- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4.0 stars
"Perfect Balance"
Pros: Beautiful, light, looong battery life, expandable to 2gigs of RAM, advanced features, OS X
Cons: Slow system bus, reletively "slow" processor, can get too hot, somewhat pricey , only 2 usb ports
Summary: A few years ago, Apples' Powerbooks were possibly the best laptop out there.
With the advent of Centrino and implementation of many features into Wintel portables, the Powerbook line is not as mighty as it used to be, but still is an amazing laptop.
I recently had a choice to make, buy a Centrino laptop or a Powerbook. I chose the Powerbook, here is why.
Powerbooks come preloaded with OSX "Tiger" (as of May 2005) I must say, despite some bugginess, the current 10.4.2 is very sleek, and has less problems than windows. In fact, the feature that swayed me was the operating system. "Tiger" has some awesome enchancements over "Panther" which cannot be overlooked.
Dashboard runs little programs called widgets can can be called up with one push of a button. I am so used to this now I would not go back for anything. Weather, stocks, maps, even CPU temperature can be accessed with one button. Forget searching the internet, opening up browsers and such, it is all there with one button. This feature is perfect for laptops.
Spotlight is a finding tool that works super fast and is super efficients. Much better than any search tool on any computer I have seen. Super useful if you deal with hundreds of files like myself.
OS aside, there are some great things about the 15 Powerbook and some weak points. Weak points first, as there are not many of them.
The processor. Although I cannot say it is slow, the PPC G4 1.5 only has a 167mhz system bus, and comparitevely with Centrino processors, gets whupped in most heavy processing tasks. Notice "most" not "all".
Altivec, or Velocity Engine, makes up for the slower CPU, as programs using this feature do have a significant speed up. (over 100% in some cases) I do heavy graphics and video work, and can say I am not disappointed by the G4, but I am not blown away.
Warning, this computer gets HOT! The Powerbook is made of aluminum, making it more durable than most portables, however, it also makes it super heat conductive. With heavy usage, the PB can get quite hot, not enough to burn, but not cool by any measure. It is not the hottest laptop I have felt, many Wintel plastic portables are just as hot if not hotter. Given the dimensions of the PB, wonder it can get warm.
Finally, get ready to fork over the cash. This laptop is quite pricey. If you dont have a lot of money, look to the less expensive iBook instead.
Now,for the pros, and there are lots of them.
On the outside, pure sex on your lap. The PB is light, slim, sexy aluminum with a glowing white Apple on the lid. Minimalist and proud, a slot loading optical drive prevents anything from sticking out or snagging. The design of this laptop is matched by very very few.
Along the sides, advanced ports. Digital video is east with a DVI output, a S-video to go striaght to TV.
The ONLY laptop outside of crazy expensive machines that has 2 Firewire ports, FW400 and 800. Both can be used for FW devices, but you need a FW800 to 400 cable to make use of the FW800 port.
Ethernet is BaseT 10/100/1000 so it is much faster than most portables who only offer 10/100.
The PB has 2 USB 2.0 ports, which is little compared to other laptops, but I believe Apple wants you to buy a wireless mouse, which would connect via Bluetooth EDR 2.0, the newest version of Bluetooth. From what I have seen, no other laptop has BT 2.0, I have only seen BT 1.0 and 1.2.
You also get a standard modem, PCMCIA slot, line in and headphone jack.
There are some really cool things inside too.
5400 rpm harddrives are standard, and faster than the standard 4200 rpm drives on wintel portables. There is a noticable difference, expecially with large files. I have seen this by comparing my PB with another portable that had a 4200 rpm HD. Also, the hard disk has a "sudden motion sensor" which protects your hard drive in a fall by moving the reading heads off the surface of the disk. Few laptops other than the Powerbooks and IBM laptops have this feature and it is a good security blanket.
Wireless internet is standard, with A/B/G wireless support, so you can get the fastest wireless internet connection. I have heard that because of the aluminum case, the range of wireless is cut down, however in practice, this is hard to define.
Sing praises of the battery life, which is excellent. I got 3 hours running a movie off the DVD player. Your settings and what you are doing obviously determine how long you can go, but I have pushed well over 3 hours easily several times, a huge bonus on a laptop.
Finally, a very cool feature. The keyboard lights up on the 15 and 17 inch model.
One may think this is frivolous, but I have found is super handy when in the dark. Forget extra USB lights, this works wonders.
I must finally mention the RAM. The PBs come preloaded with 512mb of RAM. I am very impressed with the performance given the fact that there is only 512 mb present. Sometimes it does lag, but even with things like Photoshop and Final Cut open, no one waits an eternity. RAM can be upgraded to 2 GB, which is important for RAM intensive apps. I was surprised to see that Sony Vaios only had the capacity of 1 GB of Ram. In some cases, the wintel laptops could supports 2 gigs, but don't, leaving a big question mark. (side note, the PB has 64mb Vram, so RAM is not shared for video tasks, a big bonus as you have dedicated memory for video)
As far as the screen goes, it is roomy, crisp and does not have excessive glare. Its highest resolution is (1280x854) not too large comparitively, but you wont get cramped
99% of the time.
Overall, the PB is a great laptop. It has a slew of very cool and important features that make up for the slower system bus and processor. Once you use them, you may have a hard time going back to "regular" laptops, however you pay a bit more for a notebook which is ready for the future, and has plenty preloaded to make you happy. I would suggest an upgrade to the Superdrive, which lets you burn DVDs, especially if you work in media. A larger hard disk is also helpful.
If you have some extra money and want a really awesome laptop, this is the one for you. Tight budget? Try an iBook or a less expensive wintel laptop, especially if you mostly do light word processing and internet tasks. For media, and professionals, this is a perfect balance. I made the right decision to go with the Powerbook, and am extremely happy with this purchase.
