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17" PowerBook G4: First Impressions
February 19, 2003
by Steve Hildreth
Editor-in-Chief
The new 17" PowerBook G4 is not yet shipping. However, 'display' models have appeared at various Apple retail stores around the country, and a couple of our readers checked out the new machine and sent us their first impressions. We have two reports on the 17" PowerBook G4 from readers who visited the Apple store in Miami. Be sure to read both reviews, since each seemed to have a different take on the PowerBook (keep in mind that these are observations made by some of our readers--they do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of this website). The first is from Allan Dresner:
"I just got back from Apple store here in Miami. The first thing I thought when I saw it was, “can this be a notebook?”
Size:
My first instinct was to pick the machine up, and I did. The machine was not very heavy, but when I closed it I noticed how large it really is. This is NOT a notebook for the frequent traveler (or Mini-Me, don’t kid yourself). This should be on a desk, or moved around a house or office if need be. If you travel, get the 12 or 15 inch model (new 15 inch coming out soon).
Screen:
The screen is beautiful, I am very impressed. I just wish it had a higher screen resolution, it’s a bit grainy.
Speed:
The machine is very fast (Apple fast, the latest and greatest Wintel offerings would still blow it’s socks off), I was impressed with how fast it performed tasks in iCal, Address book, etc…. It reboots very quickly, and woke up from sleep rather quickly. It performs equal to or faster than my dual 1Ghz G4 SCSI based desktop system which leads me to feel that at this point the OS is what has maxed out in terms of speed. Apple needs to enhance the OS so it takes better advantage of the hardware for greater speed.
Keyboard:
The keyboard felt real nice, nothing too exciting… And the answer is no, they would not turn the lights off in the store. I think they thought I was obsessed since I was hoarding the computer and taking pics. I guess they thought I would run off with it, but I just wanted to see the keyboard light up.
Finish:
The casing is amazing; it’s much nicer than the Ti finish. Nothing but A++++. Please take note and look at the pics…When you close the PowerBook it does not close very well, as a matter of fact it just kinda closes a bit and hangs open like my mouth when I’m looking at a Krispy Kreme donut. I had to hold it shut to make it close properly. Not very well done, I hope that this is because it’s a “pre-production” model like the guy at the store was quick to say. I, when no one was looking, gently bent the screen to see what would happen and to my shock it cracked! Just kidding! It bent a bit, but not anymore than my Thinkpad bends. If there was something wrong, I guess they fixed it. It is rather big; I would go for the Apple Care just to be sure."
Our second report is from Marcelo Lima:
"Tonight I drove to The Falls store in Miami and played around with the 17" Powerbook. Nothing short of breathtaking! It was plugged onto the new 20" flat screen so I could drag windows over to it and watch the incredible dual head display. There was a sales guy standing next to me telling me that this is a preproduction model; however, it looked perfectly sellable to me.
The machine is of very high build quality -- everything is the same color, aluminum, including trackpad, keyboard, mouse button -- the only different part of the computer is the on switch which is chromed. The screen is *huge* and very thin, and I pressed the back and *did not* see any pressure points on the LCD. This is very good news. I told the sales guy of rumors that the screen was cracking in preproduction models, and he preempted me in saying "The Tibook shows stress marks when you press the back of the LCD, and this one doesn't! I don't see where they got that from." (And he wasn't even looking when I tested the pressure on the LCD). The keyboard is superb, just like the 12"; I just wish that they had included all full sized keys, since there's so much extra room for that on this model.
The screen latches onto the computer through two of those magnet-activated hooks, as opposed to one on the 12" powerbook. Very solid, very professional. Bluetooth was installed in a nearby 12" and we placed them close and were able to set up file sharing. (Obviously there was no need for it since the computers were both on 802.11 anyway). Sound was also working on the machine, but I just heard some of those Mac "drums" you hear when you do something wrong. There wasn't anything exciting to watch/do on this machine.
The 17" had 10.2.4 installed and 512 Mb of ram; when I closed the lid, and opened it, it wouldn't wake up from sleep. I tried closing and reopening, and the sales guy tried to wake it up, then rebooted the machine, saying "as I said, it's a preproduction sample and really isn't meant for anything other than display..."
This baby is *wide* -- as wide as the screen, which is *huge* in comparison to any other laptop I've seen. The left side of the hand rest obviously houses the HDD as it was a bit warm, but not hot at all (I'm sure it would be a bit hotter with constant drive use). I launched Safari, and saw some rotating 3d graphics from some software I can't recall -- the computer was very snappy and responsive.
Again, this Apple Store quoted mid March for delivery of the 17". I called MacConnection to cancel my iPod order and they once more confirmed mid March as the arrival of the powerbooks for them."
Lastly, a reader sent along a link to a photo gallery comparing the 17" PowerBook G4 to the 12" and 15" models, plus the iBook. These photographs do a great job showing the size differences between all three PowerBooks and iBooks. All good stuff!
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