New iBook--The King is Dead, Long Live the King!

No, we are not comparing Apple's new iBook with the previous two iBook models but with the former King of Mac Travel, the PowerBook 2400c. To those of us who travel around a lot especially by airplane, the PowerBook 2400c's small size, light weight and computational speed are a godsend. The 2400c was the only Mac and one of the few laptops that could be opened on an airplane seat tray table with someone reclining the seat in front. The Pismo/Lombard G3's came close to the weight at 5.9 pounds and the Titanium G4 even closer at 5.3 pounds but the height of their screens from tray table top to tip of the screen was too high to be opened with a recliner in the seat in front. However, a 2400c owner had to put up with a 10.4" 800x600 active matrix screen, a smallish keyboard, a maximum of 112 MB RAM, slow graphics, a 2.5 hour battery at best, an external floppy, an external CD and PC cards for ethernet, modem, FireWire and USB communication. The latter two need Cardbus surgery to work reliably.

No longer. For a mere $1299, less than it cost to fully deck out an already-owned 2400c with all possible upgraded parts, the new iBook will fit nicely on an airplane tray table, has a 12.1" 1024x768 active matrix screen, much faster graphics, a 5 hour battery, a fast 500 MHz G3 CPU, a standard PowerBook keyboard, a maximum of 640 MB RAM, an optical drive and all the communication ports built in. What does it lack? There's no SCSI, serial or ADB ports, all history any way, no PC card slot and the CPU is not upgradable.

The new iBook weighs 4.9 pounds as compared with the 2400c's 4.4 pounds and is 0.7" larger and thinner at 11.2 x 9.1" x 1.35" versus 10.5" x 8.4" x 2". The screen height (table top to top of screen) of the 2400c is 9.6". The screen height may be slightly less for the iBook since it employs the hinge that we previously suggested on Macs Only! for the PowerBook G4, one that opens and drops the lower edge of the screen to the table top--fantastic! Apple listened! Well, we really won't claim credit for this innovation since the newest Sony has a similar hinge but we are very pleased that Apple saw the need to add this feature.

We can hardly wait to get our hands on one of these functional beauties (Check out the QuickTime video). When we do, our still-beloved 2400c will be retired to the backup traveler position. It has served us very well as the starter for the past 3 years and will continue to do so in the backup position for many years to come. The King is dead, long live the King!