Apple’s 17-inch PowerBook G4 is a thing of beauty, shaming the other 17-inch notebooks with its size, weight and design – perhaps with the exception of the ASUS. Comparing apples and oranges is tricky, and we don’t think of the 1.67GHz processor in PC terms – this puppy has some serious grunt and packs 512MB of RAM and a 128MB ATI Mobility RADEON 9700.
Also under the bonnet is a generous 100GB hard drive. The DVI and S-Video outputs are accompanied by a microphone and digital audio line-in/out, but the rich onboard sound can’t quite match the bass clarity of the ASUS and Pioneer.
The 1440 x 900 display is up to Apple’s high standard, with excellent DVD playback. Unfortunately, nice touches such as the backlit keyboard aren’t accompanied by multimedia buttons. Nor are you going to find built-in TV tuners or webcams. For work hours, the PowerBook sports an 8x DVD burner, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g, Firewire 800, Bluetooth 2.0 and a Type I/II PC Card slot. Software is always a strong point when it comes to Macs and this includes iLife (which bundles iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie HD, GarageBand and iDVD) and the new OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system.
One of the PowerBook’s key strengths is that the software and hardware are designed with each other in mind, so everything works seamlessly in a way Microsoft users are just beginning to experience.
If you can live without Microsoft Windows and handle the relatively hefty price tag, the PowerBook’s combination of size, performance, price and useability could make it your multimedia beast of choice.
This article appeared in the August, 2005 issue of PC Authority.
Comments
Own this product?
Post your review and
you could WIN a share of $3,000 worth of tech prizes!
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Be the first to comment on this article.