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GOOD THINGS COME to those who wait. Six months ago, a furor of hype surrounded the new iMacs, which for the first time packed a widescreen LCD and all internal components into a panel that was less than 2" thick (2.2" thick for the 20" monitor). Now that the buzz has subsided, however, it's as if Apple has realized the importance of the second iMac of this kind standing entirely on its own merits. Consequently, the latest 20" iMac G5 improves significantly in both hardware and software, now that Tiger (OS 10.4) and the iLife '05 suite (iPhoto 5, iMovie HD, iDVD 5, GarageBand 2 and iTunes 4.7) come pre-loaded.
Although this iMac's single G5 processor only bumps up to 2GHz from 1.8GHz it performed most tasks for us quite a bit faster, most likely due to the RAM, which thankfully has doubled to 512MB; the frontside bus also runs a bit faster on this model. Graciously welcomed hardware upgrades don't stop there. The hard disk leaps to 250GB from 160GB, and instead of the old 64MB of video memory, we receive 128MB of video memory on an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card. Finally, AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 are now built into the standard configuration, and the 8x SuperDrive (raised from 4x) now supports double-layer (DL) DVD writing. To top it off, the iMac now costs $100 less.
Obviously, this machine looks good on paper, but as we previously alluded, it's also a winner in the real world. To start, the 20" widescreen, 1,680x1,050 monitor shines brilliantly. Its colors look spectacular, and its generous brightness is distributed even across the screen. Make sure you use a comfortable computer chair, because you'll want to explore new dimensions in relaxation while watching DVDs on this LCD. With the Video Zoom controls in Tiger's DVD Player 4.5, you can eliminate black bars when watching movies and really appreciate the size of the widescreen display.
The beefed up video card certainly aids the graphics display prowess, which is especially evident when playing games. Without the iMac's improved hardware, we wouldn't have been able to play recent games, such as Doom 3 ($50; www. aspyr.com) nearly as well. As it stands, this iMac just meets Doom 3's demanding recommended system specs. It kept up with the high-grade graphics and frenzied action of the game reasonably well, although it became choppy at times.
We loved the built-in wireless technology, and easily connected to our AirPort Extreme network from the iMac's menu bar. To our delight, our wireless Internet connection was often faster than when we plugged directly into the DSL through Ethernet. Connected Apple's Bluetooth Wireless Mouse and Keyboard ($59 each; http://store.apple. com) posed no problems, and we were glad to be rid of a couple of cables from our desktop.
This iMac outperformed the previous model consistently on a large majority of jobs. It was no problem to keep all the apps open that we wanted to use: Safari, Mail, iChat, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and more. We could even add Adobe Creative Suite 2 ($900; www.adobe.com) programs, such as Photoshop CS2 and InDesign CS2, to the mix successfully, although we preferred to run those with fewer apps open for the best performance.
Apple's never-ending publicity commotion has moved on to other things, but with Tiger, iLife '05, a faster G5 and many other attractions, there's actually never been a better time to consider buying a new iMac.
-MARKKUS ROVITO
20" iMac G5 2GHz: 
Apple | www.apple.com | 800-692-7753 | $1,800
Pros: 8x SuperDrive with DL DVD writing, priced $100 lower, AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth built-in, increased speed, RAM, hard drive space and video memory.
Cons: Some unsuccessful attempts at writing DL DVDs.
Specs: Widescreen 1,680x1,050 20" monitor, 2GHz G5 processor, 250GB serial ATA hard drive, 512MB RAM, 667MHz frontside bus, 512K L2 cache, 8x SuperDrive with double-layer DVD writing, ATI Radeon 9600 graphics processor w/128MB video memory, two FireWire 400 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, 56k internal modem, built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0.
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