Apple fans won't be surprised at the benefits of a refurbished iBook

Directed at students and small home office users as an ideal single solution to most laptop needs, the Apple iBook lineup is a fantastic deal, especially if you can find a refurbished one. It comes equiped in a manner that is similar to its big brother, the Powerbook, and is only slightly heavier than it, with two size choices, 12" and 14".

Compared to other laptop brands, it is small and relatively lightweight and feature rich but with one glaringly obvious technical limitation, iBook RAM is limited to 640MB. If you have aspirations of running anything powerful or demanding on the iBook, then you may have to move up to a intro level Powerbook laptops to get into more RAM.

For those who are concerned about the much touted iBook G4 logic board failures, where the unit would simply start up to a blank screen or deliver distorted and intermittent video or freeze completely, Apple has not only corrected the problem, but has also stepped up to the plate and offered an extended service program where they will compensate those who have had to pay to resolve this problem or who have a unit that has an afflicted logic board.

Click here to read more about Apple's Extended Coverage for the logic board problems.

The Apple iBook G4 is the last Mac in the entire line of Apple products to become a G4 and dump the antiquated G3. Among other improvements over the older laptop is the upgraded video card to a Radeon 9200 with 32MB of onboard RAM.

On a feature note, choosing the upgraded 14" model also comes with a faster processor, which makes the upgrade a double-plus. Given the slight increase in cost, you'd also need to make sure that you'd never need more than the 640MB of RAM it comes with, or you are going to move to Powerbook country.

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