Review by Edmund Belt?jar
Originally available only on the education market - the pristine white, tapered Mac might be mistaken for an
older Snow iMac. It features a bright and crisp 17-inch flat CRT display. The familiar setup includes Harman-Kardon
front speakers and a front-loading CD-RW, as well as Apple's full-size Pro keyboard and an optical mouse.
The eMac's larger display sacrifices one key feature of CRT iMacs: portability. The design is nearly an inch
bigger in height and width (but the same depth) as the original iMac, and it weighs almost 50 pounds. No side
handles were provided to make it easier to lift or move; the original iMac at least featured a handle on top for convenient
carrying. Though you can't expand the eMac much, Apple compensates with lots of external connectivity: a modem, one
10/100 Ethernet, three USB 2.0, and two FireWire 400 ports, all in a neat little row along the right side. A video-out connector
lets you connect to an external VGA display. However, you'll need a rather pricey adaptor, and even then, you can only mirror the
first monitor - you can't expand your desktop. For audio, you get headphone and input jacks.
I noticed a few awkward touches on the eMac's otherwise uncomplicated design. One, the power switch, which sits
behind the ports on the lower-right side, nearly to the butt of the machine, is hard to find and difficult to reach. Also, if
you want to tilt or swivel the display for better ergonomics, you'll have to shell out big bucks for an optional stand. Lastly,
because of its low stance, the CD tray and trapdoor tend to get caught on the keyboard. To remedy this, move the keyboard at
least seven inches away from the CD tray, or get something to elevate the base unit.
The P57,088 (as of this writing) base model has a 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 processor, 256MB of DDR SDRAM, a 40GB hard drive, a
combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) drive, a 32MB ATI 9200 graphics card, a 56Kbps modem, 10/100 networking, and the aforementioned
USB 2.0 and FireWire ports.
As with the iMac, the eMac's expandability is limited to a RAM upgrade of up to 1GB or a new 802.11g AirPort Extreme card. This
makes the eMac a poor choice for gamers and graphic artists who'll want better graphics performance, or for anyone who likes to
add and remove components. But it will suffice if you just want to go online, write some papers, send and receive email, or
balance your books.
The eMac ships with Mac OS X 10.3.3 Panther preinstalled, including the digital media suite iLife, plus the calendar
application iCal; iSync for syncing up Palm OS devices and cell phones; Quicken 2003 and Word Book 2003; the AppleWorks
office suite; and a cool new application for wannabe composers - Garage Band.
GRINS
? brilliant 17-inch CRT display
? fool-proof setup
? inexpensive for a Mac
GRIMACES
? limited expansion
? only 32MB of graphics memory
? physically cumbersome
THE LOWDOWN
An attractive, adequately speedy, easy-to-use home computer without the flat-panel iMac's prohibitive price.
