The Apple iMac is a very different looking piece of hardware from the usual run of the mill PC.
With a normal PC you get a beige coloured box, that clashes with every other bit of furniture you have in the room, but the iMac just looks so good that you’d almost want to put it on a desk right in the middle, where everyone can see and admire it.
For a start you have the colour scheme.
It comes in a very attractive two tone green and grey plastic. The latest models come in an attractive blue colour.
All the computer’s components are built into the 15-inch monitor, so there’s no having to hook up loads of different wires.
There’s a handle on the top so you can move it easily all around the house, a keyboard, and a mouse, and that’s your lot.
It’s the nearest thing you’ll get to a plug and play computer.
Hardware includes a 24 speed CDROM drive, and a built in modem and network adapter, but it doesn’t have a floppy or DVD drive.
It may not be top of the range now as far as computers go, but it still works quickly and efficiently. The 233MHz processor is fast enough for most purposes, and it has 32MB of memory, a 4GB hard drive, and a 2MB graphics card.
The latest models have a 359Mhz G3 processor and 64Mb of Ram, a CD-Rom drive, and a 7gb hard drive.
You also get a set of stereo speakers, and it has an infra red port.
You can either use Internet Explorer, or the system that comes installed on the computer, the Mac OS 8.1 and ClarisWorks. They also give you a few free bits of software.
One problem you will have though is if you like computer games, as there are very few available for use on the iMac.
But it looks so good you can almost live with this drawback.
A very good machine, that at about the £650 mark new, is very good value indeed.