Top of the range: Mac Mini vs iBook

Question

Hey hey,
I fell in love with Apple mid last year, and bought my first Mac ever mid November of 2005. It was a 20" G5 RevC 2.1ghz iMac w 1.5gb Ram. It's the best computer I've ever seen and used in my life! Amazing! Anyway, I've been working at my parents to get my sister a Mac for school.
There are 3 options:
- 1.42 80gb Mac Mini with Superdrive
- 1.42 80gb Mac Mini with Combodrive and a TFT (non apple)
- 1.42 14" iBook.
Monique, my sister, would be able to get the first option in March, the second option in April and the third option in June.
She uses my old PC atm, the bulky thing that it is (one way to convince my parents). It's a 1.5ghz 128mb Ram Pentium 4 IBM - load of crap seriously! Anyway, all she uses the computer for is assignments (We'd probbaly get her office over iWork only because she knows how to use office), listening to music, using her 1gb iPod shuffle and to surf and chat online. Now we have just recently got a new 5mp 12xoptical zoom camera and I'm positive she will love iLife shen she realises how good it is with digital life.
What do you suggest to be the better option for my sister? I'm stuck on the portability, or quicker. When we go on holidays I know the iBook would be perfect to download photos and such on the go - seeing as we are taking a 3 week holiday in september, it would be great! I've made a little comparison thingo below:
- Both small and take up not much room
- Mac Mini will have to buy apple keyboard - iBook you have it.
- Mac Mini maybe purchase TFT - iBook you have screen
- Mac Mini not as portable - iBook is
- Mac Mini w/o tft approx half the price of iBook
- Mac Mini w tft is about $200 cheaper than iBook
- Both can connect wirelessly to our wireless home network (iMac, 2pcs atm)
- Mac Mini bigger screen
- My iMac has superdrive so not really need superdrive in Mac Mini. Will save about $100.
What do you think you would go for? I'm not saying I'm going to do what you say, just wondering what other folks would do. I am thinking the iBook.
Thanks guys!
- leighton

Answer 1

Hi Leight,
Your a good brother to be buying your sister an Apple computer. What kind of school does she go to? College? Anyways, I think that the iBook is the best way to go. It is the perfect tool for the average student. I recommend the iBooks for people whose needs fall in the realm of basic computing. I use iLife as a standard for the iBook. She will be doing Word processing (I would hold off on MS Office or iWork because her iBook will come with the trials for both. I bought MS Office, then used iWorks (trial) on my new iBook and I threw the MS Office away.), web browsing (Safari), Music (iTunes), Email (Mail is my favorite), Photos (iPhoto 5 is good for keeping them organized. Her iBook will come with iPhoto 6, which is just truly amazing), messengers (iChat is my favorite, I have everyone from Hotmail to AIM on it. You have to go through Jabber to use Hotmail but I can show you), and she might want watch movies (iMovie). These are all on the iBook as your know, they cover the basic necessities that she would need. I bought my iBook for school purposes only, the "iLifes". I do all my heavy editing and scripting on my iMac, which is more capable. She will love the iBook because she will be able to take it with her where ever she wants. It is so convenient to just carry around with me to class (if the teacher doesn't mind). I would suggest though thinking about buying or recommending to her the following:
Airport Express - I use it in school and when I am traveling. I am not stuck sitting at that awful desk in the corner
iSight - I use it to communicate with friends and family when I am traveling or at school. I find people never relize how great video conferencing is till they try it.
iWork - Even though she knows how to use MS Office, Pages is so much easier and efficient. With Pages there is little to none time wasted struggling to format the document to make it look right. Pages works great with other iLife applications like iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie. I use it all the time for projects, reports, and essays.
AppleCare - A necessity! Even though this will put you back some money, it is worth the cost. If something goes wrong with her iBook she can bring it to any Apple Store and they will fix it. They will fix it for free most times as long as she didn't do anything malicious to it.
I hope that helps,
Jon
PS Why don't you ask her what she wants? Surprise her with choices, and then let her decide. That way you will know that you chose the right one for her.