Question on Notebooks:
What are the pros and cons of owning an Apple iMac? What does it have that an Apple MacBook does not? Is there a need to upgrade from a MacBook to an iMac?
Submitted by CNET Asia reader, via email
Answer:
Darius Chang
The most obvious advantage of the iMac will be its performance, in terms of its CPU speed and graphics chipset. The CPU speeds for the iMac are generally faster (currently available up to 3.06GHz versus the 2.4GHz for the MacBook and 2.5GHz for the MacBook Pro). It also sports discrete graphics chipsets, which will come in handy for those who run graphics-intensive apps and play 3D games. (MacBooks run on integrated graphics chipsets. Only the MacBook Pros offer discrete graphics.) It is also important to note that iMacs have bigger displays than MacBooks (minimum display size for iMacs today is 20-inch, compared to 13-inch for MacBook and maximum 17-inch panels for MacBook Pros). As with all comparisons between desktops and notebooks, iMacs offer larger hard drive storage capacities than MacBooks too.
The biggest drawback for the iMac is its mobility. As a desktop, it is certainly much less mobile than a MacBook. Hence, if you need to carry your computer with you around, it would be advisable to get the MacBook. Otherwise, the Mac OS X operating system should give you similar computing experiences on both the iMac and MacBook.
Got a question of your own?
