The G4 iBook ?
Written: Mar 02 '03 (Updated Aug 02 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
 |
|
|
Pros: nice performance compared to other 12" laptops, sturdy, lighter than the iBook
Cons: AirPort range and battery life not *quite* as awesome as iBook's.
The Bottom Line: Awesome laptop computer. Has everything I loved about the iBook, only is faster, lighter, and has more connectivity. I love the aluminum design.
|
|
|
| technolicious's Full Review: Apple PowerBook G4 12.1 in. (M8760LL/A) Mac Notebo... |
*********************************************
Introduction
*********************************************
I used to have an 800Mhz iBook, which I sold on ebay to get a PowerBook G4. Since I'm sure that many people are curious how the new 12.1" PowerBooks compare to the 800Mhz iBooks, I'll compare and contrast the two throughout this review.
*********************************************
Initial Impressions
*********************************************
The body of the PowerBook G4 12.1" is more compact and dense than that of the iBook. It feels much more sturdy/stiff, as if it was carved out of a piece of aluminum. Everything is put together perfectly, with absolutely no rough edges or misaligned surfaces. It doesn't scratch easily like the iBooks do. When you have the PowerBook closed on a table, you can press the button and open it up completely without moving the rest of the computer - unlike with the iBook, which had an overly stiff display hinge.
The screen is the same size as the 12.1" display used by the iBook, but seems to be a bit brighter and more accurately colored. Perhaps the ColorSync profile is better by default. On both the iBook and PowerBook, pressing on the back of the display does not cause any distortion.
Beware - the rubber "feet" will come off if you slide the PowerBook in and out of a laptop sleeve daily. My advice is to peel the feet off and superglue them back on. Only use a tiny bit of glue - keep it neat!
The keyboard on the PowerBook 12.1" is clearly superior to those of the iBooks and PowerBook Titanium editions. It does not flex inward, is just the right resistance, and is very quiet to type on. It does not light up like the keyboard of the 17" PowerBook G4. The keyboard does not come off as with the iBooks and older PowerBooks; the AirPort Extreme card plugs in under the battery, and additional RAM is installed under a door on the underside of the PowerBook. The memory door/plate is held in by 4 TINY screws - you will need a phillips #0 screwdriver to get them out.
The track pad is slightly more textured than the track pad of the iBook, but is more durable as well; my iBook's track pad quickly developed a smooth area in the middle from being used, whereas my PowerBook's has not after being used just as much. The track pad button requires slightly more force to press than the button on the iBooks, and travels farther down when pressed. The track pad button is also much smaller than the big fat button on the iBook - it looks better, but doesn't feel quite as good to press.
The PowerBook includes a sound-in port, which the iBook lacks.
The power plug is on the left, right in line with all of the other ports on the side of the PowerBook. This keeps all of the cables in one place, with no need to reach behind to the back ever.
*********************************************
Optical Drive
*********************************************
The slot-loading CD-RW/DVD-ROM is the version on my PowerBook; I opted for the combo drive rather than the super drive. This combo drive burns CDs at 24MAX speed, taking about 4 minutes to burn a full CD. The iBooks have 16x burners, but they only burn CDs at 4x or 8x in practice, taking around 10 minutes to burn a full CD. The slot-loading mechanism is a wonderful feature in my opinion. It saves the step of opening the CD tray when I want to insert a CD or DVD. It also saves the step of closing the CD tray after ejecting a CD or DVD. It's a more elegant design. Beware though, that if you intend to use those little 3.5" CDs, you'll have to carry an adapter in your bag.
Apple's DVD Player does not currently support deinterlacing, so TV DVDs show interlacing artifacts. An alternate, freeware media playing program is available from http://www.videolan.org/. It's called VLC player, and it does support deinterlacing of TV DVDs.
I recently found out that Apple is updating the DVD Player for Mac OS 10.3 - it will fully support adaptive deinterlacing! Way to go Apple!
*********************************************
Performance
*********************************************
Mac OS 10.2.x feels similarly snappy on either a current 800Mhz iBook or the new 867Mhz PowerBook G4 12.1" model; I suppose that the PowerBook is slightly quicker, but I really can't tell the difference in general (most likely thanks to Quartz Extreme helping the iBook out).
Ripping a song from the end of a music CD, the iBook 800Mhz reached about 8x speed, whereas the PowerBook reaches about 12x. iPod users will appreciate the 50% speed improvement in ripping tracks from CDs.
Photoshop performance is interesting to compare. I took a 24MB JPEG image, and did several side-by-side tests on the iBook and the PowerBook. On many quick filters, the iBook won by a fraction of a second, but on the more time-consuming filters (such as radial blur), the PowerBook was much faster.
Game performance is a bit better with the PowerBook. Both my old iBook 800Mhz and the current PowerBook have 640MB RAM, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein runs a bit smoother on the PowerBook. Not a very exciting difference, though - the choppy parts are still choppy. In Quake3, I'm showing 64.4fps with settings at "High Quality" and the resolution at 1024*768 - very good. My 800Mhz iBook got about 50fps with the same settings, and the 900Mhz iBook gets almost 52fps. Centrino laptops with ATI Radeon Mobility 7500 DDR cards score about 63fps, but they have 1.4Ghz and up CPUs:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20030212/mobile_pentium-11.html
Therefore the Nvidia Geforce 420 graphics is clearly better than the ATI Radeon Mobility 7500, at least in Mac OS 10.2.x's OpenGL implementation. Otherwise the 867Mhz G4 would have to be faster than a 1.7Ghz Centrino, which I doubt! Oh, and the benchmarks for the Centrinos are for "demo 1", which is slightly less demanding than "demo 4" which I was running.
Interestingly, MAME runs much better on the PowerBook, most likely due to the Altivec memory handling ability of the G4.
Virtual PC seems to run much better, most likely due to the far stronger memory performance of the PowerBook G4. In X-Bench 1.0, the PowerBook G4 12.1" scores almost triple the overall memory performance of the iBook 800Mhz!
*********************************************
Wireless Networking
*********************************************
Wireless networking range is a bit better with the iBook - areas that got me 3 bars now get me 2 bars. Still, that is an improvement over the PowerBook G4 Titanium editions.
AirPort extreme is nice on local networks; I networked computer-to-computer with a dual 1.25Ghz PowerMac (a new one with AirPort extreme), and transferred a 128MB file in just over a minute.
Bluetooth is very fun. I took my PowerBook into the campus bookstore, clicked on the Bluetooth icon in my menu bar, and chose to send a file. My PowerBook automatically found the PowerBook on the sales floor, so I sent it a jpeg. On the other PowerBook, I clicked to agree to receive the file, and it was transmitted at about 40KB/sec. It was totally intuitive for me; I had never done a thing with Bluetooth, and I didn't need to read any directions.
*********************************************
Battery Life
*********************************************
Battery life is great, being right up there with the iBooks and other PowerBooks. With the screen brightness turned down a few notches and performance set to "reduced", I get 3.5 to 4 hours typical use. With performance set to "highest" I get 2.5 to 3 hours. When you turn down the performance to "reduced", general performance is really not lowered very much at all; the graphics card is still operating at full power, the memory system is at full speed, and so is the hard drive of course. Quake 3 loses about 10-15 fps, but the operating system feels practically the same.
The battery charges in a couple of hours, just like with the iBook, and that is when you are using the PowerBook while charging it. Many PC laptops take several hours to charge if you are using them at the same time, so this feature should be appreciated.
The PowerBook G4 12.1" includes both the VGA-out adapter and the S-Video/Composite-video output adapters. Video Mirroring is supported, as with the iBook, but the PowerBook also supports video-spanning. Resolutions up to 1600*1200 are supported on the second display, with 85Hz refresh rate at the highest resolution. I've tested it, and it works perfectly - just like you would expect it to.
*********************************************
Heat
*********************************************
The PowerBook G4 12.1" does get hot under certain circumstances. Specifically, when it's charging its battery and using 100% CPU for extended periods of time, it gets very hot on the left side where you would rest your palm, and also on the underside of the PowerBook. The heat could not burn you, but your left palm might get a tad bit sweaty. In the colder months, the PowerBook makes a lovely lap warmer.
Being made of aluminum, the PowerBook is like one big heat sink. This helps it dissipate heat without needing a noisy fan.
The fan is, in fact, much quieter than the iBook fan. It only comes on when constantly pushing the CPU to 100% on "highest" performance for extended periods of time (Virtual PC, 3D games). When CPU utilization drops, the fan turns off in a minute or two; on the iBook, it takes 10 minutes or more for the unit to cool down enough for the noisy fan to turn off.
*********************************************
Usage
*********************************************
Using the PowerBook G4 12.1" feels very different from using the iBook. The PowerBook is much more tight, the screen looks better, the keyboard feels much nicer, and the slot-loading combo drive is more refined. The hinge is smoother, the border around the screen is smaller, and the contrast from all plastic to all aluminum is stark. The iBook feels a bit like a toy in comparison, even though the iBook is a wonderful laptop in my opinion.
*********************************************
Conclusion
*********************************************
The price on the PowerBook G4 12" is now $1599. University students pay only $1399. Either way, the PowerBook is a much better deal than the iBook. The PowerBook features superior construction, higher performance, lighter weight, smaller size, superior keyboard and display, faster CD burning (or DVD burning if you need it!), faster 3D graphics acceleration, dual display support (not just mirroring as with the iBook), and better wireless networking abilities.
I'm very happy with the PowerBook.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1752
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor: PowerPC G4
Processor speed: 801-900
Screen Size: 12 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
technolicious
|
|
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 1 member
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.