This Would Be Goldilock's Laptop of Choice
Written: Oct 20 '03 (Updated Nov 01 '03)
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Pros: Fast, silent and deadly. Well ok, not deadly unless you bean someone over the head.
Cons: Battery life is definitely subpar for the current times.
The Bottom Line: This Powerbook is perfect as a desktop replacement for those who have less space available than what a 17" would require. Simply a superb machine.
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| kenshin27's Full Review: Apple PowerBook G4 (M8981LL/A) Mac Notebook |
Truth be told I hadn't really been planning on picking up one of these new 15" Powerbooks since I wanted to wait for the G5 Powerbooks. But after reading that it would probably take at least another year for the G5s to hit notebook form and after finally seeing the specs of these new machines when they were released, I was a bit more intrigued. Finally decided to make use of my fiancee's educational status and order a custom-built model from the online Apple Store. Decided to go with the 15" model again because to me it's the perfect size. My Mac is always my main computer so the 12" is not powerful enough for that and I often lug it back and forth from work so the 17" is a bit too big for that. So once again, the 15" is just right.
Demand for these babies seem to have been rather high although my original expected ship date was exactly a week after we ordered it. Of course, that didn't work out and Apple sent me an email saying that it was delayed for another week. Of course that wasn't accurate either cause 2 days later I got another email saying that the machine had shipped. Now I had paid for 2 day shipping but when I was checking my order status I noticed that the shipping had been upgraded to priority overnight. Of course what they don't tell you is that they ship from Taiwan so it actually takes about 3-4 days to get through customs and into the US and then that's when your overnight or 2-day shipping kicks in. So total time waiting for this thing to show was about 2 and half weeks. Out of which one week was spent cursing Apple and Airborne Express for not getting their arses in gear. But in the end, it arrived safe and sound and I raced home early that fateful day to play with my new toy.
The Powerbook comes in an attractive black box with pictures of the unit in open and closed states on either side. Comes with a convenient plastic handle on top as well. Located in the top section of the top styrofoam layer is all the accessories (power adapter, power cord, instruction/warranty manuals, installation DVD, S-Video to composite adapter, DVI/VGA adapter, and modem cable. Removing the top styrofoam layer reveals the Powerbook nestled within encased in a thin protective bag. And having been an Apple fan for years now I still gotta say that this Powerbook's a beaut. The new aluminum case material is shinier than the matte titanium and is resistant to most fingerprints. The entire machine is smooth and rounded, devoid of any protrusions as opposed to the TiBook which had 2 hinge protrusions for the screen. And there are no more painted parts to worry about flaking paint like in the first gen TiBooks. Overall this new AlBook is a bit thicker and wider than the TiBook but not unreasonably so. I think the extra thickness actually makes the AlBook feel a LOT sturdier than the TiBooks. Although the extra width can cause problems with any cases that you might have for the TiBook. Supposedly the AlBook won't fit in the TiBook sleeve by Waterfield but I was able to put it in the one I have just fine so I'm not sure what they're talking about. But I'm barely able to cram it into the built-in sleeve of the Timbuk2 Commuter bag. The screen component isn't as thin and flimsy feeling as on the TiBook and with the Airport Extreme antennas now located on either side of the screen, you no longer have the semi-clear slit panels on either side of the bottom half to fiddle around with whenever you think your Airport reception is too low. The AlBook is also a bit heavier than the TiBooks but not uncomfortably so. I've been lugging it to and from work every day and I don't feel any more encumbered than I was with the TiBook.
These new 15" AlBooks now use the same screen hinge as in the 12 & 17" Powerbooks so all the ports have been moved to the side and the entire back of the machine is taken up by the screen hinge. This new hinge structure feels quite solid but unlike the TiBook hinges which pretty much allowed you to open the screen up to almost 180 degrees, these will only go about 135. Which I guess isn't that big of a deal since you usually won't be needing to swing the hinge any much wider than that.
The left side of the AlBook is now home to the power plug, modem port, USB2 port, microphone port, headphone port, and PCMCIA slot. The button that you use to eject an inserted PCMCIA card is now much thicker and doesn't feel as fragile as the thinner one on the TiBooks. There is also now two ventilation grids on either side of the bottom half towards the front of the machine although I don't recall every hearing any sort of fan go on in this machine.
The right side of the AlBook contains the DVI port, S-Video Out port, 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet port, a FireWire/800 port, a FireWire/400 port, another USB2 port, and a cable lock slot. While it's definitely much more convenient to have the ports all located on the sides of the machine, the only drawback is that you need to clear out a bit more space on either side of the machine if you want to plug in everything and be able to keep the cables out of the way. Otherwise you'll need to buy much shorter cables. And I suppose some people would've liked some sort of protective cover for the ports so that nothing can accidentally make their way into them when they're not in use.
The keyboard face of the AlBook is pretty much all aluminum with a grey plastic edge. The keyboard itself takes up the top half of the surface and the keys are the same shimmery silver as the rest of the computer. The lettering is translucent so that the lighting can shine through a little when on. The effect is quite nice and works very well. The arrow and function keys are still half size and they shifted the Enter key that used to be right next to the right side of the space bar one over to the right. So instead of having the Enter key and an Alt/Option between the spacebar and the arrow keys, there's now a Command key followed by the Enter key. So that was disconcerting for me at first since I use that Enter key alot with Fire (IM program). The keyboard itself is superb. I never really had any complaints about the TiBook's keyboard but the one on this AlBook is definitely superior. A bit stiffer but with great tactile feedback. You can no longer remove the keyboard anymore either which explains the better support for it underneath. The tiny speaker grills that existed on the TiBook have been replaced by much larger ones on the AlBook that match the depth of the keyboard itself. And they sound great. Although coming from the TiBook speakers I guess that's not really saying much. But at full blast, the AlBook speakers can hold their own. The power button is situated within the top side of the right speaker grill. The trackpad is centered along the bottom half of the keyboard face and works just fine. The trackpad button seems to be a bit more protruding than I remember it on the TiBook and also feels a tiny bit looser but still works well enough.
The latch that holds the screen closed works just fine for me although I've read of people having problems with it that required a trip to the shop to fix. When closing the screen I always give it a firm push down to make sure the latch catches. The screen itself will spring back up a bit so that it doesn't rest right on top of the keyboard thereby alleviating the keyboard impressions on the screen problem that many people complained about with the TiBooks. I still keep a screen protector over my keyboard whenever I close the AlBook anyway. And that extra space when closed makes it feel kinda funny when you pick it up to carry around. But I've had no problems with it staying closed. Oh, and they also moved the sleep indicator light onto the latch itself. That light used to be located in the center on the top edge of the keyboard face for the TiBook.
The bottom of the AlBook contains the battery and a panel that you need to remove to add/replace RAM. The battery itself is no longer as easy to install as in the TiBook. It now uses a coin latch method where you need to use a coin or flat screwdriver to turn the latch which will pop the battery up into the open position. A lot less convenient when compared to the latch method on the TiBook. The battery itself is smaller than the ones that the TiBook uses. and from all reports it also provides a lot less power than what the TiBook had. I think my battery gives me about 2 and half hours of juice during normal use which I'm ok with but I know a lot of people are rather peeved about since it's nowhere near the 4.5 hours that Apple writes about on its site. But then again I do have everything turned on all the time like Bluetooth and Airport Extreme. I purchased a second battery which just arrived today so at least I have that to fall back on whenever I go on extended trips. But it would have been nice if they could have used higher capacity batteries with this thing. Since the keyboard is no longer removable, RAM changes requires you to have a tiny Phillips screwdriver on hand to remove a plate in the center of the machine and the RAM slots are right there in plain view. Pretty easy.
The SuperDrive on this thing is a slot-loader as well and seems to work a bit better than the DVD drive I had on my TiBook. No weird alignment problems that caused the discs to have trouble ejecting at times. The DVD drive on the TiBook was quieter than the SuperDrive though. With the DVD drive, all you had to do was slip the disc in about a quarter of the way and the drive would grab it and smoothly pull it the rest of the way in. Ejecting the disc was accompanied by a soft to midrange whirring sound. The SuperDrive on the other hand won't take the disc until you've pretty much pushed it all the way in at which point it really sucks it in. And when ejecting it spits it out halfway with a noise that's a mix between a crunch and a clunk. Basically the SuperDrive sounds like a beast when inserting and ejecting discs. I have yet to burn any DVDs with it but CD burning works fine with Toast Titanium 6. Apple does give you a blank DVD to play around with though so I guess I'll get around to it one of these days. Hopefully the SuperDrive is a lot sturdier than the DVD drive because I've had to have the DVD drive replaced 3 times since I've had it.
The AC adapter is no longer the UFO adapter that came with the earlier TiBook models. It's now the smaller white square model that's a bit more convenient to carry around. If you usually set up close to a power outlet, you can plug the adapter right into the outlet. If you need more cord however, you can remove the prongs from the adapter and replace it with an extension cord that ends in a tri-pronged plug. Good setup. And when not in use you can wrap the cord leading from the adapter to your computer around two hinges that pull off the face of the adapter itself. The plug that inserts into the AlBook has a lighted edge that glows green when the battery is fully charged or orange when charging. A nice touch.
Performance-wise, this AlBook is a pleasant upgrade from the 500Mhz TiBook I've been using for the past 2 years. I don't think owners of the 1Ghz Powerbook will feel much of a difference but it was significant enough for me. Plus moving from an 8MB vid card to a 64MB ATI Radeon 9600 is the answer to my prayers. Being able to play Warcraft III in all its glory on a laptop is quite exciting. Strangely though the AlBook seems to boot up a bit slower than I was expecting. Which apparently is normal. Not sure why that is but I'm hoping it'll be fixed a bit when 10.3 is released later this week.
I was also lucky enough to get a machine that had a flawless screen. No dead pixels or weird strange white spots that some people are reporting on their machines. And the screen definitely is MUCH better than the one on the old TiBook I have and I still remember thinking that the TiBook screen was gorgeous when I first laid eyes on it 2 years ago. But a side by side comparison makes the TiBook screen look so much duller and less crisp than the AlBook screen. Plus the jump in resolution from 1152 x 768 to 1280 x 854 is nice too.
The model I have also has Bluetooth built-in which has been working fine since I've received it. Moved files around between it and my phone and Palm. Synced my phone through it with all of my other gadgets, everything seems to be in order as far as Bluetooth is concerned.
I also custom-built mine with the 5400RPM 80GB HD and a single 512MB RAM chip instead of the dual 256 that is standard. I had purchased another 512MB chip from datamem.com but when I installed it, the machine started having random kernel panics. But they sent out another one to me and it's been working just fine since then. This machine runs absolutely silent. The only time I've ever heard a peep out of it was when I was installing programs into my Virtual PC WinXP install and I still don't know whether that was a hard drive noise or a fan noise. But otherwise, you hear nothing from this machine except the sound of your typing. Heat-wise the bottom of the machine remains warm for the most part but never hot like with the TiBook. It did run a bit hotter when doing more processor intensive stuff (again, when running Virtual PC) but besides that the heat is at a more manageable level.
So if you're an owner of one of the earlier generation TiBooks, the new 15" AlBooks is definitely worth the upgrade. It's silent, fast, and beautiful. The only major flaw is that wishy-washy battery but if you don't make too many transcontinental flights then it shouldn't be as big of an issue. As far as I can tell everyone who has received a fully-functional AlBook (without the screen or latch problems) have loved it and it truly is a great machine.
Check out my review on the Apple Titanium Powerbook G4:
http://www.epinions.com/content_16435285636
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2600
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor: PowerPC G4
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: SuperDisk
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
kenshin27
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Member: Ben C
Location: NJ
Reviews written: 34
Trusted by: 17 members
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