Beauty and Power - you CAN have it all!
Written: May 31 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: fast, hard working, attractive
Cons: battery lever catches too easily
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| box543's Full Review: Apple PowerBook G3 (M7308LL/A) Mac Notebook |
I've had my G3 Powerbook since December 1998. It is a powerful machine that serves my needs extremely well. Currently, I'm using Mac OS 8.5.
As a web designer, I find it necessary to run several hefty applications simultaneously. My G3 came standard with enough RAM, that I haven't had to add more just to run Photoshop, Netscape, BBEdit, Eudora Pro, Fetch, and Illustrator at the same time. Of course, I try not to run them all at once. But, it's nice to be able to once in a while, when it's necessary.
The laptop is light enough not to cause a pain when I travel. It's fast enough that I don't have to wait for it to execute simple requests. I'm able to plug in all the periferies that I need (Zip drive, tablet, etc). It easily file-shares with my desktop Mac and the UNIX boxes at home.
I usually use my Powerbook plugged in, but when I need to use the battery it's never a problem to unplug and keep working. One one complaint about the battery is that the lever that you use to pop the battery out has a slight lip on it and sometimes I inadvertently pop out the battery. (eeek!) However, the original case I had didn't have this problem - there was no lip on the lever (it was smooth, no catching). So, maybe not all Powerbooks have this problem.
Before anyone questions the honesty of my post because I got a new case, let me explain what happened to my laptop. And keep in mind that it's pretty much 100% my fault that it had to be repaired...
I had left my laptop plugged in over night to recharge. In the middle of the night, it started to rain. I was dead asleep and never heard the thunderstorm. And then - POW! - the apartment was hit by lightening. It blew out half of the outlets in the place. It also hit the outlet my Powerbook was plugged into. All would have been well (only losing the power cord, which conveniently has a surge protector on it), except that I was also plugged into the phone line. Bye-Bye modem. And guess what! The modem is part of the board. (ick!) Because the modem is on the board, the lightening also damaged other things on the inside. The battery-back up started failing and even with a new powercord, I was losing power.
So, I had to take my computer in. Talk about flaking out - I was convinced they would lose all my work on the hard drive. Well, I got my original hard drive back, but I got a different case than I had before. (I could tell it was a different case because of the lip on the battery lever and the fact that I hadn't previously had an apple on the bottom of the machine.) Luckily, it was under warranty still. but, lesson re-learned: don't leave the computer plugged into anything during a storm.
That all happened in March of 1999 and everything has been peachy since then.
Overall, my experience with my G3 Powerbook has been extremely favorable. If I had to choose a laptop all over again, I would most definitely make the same choice. :)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
box543
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Location: Frisco, TX
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 32 members
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