The recently developed CIE color appearance model, CIECAM97s, provides an extension of the previously recommended CIE color spaces. This paper examines the new color appearance model by comparing it to CIELAB, one of the more widely used color spaces for digital color imaging. First, the perceptual attributes common to both spaces are compared and contrasted. Second, examining device gamuts in CIELAB and CIECAM97s further highlights differences in the spaces. Lastly, the trends in the color differences for the two color spaces are assessed. The focus of this paper is to highlight differences using simple numeric calculations.