Apple PowerBook G4 17
Apple delivers a clear winner with the PowerBook G4 17". Not only is the 17" PowerBook a stunner, it is packed with cutting-edge features, skimping on none to very little. This flagship from Apple is great for productivity, and goes on to show that contrary to the general opinion, Apple's notebooks compare very favorably to PC notebooks in not just features and looks, but price as well. The value proposition is even more attractive if one considers the immensely useful array of software bundled with the machine. The Mac OS X powered PowerBook makes the proverbial "best of both worlds" feel more like best of all worlds.
Introduction
I received my PowerBook G4 17 after quite a bit of unnecessary drama. I had decided to buy this notebook pretty much the day it was announced, although it took me a month and a half to execute on my decision and place my order. I had many apprehensions about the machine: its heft (consequently the portability), the fact that this is "revision A" and the relative obsoleteness of some of its components (no USB 2.0, graphics card no longer bleeding edge, still 1GHz). I am glad to conclude after a month of extensive use that almost all my apprehensions were ill-founded. I have never been happier with a computer, and this is one computer well worth the price-tag.
Appearance
Most of the "non-Apple" people I have spoken to on the subject of aesthetics and appearance have the notion that Apple makes sexy looking machines. Specifically, they believe this: "Apple makes good looking hardware that is prettier than it is functional - and is good in general only for graphics and media." I was to find that the 17" PowerBook would increase my productivity phenomenally.
Claims about functionality and utility aside, this is one good-looking piece of hardware. Although tastes differ and "good-looking" is a subjective concept, I would be surprised if there is somebody who seriously believes that the 17" PowerBook looks ugly. The body is made of brushed aluminum, and is more uniformly colored than the 15.2" Titanium PowerBook, which has a few shades of gray and black running across the sides, which makes the design look a bit too busy when compared with the 17". Again, this may be an issue of individual taste, but the PB17 placed next to a Titanium PowerBook makes the latter look a bit shabby and cheap - it is that nice.
The brushed aluminum has various excellent properties other than just good looks. The notebook is very resistant to both fingerprints and scratches. This should be a very welcome property after the Titanium paint episodes. Moreover, the body seems to dissipate heat rather well, since the notebook doesn't get too hot even after extended use. This is expected, both because of the larger surface area, and the fact that the grade of aluminum used in the notebook's construction is over twice as conductive as the previous PowerBook's material.
This notebook will likely be tantamount to a statement of fashion, style and sophistication, akin to what the Audi TT was for cars when it was introduced. The 17" PowerBook goes on to show that a computer is not just a piece of machinery, but could be something to lust after for the almost Utopian mixture of beauty and brains. Unlike various PC notebooks I have seen, there is not one sticker on the notebook. Compare that to the Sony VAIOs for contrast, which have long been considered as some of the most stylish PCs.
The keyboard of the PB17 is the same color as the rest of the body (the Titanium has a black keyboard). I had my reservations about the keyboard color prior to receiving the PB17 (I preferred the contrasting black) - it may just be the fact that I own it, but I believe this color scheme has grown on me. Color aside, the keyboard is not lift-able as in the Titanium, which makes it the most tactile and solid-feeling notebook keyboard I have ever come across.
On the flip side, some might find it a bit jarring that the keyboard is dwarfed by the extra space. It is a full-size keyboard by the way. The palm-rests are huge. So is the track-pad. On the flip side of the flip side though, the extra space allows for larger speakers, and this machine does have speakers that sound nice - much better than the ones on Apple's iBook, for example. To put it in perspective, the speakers do an adequate job of making it entirely possible to watch and hear a movie without straining any of your senses.
Size and Weight
As mentioned before, the machine's heft was one of my biggest concerns. It is big, of course, but then that is the idea. The dimensions are 1.0" x 15.4" x 10.2". It is heavy too (but not too heavy!) at 6.8 pounds (compared to several other feature-rich notebooks, including Apple's own), but I was amazed to find out that heft is as much a mental thing as it is physical. In other words, "heft" is a function of both weight and size, and this function is computed in the mind. The PB17's extra weight is negated by its super-thinness and the large surface area. The mind expects a notebook this big to be much heavier, so it is a pleasant surprise when you lift it up. It feels rather light. Now, my immediately previous notebook to this was a Sony VAIO PCG-Z505, which is a 12.1" notebook weighing less than 4 pounds! I like the PB17 so much for what it is that the weight seems hardly noticeable. In fact, the VAIO feels awkwardly small after using the PB17 for a while - the PB17 does not feel awkwardly large! One thing though, the 6.8 pounds weight is with everything - battery and optical drive. You have to add a bit more (less than 0.5 lb) for the power adapter.
That said, it cannot be denied that the machine may prove to be too big and/or too heavy for many people. It is rather hard to lift the notebook and keep it balanced with just one hand, although the bodybuilders among us may not find that too hard a feat.
Bragging Rights
How do you impress a fellow computer aficionado? You tell them about the key features of the PB17, carefully leaving out the shortcomings (not that there are too many).
Screen, a lot of it
The attention grabber is the 17" screen size. It is impressive. However, a common question asked after you tell somebody about the 17" is the native resolution, which happens to be 1440x900. Now, 1440x900 is impressive, but not really when you consider that various PC notebooks push a much higher resolution with a smaller screen: Dell's Inspiron 8500, the so-called "Mobile Media Powerhouse", boasts an option of 1920x1200 in a 15.4" screen.
Although I find the resolution to be adequate for my needs, it wouldn't hurt to have a higher resolution available to me. I would certainly make the font size larger or run the display at a lower-than-native resolution if that were the case, but it is good to have more options.
That said, the screen is 16:10, and is sufficiently bright. Forget the Candela numbers - you wouldn't want it any brighter than it already is. I have to turn the brightness down for normal use.
Thin. Really so.
As mentioned before, the machine is very thin (1"), so this dimension is essentially a feature. Comparatively, the Dell Inspiron 8500 is 1.53" high.
CPU
The CPU/motherboard related specs of the PB17 are as follows:
- 1 GHz Power Macintosh G4
- 167 MHz Bus Frequency
- 32 KB L1 instruction cache
- 32 KB L1 data cache
- 256 KB L2 SRAM cache
- 1 MB L3 DDR SRAM cache
- 32 byte cache line size
It is fruitless to compare the "goodness" of the PB17 CPU to those of the x86 based notebooks. Not because it's "Apples vs. Oranges", but because it's been discussed to death. The machine has proved to be adequate for whatever I have used it for so far, including compilation of large source packages (like GNU CC). Sure, faster processors would be more than welcome, but I don't think a "slow" CPU such as the one in the PB17 would be its downfall - at least just yet. It is a relatively high-end CPU from Apple's point-of-view.
Graphics
The graphics chipset is NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go with 64MB of DDR SDRAM. While many have mulled over the superiority of the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 in the Titanium (and it is superior in some aspects), the chipset seems adequate, even for reasonably hardcore gaming.
However, even before the PB17 started shipping, newer chipsets from ATI and NVIDIA made the 440 Go arguably obsolete, so it does pinch to realize that your highest-end notebook does not have the latest-and-the-greatest graphics chipset.
If this is any consolation to owners, consider the fact that IBM has been putting older generation ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 with a measly 16 MB of video memory in its T series, their mobile workstation flagship, until pretty recently. Even the newly introduced T40 tops out at 32MB in a Radeon 7500. Then again, there are notebooks out there with much better graphics specs.
Memory
The notebook uses PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SDRAM, and has two SO-DIMM slots. Apple specifies a maximum memory of 1GB (two 512MB SO-DIMMs), though recently 1GB SO-DIMMs have started to surface, and people claim that these work (will work), making the theoretical maximum 2GB. The price for these 1GB SO-DIMMs is exorbitant currently.
Disk
There is only one disk size available at the time of this writing: 60GB, in an Ultra ATA/100 package. 80GB drives are already available, so this spec will be upgraded soon.
Optical Drive
Slot-loading drives have been well-established in the PowerBook line. The SuperDrive in the PB17 burns DVDs as well though - a first in notebooks. The specs of the drive want you yearning for more though (honestly though, one has to consider that this is a notebook - there are factors like battery life, space and weight to think of). The drive burns CDs at 16X (Apple's specs still say 8X though) and DVDs at 1X. DVD creation, at least for "normal" use, works excellently with the bundled iDVD software: you hook up your movie camera to one of the ports (FireWire preferably), import the movie and then work on it just as if you were creating a presentation, say. Of course, movie clips and still images can be interspersed, themes and special effects can be applied and so on, making even the newbie feel like a professional.
Networking
The PB17's repertoire of networking hardware is impressive, to say the least. It comes loaded with built-in Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000BASE-T), built-in 56K V.92 modem, built-in Bluetooth 1.1 and built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11g) card. There is perhaps no other notebook which boasts all these in a single package. Moreover, the integrated antenna placement seems to be better than in the Titanium PowerBooks, because range is better.
Bluetooth
It is indeed useful to have built-in Bluetooth in a notebook, but I believe it is going to be much more useful in the near future than it is just now. At present, it is useful if you hardware such as:
- A Bluetooth Phone (Sony/Ericsson T68i for example)
- A Bluetooth Mouse (Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse, for example)
- A Bluetooth Printer (one could get a Bluetooth "kit" to attach random printers to, for example)
I tested the Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse (a $90 mouse - not exactly cheap, available readily at Best Buy) with the PB17, and was dismayed at the results. It is most likely a combination of driver issues and the sampling rate of the Mouse, but the movement of the pointer was very uneven and elastic-like, and no amount of tweaking in the System Preferences panel would make things better. I would not recommend this Mouse for the PB17 at the moment.
Ports Galore
The notebook has most ports that you could want in a notebook: one FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394a) port, one FireWire 800 (IEEE1394b) port, Two USB 1.1 ports, One PC Card/CardBus slot supporting one Type I or Type II card. Moreover, the notebook has a DVI output port, ADC output (using Apple DVI to ADC Adapter, which is not included), VGA output (using Apple DVI to VGA Adapter, which is included), S-video output and Composite video output (using S-video to composite Adapter, which is included). The only serious omission seems to be USB 2.0. One could get a PC card for $60 or less though.
The ports are on the left and right sides of the machine, rather than behind, as in the Titanium. In my opinion this is an improvement, although some people don't seem to like it.
The Backlit Auto-sensing Keyboard
This is perhaps one of the most talked about features of the notebook. In my personal opinion, the backlit keyboard is more of a gimmick. I say that because I do not need to look at the keyboard while typing. If it is dark, I orient my fingers using the raised ridges on the 'F' and 'J' keys, as is usual for almost all keyboards. However, for those who do need to look at the keyboard, this feature might prove to be genuinely useful. It is cool though: there are two light-sensors under the left and right speaker grilles. When there is enough darkness (you could simulate darkness by keeping your palms over the speakers), the keyboard lights up (almost impossible to see unless it is really dark). The brightness range can be adjusted using the 'F9' and F10' keys, and the feature can be turned off using the 'F8' key.
What's more useful, perhaps, is the related auto-dimming of the screen. It is interesting to note that the light sensors respond very quickly to changes in light levels. This has the rather disconcerting effect of causing the screen to go dim and almost immediately go bright when a person happens to walk in a lighted room - blocking the light falling on the PB17 momentarily.
Battery
Apple claims a battery life of up to 4.5 hours using the 55-watt-hour lithium-ion "prismatic" battery. For one thing, the battery on the 15-inch Titanium model is 61-watt-hour (5 hours claimed life). Secondly, you get only 2.5 hours of real-use battery life if you use the machine aggressively (note that this is not bad for a machine this size).
My "average" use of the PB17 is as follows:
- Heavy network usage through the Airport
- Bluetooth turned off
- Ethernet turned off
- Screen brightness at 5/16 (there are 16 squares, each indicating one level of brightness)
- None to little optical drive usage
- Moderate disk usage
- CPU speed not reduced - set to highest
With the above usage scenario, I get between 3 to 3.5 hours of battery life, which is reasonably acceptable to me.
The battery actually looks very sleek. Being a "prismatic" battery (meaning it is not cylindrical), it is remarkably thin and stylish. It would be very convenient to carry an extra battery around, but the feature that really takes the cake is this (this feature is not exclusive to the PB17 though - other PowerBooks do have it as well): you can hot-swap the battery! Let me say this again: you can close the screen (this would put the laptop to sleep, of course), take the battery out, put another one in (or the same one back in, if you are doing this just to show off), and open the screen. The PB17, like other newer generation Apple notebooks, has almost instant wake-up from sleep. So, the PB17 wakes up! There is an internal standby battery that keeps everything alive for enough time (1-3 minutes) for you to change the battery. Note that this standby battery is extra, and not the same one that runs the onboard clock etc.
Enough Coolness - now the Heat
The machine does get warm after extended use, but not enough to cause severe burns! Let me put it this way: the longest single usage session I had was on the day of delivery. I installed software incessantly for almost 8 hours, and that caused the fan to come on. The under-side of the machine, especially near the hinge, got quite warm, but not necessarily warmer than some high-end high-frequency PC notebooks I have used. Under day-to-day use, even heavy use, the machine remains at a reasonable temperature, and the fan never, ever comes on. Interestingly, the fan has a peculiar noise: similar to that of revving a car engine.
Quirks and Caveats
Now that I have extolled this winner from Apple enough, it's time to reassert some pitfalls and shortcomings. Note that these are not problems or even real shortcomings, per-se. The PB17 is a very capable notebook as is, and I am really hard-pressed to find problems with it. Therefore, most of the "flaws" listed below are contrived - some ridiculously so.
Size
This should be obvious, but the machine is not for everybody. It is rather large and heavier than previous generation PowerBooks. Then again, it is very slim and lighter (in most cases, much lighter) than all similarly equipped (not that there are many, or any) PC notebooks. I would like to asseverate that I went from an ultra-light (approximately 3.5 lbs) notebook to a rather heavy (6.8 lbs) one, but after a few days of use, I feel very used to the size and the weight. The increase in productivity makes up for any inconvenience, several times over.
"Slow" CPU
I would not compare the clichéd Apples to Oranges here, but there is no denying that although Megahertz do not matter, Gigahertz do. However, there is also no denying that the 1GHz G4 is the second fastest production G4 at the time of the PowerBook 17's release.
"Bad" RAM
You might or might not encounter this. The first thing I did upon receiving my PB17 was to attempt to boot using the Apple Hardware Test DVD and run the test. The test failed to load, giving me an "invalid memory access" error. This was on a "stock" machine with one of Apple's 512MB SO-DIMMs installed (my PB17 came with Samsung memory). However, the test loads and runs fine if I replace Apple's memory with the additional 512MB I have (Kingston). The situation is as follows:
| Kingston 512 MB SO-DIMM only, in either slot | SUCCESS |
| Apple (Samsung) 512 MB SO-DIMM only, in either slot | FAIL |
| Apple (Samsung) 512 (upper) + Kingston 512 (lower) | FAIL |
| Kingston 512 (upper) + Apple (Samsung) 512 (lower) | FAIL |
Not Enough RAM
We all know that 1GB of RAM would be plenty for everybody, but not quite! There are many PC notebooks already that support up to 2GB of RAM. It is very likely that given the newly available 1GB SO-DIMMs, the PB17 should be able to support up to 2GB. At the time of this writing, the 1GB chips are inordinately expensive though.
Airport Randomness
This is a very minor issue, but once in a rare while, the PB17 would not join the Wireless network (after it wakes up from sleep). My base station is not Airport Extreme, but an SMC7004AWBR 802.11b Router. The WLAN has the following entities:
- SMC7004AWBR, 802.11b
- Sony VAIO, Lucent Wavelan 802.11b
- Apple iBook, Airport 802.11b
- Apple PowerBook 17", Airport Extreme 802.11g
The iBook and the VAIO never have this problem, but the PB17 would not join the network saying that the password for the network is incorrect. Typing the correct password yields the same result ("incorrect" password). Rebooting the machine, stubbornly trying the same password a dozen times, fasting for a day etc. do solve the "problem".
Not many Bluetooth devices
As of this writing (April 2003), there are not many useful Bluetooth devices, at least from my point of view. Accessories like a Bluetooth Mouse, a Bluetooth Keyboard and a Bluetooth Tablet would be welcome offerings (from Apple or elsewhere).
Battery Life
On an average, expect a battery life of at most 3.5 hours if you refrain from using the optical drive completely. This can be ameliorated by carrying an external battery. The internal battery-backed "hot swapping" of batteries makes this eminently useful and convenient. I must say that for a laptop this size and feature-set, the battery life is very respectable, but if one were to play the devil's advocate, one has to look at the new crop of Centrino based notebooks from major vendors that have much longer battery lives.
Hard Drive "Clicking" Noise
You may encounter this, but this is more of an annoyance than a real problem. Many modern-day notebook drives park their heads when they deem appropriate, which could result in a clicking noise every so often. This is certainly not specific to the PB17, or Apple's notebooks. Various "fixes" have been referred to in the past, ranging from disk drive firmware updates from Hitachi, BIOS updates from Dell to power-management tweaking in Mac OS.
1X DVD-R
This is a portable capable of burning DVDs on battery power, so it is rather unfair to complain about the 1X part, but nonetheless, it does take a while.
Pictures
Click here for more pictures of the PB17.
Click here for pictures of Brenthaven Professional Backpack for the PowerBook 17".
Comparisons
There has been a lot of buzz lately about "good-looking" notebooks from manufacturers like Sony and Dell. Here are some pictures of such notebooks for comparison. Note that I am only referring to visual appeal here (not a feature-by-feature comparison).
