G4 Firepower to Go

Author's Rating:

Pros: Drips elegance from every angle, is the perfect mobile design studio, makes others jealous

Cons: It's BIG (but not heavy), faxing is buggy, makes others jealous

The Bottom Line: 
Absolutely fantastic, it's the Lamborghini Murciélago of laptops!

Author's Review
I bought my 867MHz PowerBook G4 just two weeks ago, and I'm completely in love with it. It's the first computer I've bought NEW since 1986! I'm a film student and a freelance graphic designer, and I was actually planning on getting a Quicksilver or even one of the newer, mirror-drive-bay G4 towers, but then came that fateful day when Apple released the 867MHz and 1000Mhz PowerBook G4's at a lower price point then the 667MHz and 800Mhz models had been. I was hooked.

I bought the PowerBook just two days after it was released at the Apple Store in Northridge, California mostly because I had a big project to work on and needed it as soon as possible. In many cases, buying from the Apple Store is great because you get to play with everything before you get it (and they have tons of accessories), however, you can always get a better deal online or from a smaller, local store that specializes in Apple. So, shop around!

Once I got the hunk of titanium home, I opened the box and realized just how sexy it was once it belonged to me. It's not everyday that you can go out and drop $2,500 (with tax) on a laptop, but Apple really makes it worth the beans. The 'book came with the AC adapter, an extension cord for the AC adapter, two system disks, an s-video to composite video adapter, a DVI to VGA adapter, the coolest telephone cord you'll ever see, and a couple slim but useful manuals.

This is the first Mac anywhere that can boot off of a DVD-ROM, which is good because it means the unit comes with just two disks, a software restore disk and a hardware test disk. The former is a 4.7GB DVD-ROM that contains the entire OS and all the software! No more shuffling through dozens of CD's to find stuff that needs to be reinstalled. This is definitely a good step.

I haven't used the DVI-to-VGA adapter yet, but it's great that they threw it in, since I can connect the PowerBook to any CRT or LCD display or even video projector right out of the box. You have to pay a hefty $130 or so to get a DVI-to-ADC adapter to connect it to one of Apple's own flat-panel displays, though I'd recommend getting a non-Apple LCD display that uses straight DVI anyway (since they tend to be cheaper). I have my eyes on the venerable SGI 1600SW for home use.

Speaking of home use, I'm using this PowerBook as a desktop replacement, as it is now my only computer. The screen is HUGE, you just can't believe it until you see it in your own place. It's replacing a desktop that had a 17" CRT, and it just looks great. The HUGE 1280x854 resolution is a big help, and I can't imagine going any smaller now. I have an external keyboard and mouse connected to it at home that makes it a lot easier to use (and will help keep the machine looking good!).

Now, on to the OS. The 867MHz 'book came pre-installed with MacOS 10.2.1, a.k.a. Jaguar, Apple's newest OS. I upgraded to 10.2.2 last week and it's still running great. The OS is fast and stable, and I've put it through some tortures already to see where its iimits are. One thing I have to admit, using the internal modem to send faxes is very annoying...it takes forever to initialize the modem and the included Faxstf (not made by Apple) software is difficult to set up. Maybe I'm just not used to analog modems anymore (I've been on broadband for two years), but I'd warn againt using the internal modem for faxing!

Otherwise, this machine rocks. I've loaded all the audio, video, graphics and other design apps I could throw at it and they run perfectly and quickly. I whipped out a presentation for a client in no time, and the fact that I could do it from anywhere was a big plus. Watching DVD's is also easy, and I took the 'book with me this weekend on a 200 mile drive and my wife and daughter watched movies in the car on the way there and back. The battery lasted throughout the 2 hours each way, which is pretty good for constant DVD playback.

The 40GB hard drive in my G4 'book is nice, but it fills up quick. Remember, there's two full operating systems on this machine, so they take up a lot of room. If I could, I would have a 60GB, but I didn't have the extra cash. The best part about the hard drive, though, is that they spin at a FAST 5,400 rpm's. I don't know of any other laptop that comes with 5,400 rpm drives, and it's great because it means doing audio and video editing will be faster and smoother.

Burning CD's is also easy and fast, though at only 8x since it's a combo drive, some people might find it a bit slow. My last computer only burned at 4x, so I'm not complaining. At least I don;t have to worry about coasters...I've burned half a dozen CD's so far with no problems. The track record of my last, external CD burner couldn't match that. The video chip is one of the hottest aspects of these new PowerBooks, it's an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000. Mice has 32MB of VRAM, but the 1GHz models have 64MB. I've played some new games like Jedi Knight II, and it's as fast as a desktop with a GeForce 4MX.

Now, on to the ego factor...this is both a positive and negative aspect of any PowerBook G4. You tend to baby this PowerBook, and treat it like a another child. You also get this ego when in public...and I'm usually a very humble guy. Carrying this masterpiece around, you feel powerful and respected. You also become very aware of keeping it safe from scratches, rain, thieves, little kids, and such. Cheaper notebooks probably won't have you tearing out your hair so much, which is why it might be a disadvantage.

Not to say that the PowerBook G4 is fragile, it's titanium case protects its insides very well. For its size it's increadibly light at only about 5 lbs, the people I know who have high-end PC notebooks have to lug around 7 lb rigs. But, it's still big, and not something you want to just carry under your arm. You might need to find a special carrying bag for it because of its size, though for now I'm using a $10 shoulder bag I got at Ikea that it fits into perfectly. It doesn't have any padding though, so I'm looking for something else.

Well, this has gotten a lot longer than I planned...and yet there's so much more I could say. I better stop, though, or else nobody's going to read all of it. Email me if you have more questions, I'd love to tell all...and I'm sure I forgot to mention something.

~ Update ~

I forgot to mention before, but this PowerBook flies on the web. I'm using Chimera as my main browser, but even IE is very quick. Also, download speeds are amazing! On my old Mac under OS 9.1, the best I saw was about 150KBps. With my PowerBook and the same cable ISP, I'm regularly getting 300KBps or more. I'm not sure whether it's the built-in gigabit ethernet, or just the fact that OSX has better networking capabilities than OS 9. I'd go with the latter, since when I booted the PowerBook into OS 9.2.2 once just to test it out and downloads/web browsing were both slower than in 10.2.2.

Also, I was wrong about the hard drive. I thought it was an IBM Travelstar, but I ran ASP and found that it's actually a Fujitsu MHS2040AT family drive. This may be an advantage, as I've heard bad things about IBM drive reliability, but nothign bad about Fujitsu.