"None of these appearance flaws are serious -- they aren't visible from across a desk -- but they are ill-considered in a machine that is marketed heavily on looks...."

The Macintosh G4 Cube:
Undeniable style and power, at a price

by Joel Sparks
Special to Government Computer News

Apple's latest innovation, the beautiful and compact G4 Cube, raises at least as many questions as it answers. But there's no question that the machine is powerful, stylish, and unique.

Why a Cube, and for whom?

Before any discussion of the specifics of the Cube's performance and user experience, one important question must be addressed: Who is meant to use this unusual and relatively expensive machine? Apple has had success in recent years with a simplified product line limited to four basic computers: the hugely popular iMac for consumers, with its portable version the iBook, and the powerful G4 desktop for computing professionals, with its portable equivalent the PowerBook. Dropping the Cube in the middle of this square rather confuses the picture. At a starting price of $1,799 plus monitor ($300 rebate available), the machine is too pricey to give one to everyone in the office, as the all-inclusive iMac invites. Yet hard-core data wrangling employees with bigger budgets may prefer the blander G4 towers, which come with optional dual processors and can be heavily customized and upgraded by the user. In contrast, the Cube's unique architecture makes adding internal drives and expansion cards difficult or impossible. But to many people this does not matter; potential users should consider whether they have a history of using such hardware upgrades. The Cube can hold 1.5G of RAM, a 40G hard drive and an optional 32M 3D graphics card. That's plenty for most users.

The lack of an obvious market for a machine that was supposed to be the next iMac in popularity may bear no small responsibility for Apple's financial stumble of the past few weeks. So is the Cube merely a doomed oddity, like the 20th Anniversary Mac of some years past? Not necessarily. This is still a G4, with speeds of at least 450MHz and multiple-gigaflop capacity: pleasingly powerful for less money than it takes to get into the dual-processor G4s. The compact form factor is not only attractive, but in some situations very convenient, and when paired with a thin LCD display opens up considerable desk space. And let's face it, the darn thing is cool.

With its G4 "supercomputer" chip, built-in Ethernet and large hard drive, plus Apple's easy file sharing, the Cube could act as a fileserver. But it would be a shame to hide these expensive good looks in a back room, and for larger networks the extra money would be better spent on one of the more robust G4 servers.

The Cube would make an excellent machine for managers and executives in Mac-based or dual-platform offices. These are people whose employees may be busily swapping out PCI cards from dusty towers, but who themselves just want power and simplicity. A Cube with an Apple LCD display makes a very impressive system for front offices where appearances count: prettier than a beige box, yet both more professional looking and more useful than an iMac. And employees who use Macs for creative pursuits like graphics and web authoring can get G4 power in a small space with a Cube, and do it in style.

Sheathed in ice -- and no cracks

The Cube system arrives in a shockingly small and heavy box, which in addition to the computer contains two spherical speakers like crystal oranges, the new improved mouse, the new improved keyboard, and a heavy, ovoid brick that turns out to be the power supply. All components, even the cables, are in the "graphite" color scheme: silvery transparence and silver-white metal, with black highlights.

The centerpiece of all this, of course, is the 14-pound Cube itself. Pulling it out of its elaborate wrapping reveals a glassy, minimalist tower that lives up to all the hype about its appearance. There aren't even any buttons visible, and the featureless interior case is sheathed in a clear, icy shell that looks as thick as a bank teller's window. The acrylic shell lifts the working machine almost 2 1/2" off the desk, emphasizing its smallness and making it seem to float, as well as allowing crucial clearance underneath for airflow and connecting cables.

There have been some rumors about "cracks" in the Cube's shell, but the marks in question are actually just extremely shallow, scratch-like lines, like the seams on almost any plastic product. There are two short lines on the top where the metal bolts attach, and a longer wrinkle partway down the front of our test system. These lines are invisible except on close inspection in bright light. They don' t show up in publicity photos of the Cube, but then again, neither do any cords. Since the acrylic shell starts out so beautiful, users may experience a bit of "new car syndrome" as they live in fear of that first scratch. None of these appearance flaws are serious -- they aren't visible from across a desk -- but they are ill-considered in a machine that is marketed heavily on looks.

Plug and play

When setting up the system, the power cord should be the last thing inserted. Otherwise, the machine is almost certain to start in the user's hands. The power switch has been transformed from an ordinary button to a simple painted glyph on the Cube's top. To turn the machine on or off, the user merely rests a finger on that sensitive spot and a science-fiction glow appears -- but the spot is so sensitive that the lightest touch can activate it accidentally. Likewise, it's easy to put the machine to sleep while leaning it over to change cables.

That power cord is another small but pleasing innovation: A single plug powers the Cube and its speakers, and can feed one of the new Apple monitors and various add-on devices as well. Voltage is passed from the main Cube through special USB and FireWire connectors and the new Apple ADC monitor connection. The Cube also has a standard VGA connector for non-ADC monitors. Only Apple's old DVI displays require a separate $40 adapter.

The peripherals all perform nicely. The speakers boom out startlingly good sound, and a simple test program distinguishes left from right for proper stereo effect. (Those who want stereo-system bass can buy a separate subwoofer.) The amplifier for the speakers is a cell phone-sized box -- no room for it in the Cube proper -- with a convenient headphone jack on it. The new Pro keyboard has a full-sized layout. It's not quite as comfortable as the much bigger models of the mid-1990's, and the familiar power button is gone, replaced with volume controls and a disk eject button. Nonetheless, a big improvement over the cramped Mac keyboards of recent years.

The optical mouse has gotten a lot of attention. Its elongated shape is as pleasing to the hand as a heavy river stone, a welcome contrast to the disorienting "hockey puck" Apple had been shipping. Its optical sensor tracks on almost any surface without a mousepad -- foretelling the end of thousands of trade show give-aways -- and there's no ball to clean. Moving the mouse feels exactly the same, although on rare occasions the cursor sticks briefly. The entire mouse surface is a single huge button, with finger grips on the sides. It takes only a little getting used to, and then a normal mouse feels clumsy in comparison. Finally, the mouse is beautiful, like everything else in this package. It's a transparent shell over a black circuit board, and red light glows out of it all the time. With the laserlike mouselight and the ghostly power light on the Cube, this computer even looks good in the dark.

Convectional, not conventional: Not quite silent running

The design of the Cube is what's known as a "chimney". Like a regular chimney, it's a vertical shaft in which hot air rises, causing a natural exhaust. This means that the cord opening at the back and the roadster-like grille on top must remain unblocked. But the result is that the Cube does not need the strong cooling fan of more conventional designs. Apple markets the Cube as "virtually silent". In fact, the Cube does whine, something like a fluorescent light bulb. Hardly the most silent thing to have on one's desk, but in comparison, our G3 desktop system roars like a leaf blower. Less noise is an aesthetic improvement, and for those who work long close hours with their machines, it's a stress reducer as well.

Performance comparison and the "Megahertz Gap"

So how does the Cube stack up against other desktop systems? It's important to note that processor speed, in this case 500MHz, is not everything. Some new Pentiums ship with higher MHz numbers. But Apple cites the G4's "supercomputer" ability to perform complex and common operations much faster than an equivalent Pentium; they use Intel's own numbers and suggest that a 500MHz G4 be compared with a Pentium running at 1GHz or even higher.

For our informal performance comparison, we ran the 500MHz Cube side-by-side with a 266MHz Mac G3 desktop. The G3 had the edge in memory -- 192M physical RAM vs. 128M for the Cube. But the Cube still generally completed its operations more than twice as fast as the G3 -- again, even better than the raw MHz numbers would suggest. Our test system also gets a boost in some areas from the higher speed of its 7200 RPM hard drive.

Performance Comparison

	G3 desktop	G4 Cube
Cold start of system	150 sec	58 sec
Duplicate 10M file	3.5 sec	1 sec
Open Microsoft Word 2001 with 10M of memory	5 sec	2 sec
Open Internet Explorer 5 with 12M of memory	6 sec	3 sec
Open Photoshop 5.5 with 16M of memory	16 sec	8 sec
IN PHOTOSHOP:
Open 10M file	24 sec	12 sec
Apply gradient to 10M file	13 sec	10 sec
Convert 10M file from RGB to CMYK	12 sec	5 sec

Conclusion

The Cube is not a starter machine, not a toy-like iMac that's going to convert the millions into Mac users. Nor is it a strictly efficient tool, offering maximum computing bang for the buck. It's something in between -- a powerful toy? an elegant tool? Those who don't care to pay anything extra for style will not likely choose this computer. But the Cube surely deserves an 8-inch square space on the desks of those who want a fast, modern Macintosh that's a pleasure to see, to touch, and to use.

Box Score: A-

Power Mac G4 Cube
Fast G4 computer from Apple in uniquely beautiful, compact design

Apple Computer
Cupertino, California
Tel. (408) 996-1010
http://www.apple.com
Price: $1799 for base model without monitor.
$300 rebate available with monitor purchase.

+ Innovative design combines thrilling appearance, compact size
+ G4 with Velocity engine performs very quickly
+ Simplified connections reduce cable clutter
+ Less noisy than other machines, though still not silent
- Higher price reflects fancy design
- Less expandable than tower models
- Some minor flaws appear in transparent shell

Specifications

	Base model Cube	Test model Cube
Processor	450 MHz G4 1M backside cache at 225MHz	500 MHz G4 1M backside cache at 250MHz
RAM	64M PC-100 SDRAM	128M PC-100 SDRAM
	3 DIMM slots, max 1.5G RAM
Hard Drive	20G, 5600 RPM	40G, 7200 RPM
	DVD-ROM drive
Graphics card	ATI Rage 128 Pro with 16M RAM	ATI Radeon with 32M RAM
Connections	Two FireWire ports 10/100 Base-T Ethernet 56k V.90 Internal Modem Two USB ports on Cube, two on keyboard Two 20 watt stereo speakers with headphone jack
Dimensions	8" x 8" footprint, 9 3/4" tall, 14 pounds+ Power supply approx. 7" x 2" x 6" (goes on floor)
Software	Mac OS 9, iMovie 2, variety of browsers Mac OS X Beta available preinstalled for $30
Price	$1799 plus monitor	$2499 plus monitor
	$300 rebate available with purchase of new Apple monitor