For most of us, the 15" PB is just right
Written: Mar 07 '04
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Pros: Stunning widescreen video, thin and light enough to travel
Cons: A bit expensive and still a bit large for the truly mobile
The Bottom Line: The best PowerBook yet for most users. 90-day tech support is a bad joke.
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| lawman67's Full Review: Apple PowerBook G4 15.2 in. (M8980LL/A) Mac Notebo... |
This marks my third review of an Apple PowerBook, and is for the middle 15” (actually 15.2”) model. Previously I reviewed the 12” aluminum and 17” aluminum PowerBooks, and in both cases hinted that those are, in fact, niche products. The 12” is a delight to carry around and is useable in the tightest of confines, while the 17” is a joy to behold with its theatre-like screen. Go beyond their niches, however, and those two machines are much less impressive. The 12”, while great for travelling, forces users to look at a smallish screen while also doing without much of the expansion of the larger models, specifically it only accepts 1.25GB of ram (larger PBs accept 2.0 GB) and lacks both a PCMCIA slot and is limitted to FireWire 400 instead of 800 as the larger books have. The 17”, in contrast, while having the most power and versatility, is simply too large to be considered a real laptop, and is more of a transportable desktop that can move from one room to another, but is all but useless for daily carry.
So here we have the 15”, which for the last 3 years or so has been the standard PowerBook size. Side by side, the new aluminum 15” PowerBook is a smidge thicker than the Titanium model it replaces, but is so close as to use all of the same cases and sleeves without issue. Like the 12” and 17” models, the 15” aluminum PowerBook has a gorgeous aluminum casing, and like the 17”, the keyboard is softly illuminated when the ambient light is low, shutting off automatically in brighter light to conserve battery power. Also like the 17”, the 15” uses a widescreen aspect ratio, which makes DVD movies extremely impressive. In fact, when the titanium model was introduced, many people (myself included) considered it too large for portable use, though it is only larger than a normal laptop in width, which isn’t much of a problem most of the time. Look around on any flight and you will see plenty of 15” Titanium PowerBooks in use, though in coach it gets a bit tight. If you are frequent traveller, get the 12”.
For other than travel, however, the 15” seems to be the “Just right” size of PowerBook. At your desk you get a monitor that displays more information than most 17” CRTs and is stunning while doing it. On the road you get an under 6lb package that is easy to carry and small enough to use in coffee shops or airport lounges. No, it doesn’t have the stunning views of the 17”, but it is actually useable as a laptop, which cannot be said for the larger machine.
The 15” PB comes preinstalled with Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther”, which I’ve described in my other Apple reviews and in its own review. Needless to say, Panther is a perfect match for the 15” PB, just as it is on the 12” and 17”. The OS was designed from the start for mobile computing, with the sleep function working perfectly when the lid is closed and the computer waking up EVERY time, in just a second or two. I’ve used Windows on laptops for years, and Mac OS 7 and 8 before that, and NEVER has an operating system had a sleep function even close to the reliability of Panther on a modern PowerBoook.
The 15” PowerBook with its 64MB ATI Radion graphics blasts through all graphics tasks with ease, as it is fully Quartz Extreme enabled. Combined with the powerful 1GHz PPC G4 processor and its produgious level 1, 2 AND 3 cache, the result is that you almost never see the spining wheel that indicates OS X is busy. Windows and folders open up immediately, and even applying filters in Photoshop is more like a before-after switch than waiting for a computer to process information. It is really that fast. If you need more, a 1.25GHz version is also available.
I don’t own the 15: PowerBook, but a few of my classmates have them as as aluminum PowerBook owners, we are all very curious about each other’s machines. We’ve set 12” (mine), 15” and 17” models side by side and performed tasks such as applying a solarize filter to the same 5MP photo in Photoshop, watched the same DVD and ripped songs from CDs on all three models. The two larger PBs are faster, as you would expect, but also the quality of the displays are significantly better. The 12” model has a gorgeous display that has been described as jewel-like, but the 15” and 17” panels, not even counting their size, simply offer a level of brightness, color accuracy and sharpness that I’ve never before seen on ANY laptop. If you work with photos, animation, or just like to watch movies, the 15” and 17” PowerBooks are as good as it gets.
So is the 15” PowerBook right for you? Well, first you must overcome is relatively steep cost of entry. It is an excellent value starting at $2000 (increased exponentially depending on configuration), but with the 14” iBook in the same store for $700 less (with far less capability) you have to be the judge of that. Other than cost, look at how you use a laptop. Do you tend to keep it in one place, using it more like a compact desktop system that you occasionally take with you on a trip? Perhaps the 17” will be better for you. Are you a road warrior, always on the go? The 12” is considerably smaller and lighter and makes a better system for use on those tiny airplane tray tables. If you are like most people and fall somewhere in between those two extremes, the 15” PowerBook is simply the best laptop computer on the market, period.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): not mine
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:
lawman67
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 in Computer Hardware |
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Member: Andrew F
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 208
Trusted by: 63 members
About Me:
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl but she doesn't have a lot to say.
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