PC Mag's First Look: PowerBook 1GHz

IrateSurf writes "PC Magazine has completed a First Look review of the new Apple PowerBook, which is the first notebook from Apple with a 1-GHz G4 processor. The notebook also has a nice price cut, running $2,999 -- that's $200 less than the last high-end PowerBook model."

Cool but...

[XBL]

you can buy 2 nice iBooks for the price of one Powerbook. I have an iBook, and have been satisfied for the most part, though I use it about 50% of my computer time.

If you really want to buy an Powerbook, I suggest getting an iBook instead and spend the other $1500 on a PC with a nice 17" LCD display.

Good to see

[code shady]

Quoth the article:
"The processor ratings were always much higher for the Windows notebooks (2 GHz or more), but megahertz ratings between Macintosh and Windows computers aren't directly comparable."

Its good to see a review from a PC centric publication address this, however minimally. Apple has long talked about the Megahertz Myth while the PC world has largely equated more MHZ meaning faster, when in reality its not that simple. I wonder if this will be a continued trend.
--

I love my iBook too, but...

[djupedal]

...it's meant to travel with my digital cameras (DV also), and not meant to replace my desktop box.

I was looking at the dual 1gig desktop G4s, but since I can get a slot-load DVD burner, I think I'll trade in my 12" iBook and get a TI instead. Don't get me wrong...the iBook is great, but it's not a G4.

And I'd suggest getting a pumped Shuttle (load Mandrake 9.0) and a Samsung 17" LCD for that extra $1500.00 if you do go the iBook route.

Difficult Comparisons

[slevin]

I did a little comparing of all the major brands of laptops recently, and there really is nothing comparable to the Power Book. There are faster laptops, certainly. And there are cheaper laptops. But there is nothing else on the market that offers similar features.

Only the Area51 also offers a high end graphics card. Only one of the sony's offers a large screen while staying reasonably light weight. No PC laptops at 6lbs and under qualify as desktop replacements. I've been carrying around a PowerBook G4 for almost 2 years now, and it is as heavy as a laptop should be - anything more really is too much. I'd love all the power of a top end IBM or Area51, but they are in the same price range (or more for the IBM) and both are in the 8lb range.

If I had one thing to change, it would be the fact that the power book has both a "return" and "enter" key. As a developer, I could really use another control key to make my emacs life easier. Who says, "boy am I glad that there is both and enter and return on this keyboard - I couldn't get by without it."

Got mine a month ago...

[hprotagonist0]

...and I'm loving it. First Mac I've had in about 10 years (my first computer was a Mac Plus - 8" screen, 1M RAM, no HD). It's gorgeous, fast, and just plain well-designed.

About the only thing bad I can say about it is that the keyboard layout's kind of lame. Considering the amount of room made avaliable by the form factor of the LCD screen (which is beautiful), you would think they could manage to sqeeze in pgup, pgdn, and delete keys without having to do fn-key combos (fn-up, fn-down, and fn-backspace, respectively). Also, I hate using the one-button trackpad, but that's a beef with Macs in general, and easily fixed by plugging in my Logitech trackball. Haven't had a chance to burn DVDs yet, but it's nice to have the option there.

Still not fast enough for Doom 3?

[Zhe Mappel]

Wasn't it last summer or fall that John Carmack reportedly said current Macs lack the CPU power that will be needed for Doom 3? Will this slight bump to the Powerbook cut it?

Re:Don't by a PowerBook

[davesag]

last year I stacked my bike [davesag.com] and my old TiBook came flying out of my backpack and hit the road, open and on. I was wearing my iPod and it hit the road too and was still playing as I scraped myself up off the cobble-stones. The TiBook was anything but damaged. I have tipped two drinks though it in the past, a Vodka and Ice and a Beer and both times my tibook was fine after a quick wash and dry. who cares about a few scratches here and there. everything fades. the tibook actually looks kinda rugged with a few nicks in it. now i have a new tibook (my old one was stolen) and love it.