procsessor, I have heard it is ok.

The Core Duo is roughly as fast as an Athlon 64 X2, clock-for-clock (Actually, the Core Duo's clock cycles seem to be a little bit more powerful than those of the X2). I think the issues you might've been having may have had to do with "earlyness" of the Intel transition. As far as I know, the Core Duo really isn't that fast at running actual applications yet, but it'll mature to be a friggin' monster of a laptop processor.