Resting on it's laurel's? Perhaps.
Written: Oct 30 '03 (Updated Oct 30 '03)
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Pros: Vibrant screen, hefty CPU/GPU power in a 5.6" dead-sexy body. Best laptop out there.
Cons: Mediocre battery, mediocre support for Switchers
The Bottom Line: Laptops are about portability and convenience. This is portable, easy to use, quick to adapt, very well thought-out. It's simply the best laptop on the market.
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| andrechi's Full Review: Apple PowerBook G4 (M8981LL/A) Mac Notebook |
If any of you read my TiBook review, you'll know that that was my first Macintosh. Back then, OS X was new, and the idea of a Unix with Apple's famous GUI expertise was very compelling. I haven't looked back since. I'm not a Switcher, to be clear. I'm a hybrid user but I *fervently* recommend Macintosh over PC's, so if any of you are curious, but keeping to pro-PC dogmatic rhetoric, know that you're reading an epinion from someone who was just like you a few years ago.
Let's start with my configuration:
Measurements: 1.1"x13.7"x9.5"
Weight: 5.6 lbs
Screen: 15.2" active matrix TFT
Processor: G4-1.25 GHz (with Velocity Engine)
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
L2 cache: 512K
RAM: 512 MB
HD: 80 GB, 4200 rpm (there is an 80 GB model that spins at 5400 rpm)
DVD: SuperDrive
-CD-RW 24x Read, 16x Write, 4x RW
-DVD-R Read 8x, Write 2x (supports DVD-R and DVD+R)
Video: ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 w/ AGP 4x, 64MB DDR SDRAM
Built in Gigabit Ethernet (future-proofing)
Built in 56k modem
Built in wireless 802.11g card (Airport Extreme), which is an 54 Mbps wireless Ethernet standard
2 USB 2.0 ports
1 Firewire 800 port
1 Firewire 400 port
Built in Bluetooth
DVI Video out for external display (vga adapter included)
S-Video out to plug into a TV
1 PCMCIA Type I or II slot
In the box:
Laptop
Power Pack (Apple's clever, truly impressive power cord. More on this later.)
DVI -> VGA adapter
S-video -> Composit Adapter
Modem cord
Software:
OS X.3 Panther, iDVD, iTunes, iMovie, Quicktime, Safari 1.1
The Physical Construction
OK, a word on the construction of the machine first. There was a flaw in the design of the TiBook that would allow the screen to get pushed into the keyboard, leaving little impressions / marks on the screen. These weren't really scratches, per se, but were an eyesore. The new Aluminum Powerbook has a design that should prevent some of this, with the screen a little better protected.
The unit is heftier, and noticeable to someone who's familiar with the TiBooks. It's wider by 0.3" and thicker by 0.1." The smooth, uniform colored look is very sexy, and draws just as much attention, if not more so, than the TiBook. The sleep mode light has been moved from the screen hinge to the latch in the front of the Powerbook, and now all the ports are located on the side, not the back. This makes somethings more convenient and others more inconvenient.
The Keyboard is a full-size, 78 key keyboard with 12 function keys, and 4 arrow keys arranged in inverted T formation. The keys are firmer and harder to push than the TiBook, which is a strike against for me, since I prefer less resistance when I type. The keys also feature a sort of "grainy" feel to them, contrasted to the smoth keys on its predecessor. One HOT function, however, is the computer's fiber optic sensor that detects ambient light. It will light up the keys on the keyboard if it's dark, so you can clearly see your keypad on, say, an airplane at night. The screen also adjusts itself to light so as not to be too bright in well-lit situations.
There is a quirk I've encountered with the closing latch being loose. A check around the web reveals this to be a common problem which surprises me. We've waited so long for a revision to the 15" and now it appears Apple got a little careless in design and Quality Control. There are times you'll close the notebook, only to hear a soft "click" as you walk away. You look over your shoulder, and there it is... slightly popped up and awoken from sleep mode. Very annoying. I'm taking mine in to see if they can fix this problem.
The Battery
Well, this is where the new Powerbook falls flat on its face. The old design allowed you to easily swap batteries in and out by simply pushing a latch. The new one, however, *requires* a coin or similar instrument to spin a round latch that will release the battery. Needless to say, if you don't have one handy, you are out of luck. To add further insult to injury, the battery is slighly smaller, and will only last around 2.5 hours of use compared to the 4.5 hours the TiBook featured. To be fair, this computer has a lot more power, and resultant energy demands have to be expected. I just think that in the past, an extra battery would be a nice addition but now it is mandatory, IMO.
The Screen is beautiful. It's brighter than the Tibook, and sharper at a native 1280 x 854 resolution. As a screen snob, I'm tough to please. The TiBook impressed me, and the AlBook has now upped the bar. Tapping the screen from behind also shows far more resilience to distortion than the TiBook, and given how well my TiBook held up to 2+ years of serious, hard use, I have high hopes for the new kid.
Panther
I know this isn't a Panther review, but given it's release being so close to the 15" release date, I figured a few words on key issues would help. It's a great upgrade, and the Powerbook gets a lot of benefit from this. Expose (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/expose/) is an excellent GUI improvement allowing you to tile windows quickly based on application or all open windows and choose the one you want. No descriptions I've read of it have done it justice. Go see it in action, I implore you. On a laptop, this becomes a great thing given how hard it is to get by when you don't have room to deploy a mouse.
Safari, which comes as the default browser, is VERY quick to use, has built in pop-up blocking, and features a "Snap-back" function to take you to the start of a browsing session without having to hit "Back" several times. That said, Safari has a fatal flaw in that it can't handle secured HTTP (any url that starts with https://) when behind a firewall. That will prevent you from loading, say, PayPal or check your online bank accounts, etc. Very annoying.
Networking
Mixed feelings. The point of a well-designed laptop should be its ability to easily attach itself to networks wherever it goes. That said, I've had no problems at all connecting to any server environment. Also, the Gigabit Ethernet port features built-in crossover capability! The reason this is so great is that now, you can connect to ANY other laptop with a simple patch cable and set up filesharing. I use this ALL the time, and it's WONDERFUL. Normally, you need a special crossover cable to accomplish this, but not anymore!
Now for the bad news. When connecting to Windows Server environments, for some reason you can never get full duplexing. What that means is that file transfers will go REALLY slow... to the point where you're likely to time-out while transferring a large block of files. Apple's suppport also falls flat on its face here. They take a "We don't support third party issues" stance with absolutely no offer to try to help. This is a big problem. This dichotomy is also a stark contrast to their whole Switch Campaign which is intended to pull Windows slaves to the Mac side by showing how Macs can do everything Windows PC's can do... easier and better. Let's hope they address this post-haste with an OS update.
Peripheral Integration
One of the Mac's hallmarks is its ability to tie devices together. With built in Bluetooth, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Firewire 800 and 1 Firewire 400 port, you can plug a whole lot of things into your mac. iSync does a wonderful job bringing this all together. My setup is letting me synchronize my contacts / calendar with my iPaq, iPod and phone. This is such a wonderful thing, I can't even begin to tell you.
The new iChat features a very powerful ability to send internet phone calls. Even if you don't have a microphone, it doesn't matter... remember all speakers are also microphones! It wont sound great, but you could simply talk into the speakers on the Powerbook if you don't have a mic handy, making it an interesting speaker phone.
But the real neato new feature in iChat is the ability to plug in ANY firewire based video recorder and do video conferencing with anyone in your buddy list that also has a camera and iChat. The new iSight is pretty cool, but if you have a camera already, why spend the extra $150? I've used this... and man is it fun. It's a whole new way to bring people together!
Gaming?!
Yes. Gaming. I love playing Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne, and it runs smoothly on my Powerbook. This is a great thing because it shows just how much more powerful this Powerbook is over its predecessor. If you've got the guts of a gaming rig in this small, light design, you know you're playing with power.
Reasons not to buy?
I've heard a few and I'll address them:
The iBook is G4 now... so why pay the markup on the Powerbook?
Not strictly true. The iBook is not featuring the same processor as the AlBook. On-board L2 cache is not running at full processor speed, and there's half of it to boot. Also, the iBook processor does NOT feature the Velocity Engine, which is a large part of the reason the Powerbooks perform as well as they do. You *are* getting what you pay for!
Aren't the G5 Powerbooks going to come out soon?
There are no reports for this, and Steve Jobs isn't stupid. To rollout an update like this only to turn around in a few months and spin out a new G5 would really get people upset. That said, the reports I've heard about a G5 Powerbook put it at more than a year away. Do with that what you will, it is just a rumor. One is as good as another, but I believe it's more realistic that it'll take them another year to figure out how to squeeze a G5 into these form factors.
Conclusion
Sorry it took so long getting here! The machine is a great improvement, power wise, over the TiBook. The negatives have been reviewed and are surmountable, but it goes to show that perfection just isn't possible. The computer is sleek, sexy, and coupled with the beautiful Aqua interface, a female friend of mine was quoted, "It's positively *lickable!*"
I agree. Mac has come a long way in the last few years, and I see absolutely *no* reason why PC users shouldn't switch. You can point to the cost of the hardware, and I maintain that a comparable PC laptop would end up about the same after adding software to match Apple's own default suite. By controlling hardware / software, you do have to pay a premium for Apples but your reward is a stable computing platform that's fun to use. I have *never* been forced to reboot my Tibook in the 2+ years I've owned it for anything other than an OS update. In fact, I've never shut it off (the extra battery is hot-swappable). I suspect I will enjoy the same level of quality and consistency of my computing experience with this new edition.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2500
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor: PowerPC G4
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
andrechi
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Location: West Orange, NJ
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Bewildered 20-something walking the Earth... you know, like Cane in Kung-fu.
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