Like other Apple PCs, the iMac G5 comes with a very good software package that includes the iLife multimedia suite, Zinio Reader, and Quicken 2004. The foot can be removed and an optional VESA mount (for wall- or swing-arm mounting) installed in its place, giving the user myriad setup choices, especially if you miss the old iMac's arm.
The base works well as a cubby where you can stow the keyboard to reclaim desk space. But you quickly grow accustomed to it, and get spoiled by the vast amount of screen real estate. The 20-inch screen seems a little large at first, especially at typical PC-viewing distance. The bass is predictably weak, but the quality of the speakers and the stereo separation are fine for routine music and computing use. We were skeptical at first, but they work well, provided you aren't in a cavernous space. The downward-firing speakers are in the bottom of the chassis. In normal use, they are quiet, easily blending into the background noise of even a quiet bedroom. The fans are intelligently placed, pulling in air from the bottom and letting the warm air rise and exhaust out the top. The G5 processor in the iMac G5 runs a little hotter, and the new slim shape requires a few fans in the chassis. Last year's iMac G4 had a quiet single-fan design. A VGA/video-out port is present, but requires a dongle adapter. The audio-out port doubles as a standard iPod-style headphone jack, or it can be used with a mini optical cable and connected to speaker sets and A/V receivers with SP/DIF inputs. The ports-USB 2.0, FireWire 400, Ethernet, and modem jacks-are lined up vertically on the back panel. Taking design cues from the previous Mac products, the iMac G5 presents a front panel devoid of speakers, control buttons, or ports.
The Bluetooth keyboard and mouse discovery and setup are the first things that come up when you initially power up the iMac G5, so you may never need to connect a wired keyboard and mouse. With Bluetooth and Airport Extreme installed as build-to-order options, the iMac G5 comes close to a desktop-replacement notebook without the battery: The power cord is the only cord that you need to plug in.
And if you really want a large screen in an all-in-one in the Windows world, pretty much you're only choice is the 19-inch Gateway Profile 5XL-C, which starts at $1,999 direct.
A multimedia-centric desktop-replacement Windows notebook with a 17-inch widescreen, such as the HP Pavilion zd7000, starts at $1,299. And the pricing is as attractive as the units. The 17-inch model (configurations start at $1,299 direct) weighs just 18.5 pounds, and the 20-inch one ($1,899 and up) is just 25.2 pounds, so moving one from room to room is easy. The result is the clean look of an iPod music player, supersized and placed on an elegant anodized-aluminum stand. But the iMac G5 has the CPU, motherboard, and drives mounted in the same 2-inch-thick chassis as the monitor. Most all-in-one desktops with LCD panels (the Sony VAIO and Gateway Profile systems come to mind) are two units permanently connected together: the part of the case housing the motherboard and drives, and the monitor. An iPod writ large, this self-contained iMac G5 will have you nodding your head and saying, "It's about time they designed a computer like this."
When we first saw the previous-generation iMac, with its dome base and trick swing-arm, we thought "wow." The latest incarnation of Apple's design standard-bearer, the Apple iMac G5, is no less sublime, but a lot more subtle.