Hands-On Comments--eOne

1999–2004August 9, 1999Macs Only!Reviews
On the way back from turning in a U-Haul truck that my son had rented to move from NYC back home until the "fall" semester starts at Carnegie-Mellon, we stopped off at our local Circuit City to check out eMachines new iMac knockoff, the eMachines' eOne.The eOne was blaring out an Intel Celeron demo on an aisle end cap, much like the iMac was once featured at Best Buy. The only difference was that no one was standing around looking at the eOne despite the computer section being pretty full. It was locked in demo mode so maybe that was part of the reason for a complete lack of interest--it couldn't be used except to select one of three sub-topics in the Intel demo. Reader Wil Nelson wrote me that his "...first attempt to use the new eOne at Circuit City resulted in a freeze right after opening "My Computer" and had to do a hard restart!" This may be a reason for locking in the demo. I've used Windows98 so not being able to use the computer was no big deal.

The impression when walking up to the eOne is that it is an iMac. However, if one is familiar with an iMac (I've used one since last September) that is as far as it goes. The eOne is much broader on the bottom, more like an All-In-One. The screen looked good. The sound was similar. The keyboard was opposite in color from the iMac's, blue on top and ribbed ice on the bottom, and it had more keys as PC keyboards do--it felt better than the iMac's. The mouse is terrible, mostly blue, but has a scroll wheel. Neither the mouse nor the keyboard are USB but are "Made in China". The mouse and keyboard cables and the power cord are identical to the iMac's. It has a port compartment like the iMacs but no "thumb hole"--it appears to slide up and down but I couldn't move it from the up position. Inside it had 2 PCMCIA card ports, the only feature that I was not aware of. An iMac and three years of standard internet service will cost just over $1,900, not counting taxes. The eOne with three years of internet service will run just over $1,100 ($849 - $50 rebate + $720 internet - $400 rebate).

How should Apple view this? The iMac represents a simple and easy connection to the internet and ease of use and with nearly 2 million sold that is a well-earned trademark. The eOne with its purposeful knockoff appearance will confuse some people into thinking the same thing about it. How many? No telling right now but with adept sales people (none, adept or otherwise, were evident at Circuit City) pushing Wintels and pointing out the $800 price difference over 3 years, it could be significant. Apple should respond.

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