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Macworld Article Page 2 |
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The Nextstation The new, " low-end" Next is called the Nextstation, and a list price of $4995, the quotation marks around "low end" probably aren't needed. Costing less than a bare Mac IIci box, the Nextstation itself, along with the features listed above, comes with a 105MB hard drive, 8MB of RAM, the Next MegaPixel Display, and the standard version of Release 2.0 system software. The Nextstation is a flat black slab, 15 1/2 inches wide by 14 1/3 in. deep and about 2 1/2 inches high. The floppy drive is located in front and all ports are in the back. Inside is a single Next main logic board; it has no expansion. The MegaPixel Display sits on top of the computer. The Nextstation has a significant advantage over the Macintosh IIsi, which Apple bills as its "cheapest modular Macintosh." A not-really-comparable Mac contender -- with 8MB of RAM, a 40MB hard drive, the 68882 FPU, and the Apple Portrait Display (640-by-870-dpi resolution and 16 shades) -- costs about $800 more than the Nextstation. Furthermore, the Mac IIsi system has only half of the Nextstation's display area, a fraction of the 68040/56001 horsepower, little bundled software, and no I/O processors or Ethernet hardware. On the plus side, the Mac IIsi system does include a single expansion slot, built-in color support, and it can take advantage of a vast number of sophisticated applications and utilities. While the Nextstation is a complete system, it's a tight fit. Only about 30MB of disk space is available on the hard drive; but the user does have the option of deleting or archiving applications and files in order to free up space. As it is, the system software doesn't have all the items bundled with the original Nextcube; the full extended version is available only if you buy Next's larger drive (340MB) or hook up an external hard drive. Doing the latter is simple; you can hook up and format most Mac-compatible SCSI drives with few problems, although you'll need the SCSI/2-to-SCSI adapter cable sold by Next. Because of the limited disk space, Next suggests that the Nextstation is best used on a network or with an external hard drive. This stance ignores a large number of potential end-users who will want to acquire the low end product as a compact, stand-alone unit. Unfortunately, the next larger configuration--with a 340MB hard drive--costs $2000 more. That's too big a jump; Next should offer a system with a 160MB hard drive for $5500 or thereabouts. Even so, with a street price of around $4200 and an educational discount price of around $3000, the Nextstation may well become a strong-selling system. |
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