emac

Release date 29 April 2002

• CPU: Powerpc G4, 700-1.42 GHZ • Memory: 128MB of PC133 SDRAM (expandable up to 1GB) • 40GB Hard Drive • 17-inch 1280x960 flat CRT display • Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce 2 MX with 32MB of DDR SDRAM • CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive • Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5.8

Original price

£799/$1,099 Price now

£50/$50

Looking like a first-generation imac with all of the fun drained out of it, the Apple emac was originally aimed at the classroom (‘e’ for education) and boasted a super-speedy Powerpc G4 processor that was significantly faster than the previous generation G3s, as well as a 17-inch flat CRT display (LCD was deemed too expensive for the education market). Perhaps the most striking aspect of the emac though was its weight. At a scale-topping 50lbs (23kg), it was an absolute beast to lug around, but unlike the imacs it didn’t sport a built-in carry handle and so really wasn’t designed to be portable. As such, connectivity was via 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet or built-in 56k V.90 modem – wireless Airport connectivity was an optional extra. The emac range continued until 2005, with ATI Graphics and USB 2.0 versions available, but ‘Raster Shift’ technical problems (where the bottom half of the screen went black with the image shifted upwards beyond the boundary of the display) saw them eventually discontinued in favour of a more educational-geared version of the imac Core Duo. And our backs breathed a collective sigh of relief…