(UK) looking to buy an iBook - need an expert :)

Hi people. I am looking to buy an iBook but need some general advice & information from owners/experts. I have owned eMacs, iMacs (intel & G3) MacBooks, Mac minis... but am yet to discover iBooks.

I have an offer of one for £199 for a 1.33Ghz G4 12" with 512Mb ram, but it says "minor chips or keyboard marks on screen" - is this a known issue, and is it as bad as it sounds?. Is £199 a good price?.

Make no mistake - I am VERY tempted, and I know the company in question are reputable and honest, as I have had 3 eMacs from them before and they were perfect.

Please post everything and anything you can possibly think of - unbiased and honest please - I need to work on my Objective C, and this would be the ideal solution to do that, without being tied to my desk all the time.

Remember... experiences, known issues, things I should know - I wanna hear it ALL, especially... are the screens of good quality on these, and what is the maximum external monitor res please?.

Have a lovely weekend, thanks!

spinnerlys said:

Those keyboard marks on the screen are a known issue, as keyboard and screen are quite close when the lid is closed.

I have an iBook, currently inactive though, and it was the best and sturdiest Mac I ever had. Even though it got its logic board replaced after the infamous 18 months, it was stable as hell, which might be due to Tiger and PPC though.

Every Mac I owned since, Intel iMac and MB(P)s were less stable in terms of performance, albeit a bit faster when they are stable.

My battery is dead after 666+ cycles now, so you might have to get a new one, which cost around 100€ I think.

Also take a look at the power adapter and the cable, if they are not loose or so. Mine is.

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Are the screen marks visible when in use - I don't care if they're not . Is this £199 a good price do you reckon?. Thanks for your help - they have 7 available, so I am getting more and more tempted .

spinnerlys said:

199GBP might be a bit much according to this: http://www.mac2sell.net/permalink/?id=99c4ad8f1d11064d17412cd7ad424c3f

And as the screen is not really bright, you might see the marks.

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Mac2Sell is often (very) inaccurate with pricing old machines. I don't think I've ever seen one that ridiculously cheap - that's cheaper than what I paid for my eMac 1.42

Looking online, the average price is around £190-250 so I think it's okay, and besides, I have now bought it - haha!.