Rating: 
Summary: Nice looks, but don't look at the price
Review: I switched from Apple to Centrino because it cost half as much and the battery lasted twice as long. Now I really like Apple just fine, but I can't see spending more money to get a slower computer. In fact almost all notebooks are made buy the same few companies, so why does Apple charge more? I guess if people will pay it, Apple will charge it.
Rating: 
Summary: At Long Last
Review: I'm a college student majoring in computer science. Before I left high school I was told I would need a labtop that used the Windows Operating System because that's what "everyone else uses." I bought an IBM Thinkpad T30 (the T30 was new and very highly regarded at the time). Biggest mistake of my life. In less than a year I was spending most of my time trying to get the Thinkpad's hardware and software to continue working and staring at pictures of Powerbooks trying to figure out how to get the money to buy one. However, as you may be I was a little worried about compatibility and even OS X since I hadn't used it before getting stuck with my Thinkpad. When I finally got my powerbook I was soo happy. I have not had one single compatibility issue of any kind. In fact, if you have to do Unix programming (which you will if you're a CS major) the Mac is way better since you don't have to log in to some remote machine, go to a lab, or install another OS since Mac OS X's Darwin core is all the Unix you'll ever need. The user friendliness and reliable hardware of the Powerbook knows no end. Mac OS X really is the most advanced operating system (and the coolest and most user friendly). Cautions:
This is an expensive machine. You get what you pay for, but if you're looking for a computer just to surf the internet and use AIM you really don't need the power of the Mac. Buy a $500 craptop. Don't abuse the space bar on the keyboard. As a very fast typer/coder I tend to smash the corner of the space bar and even though I haven't had the Powerbook for a year I've already messed up the space bar a bit.
Rating:
Summary: New 15" aluminum PowerBook is Amazing!
Review: I'm on the 15" superdrive right now, and it is by far the best computer I've ever owned. Its fully featured. The backlit keyboard is no gimmick, and it does wonders in a dimly, or completely unlit room, such as the one I'm in now. Power settings are at the users discretion, so backlighting on the keyboard and screen are adjustable manually. Don't expect the 4.5 hours advertised though, unless you just turn the computer on and don't run any programs. After the first charge cycle, the battery is unaffected by plugging the computer in to an outlet at anytime. Otherwise, 2 and a half to 3 hours have been expectable life for me with average use. Airport reception is great, and extreme is a great addition. The new enclosure is heavy duty, and feels real strong and durable. I've used photoshop 7.0 and reason 2.0, and as far as those "professional apps" go, the powerbook has handled them well. The OS is wonderful, if any of you potential switchers are asking. I'm a switcher myself, and 10.2 is not difficult in any way to get used to. There are so many apps included free that are better than any windows application that you can purchase. And... Office v. X runs better on this than Office ever did on my HP PC running windows XP professional. If you want a laptop, don't hesitate to buy this one. My only complaint about Apple's strategy with this rev of PowerBooks is the correlation between power and size. I'm sure that the 1.25 will run just as well as a 17" 1.33 for most out there though. Happy Computing and successful switching to all of you!
Rating:
Summary: New 15" aluminum PowerBook is Amazing!
Review: I'm on the 15" superdrive right now, and it is by far the best computer I've ever owned. Its fully featured. The backlit keyboard is no gimmick, and it does wonders in a dimly, or completely unlit room, such as the one I'm in now. Power settings are at the users discretion, so backlighting on the keyboard and screen are adjustable manually. Don't expect the 4.5 hours advertised though, unless you just turn the computer on and don't run any programs. After the first charge cycle, the battery is unaffected by plugging the computer in to an outlet at anytime. Otherwise, 2 and a half to 3 hours have been expectable life for me with average use. Airport reception is great, and extreme is a great addition. The new enclosure is heavy duty, and feels real strong and durable. I've used photoshop 7.0 and reason 2.0, and as far as those "professional apps" go, the powerbook has handled them well. The OS is wonderful, if any of you potential switchers are asking. I'm a switcher myself, and 10.2 is not difficult in any way to get used to. There are so many apps included free that are better than any windows application that you can purchase. And... Office v. X runs better on this than Office ever did on my HP PC running windows XP professional. If you want a laptop, don't hesitate to buy this one. My only complaint about Apple's strategy with this rev of PowerBooks is the correlation between power and size. I'm sure that the 1.25 will run just as well as a 17" 1.33 for most out there though. Happy Computing and successful switching to all of you!
Rating:
Summary: Simply Superb
Review: I've used macs and pcs for the past 10 years and owned both windows and macos machines. This powerbook is simply the best you can get for your money. For every one person who writes a bad review here, there are 1000 happy ones - just keep that in mind. Pluses:
Aluminum case is extremely strong, scratch resistant and solid feeling
Keyboard is firm with excellent depth of th keys
Display hinge is sturdier than any other laptop I've seen
Ports on sides are easily accessible and thoughtfully layed out
Slot loading cd
Speakers are unusually good for a laptop - great separation
Display is gorgeous, crisp and bright - and enormous
Weighs only 5.6 pounds and is only an inch thick
SILENT: have never heard a fan go on in this baby. T O T A L L Y silent! Minuses:
Display seems slightly warped - hardly detectable, but still.
Bottom of the casing gets very warm
can't think of anything else! Maybe price? It's always nice if things are cheaper, right? Quite frankly, the fit and finish of this computer is second to none - beats the old titanium powerbooks hands down. Macos X panther= fast, rock stable, beautiful, fun and intuitive the combination of powerbook and macos x panther= unbeatable.
Rating:
Summary: You'll love it--until the warranty expires
Review: If you're considering buying a Powerbook, I have a word of advice for you: google the words "Powerbook G4 hinges" first. It may make you think twice. For Christmas 2002, my husband bought me a Powerbook G4. I loved it, for all the positives mentioned here in other reviews. You will, too--but only for the warranty period. One year to the week after my G4 was purchased, the hinges went bad. The laptop was not mishandled in any way; I was just sitting on the sofa with it in my lap, and when I started to close the case, there was a loud cracking sound as the left hinge snapped. The right hinge followed a week later, rendering the laptop unusable. A quick search online made it clear I was not the first Powerbook owner to have this problem. How can that be, you ask, when the thing is made of nearly indestructible titanium? The nearly indestructible titanium is held together with plastic hinges. If we'd been relying solely on the one-year warranty, we would have been screwed. Fortunately, my husband had bought the maximum AppleCare coverage to extend the warranty until Christmas of 2005. Because I hadn't filled out the registration form soon enough, however, the AppleCare website would only give me an error message. But we'd bought and paid for the coverage, right? I still had all my AppleCare information, complete with enrollment number. A quick call to Apple Support should rectify the problem, wouldn't you think? Yes, I was once that naive. I actually thought the words "quick" and "call to Apple Support" could be used together. Expect to spend most of the day on the phone. Expect to be transferred from person to person, to have to explain your problem repeatedly, and to have to fight for your rights under the warranty or service agreement. Apple's attitude is that they have no reason to help their customers until proven otherwise. Expect to deal with representatives who refuse to listen to you, cutting you off with the words "That's our policy." And did you know it's impossible to contact Apple by e-mail? You won't find a Customer Relations or Technical Support e-mail address anywhere on the internet, because the company refuses to deal with customers except through phone calls to its automated Apple Support line. My sweet husband had to stop work in the middle of the day to fax Apple receipts proving that I wasn't a big crazy liar with the magical ability to produce valid AppleCare enrollment numbers out of thin air. An exceedingly unhelpful Apple employee named Crystal in Agreement Administration told me it's their policy to take up to 72 hours to process Applecare enrollments, so meanwhile, my broken laptop is stalled in the repair shop until next week at the earliest. My local repairman tells me it looks like a major repair that will require replacing the whole screen, since it's not the actual hinges, but the hinge attachment points that have snapped. Ask yourself if you really want a computer that develops this kind of service headaches after just one year of unexceptional use. And if anyone is considering filing a class action suit regarding the defective hinges, count me in.
Rating:
Summary: Love it, despite some problems
Review: It's beautiful, and I consider it to be a member of the family. In addition to what other reviewers have written I just want to add that there are some common problems (according to the store who fixed my mac): - It doesn't stay closed, this is very inconvenient since I like to put it to sleep by closing the lid. It keeps popping open and waking up again.
- The keyboard sticks along the side. the keyboard fit is so tight that if it is placed in a little off, your keys will stick a little on one side
- It does nick and scratch, beware
- Open and close with both hands, or the screen will get a permanent lighter shade where pressure is applied. Keep pressure on the screen frame.
- When using iMovie with lots of clips, I suggest closing other programs or iMovie will slow and even shut down unexpectadly So you know, if you ever lose a key from your keyboard, all the PowerBooks have the same size keys. You can take a key off a 12" and pop it on a 17". In any case, if I had to pick a computer all over, I would still select the 15" PowerBook. It's a great computer.
Rating:
Summary: Best 15" PowerBook Ever
Review: It's been 3 years since I joined Apple's bandwagon, courtesy of 2nd generation top-of-the-line PowerBook G4. Back then, it represented state-of-the-art with 1" thick titanium-finished chassis and 15.2" widescreen LCD, filled with many desktop-like features: 667 MHz G4 processor (up from 500 MHz of 1st generation PowerBook G4), gigabit ethernet (up from fast ethernet), built-in AirPort (was optional), and DVD/CD-RW combo drive (was DVD-ROM or CD-RW only). Two more generations of PowerBooks later (3rd added 1280 by 854 LCD, DVI output, faster graphics, and 800 MHz G4; 4th added 1 GHz G4, faster graphics, and SuperDrive), we get more substantial upgrade. No, this 5th generation PowerBook does not have a G5 processor. Mobile G5 probably isn't due for another year or so (Apple and IBM are busy at work cranking out PowerPC 980). The most radical upgrade has to be aluminum alloy chassis. While not as hip as titanium, aluminum alloy is about as strong as titanium, while looking beautiful and providing one important benefit: nothing's painted over it. Pure aluminum alloy finish. Titanium PowerBooks were notorious for paint chipping off. Now the PowerBooks will stay beautiful year after year. As an added benefit, every keys on the keyboard are painted in aluminum alloy to give more complete metallic look and feel. Other notable improvements include:
- 1.25 GHz G4 processor (10-25% faster than 1 GHz predecessor)
- AirPort Extreme (802.11g) and Bluetooth
- USB 2.0 and FireWire 800
- Faster 167 MHz FSB with DDR RAM support
- Up to 2 GB of DDR RAM
- ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 graphics card
- Backlit keyboard
- 3 speakers Last generations of PowerMac G4s lacked many bleeding edge technologies (e.g., PCI Express, Serial ATA). And it being a generation or two before PowerBook G5 arrives, lacks some cutting edge technologies as well: high resolution 15.4" LCD, 7200 RPM hard disk, PCI Express card, faster FSB, digital audio I/O, and higher capacity battery with advanced power saving technologies. Until then, you should proudly carry 5th generation PowerBook G4, knowing it is among the most powerful and certainly MOST beautiful notebook on the market. Pros:
- Feels very fast (helped by 1.25 GHz G4 processor with large 512 KB L2 cache, DDR RAM, and ATI Mobility Radeon 9600)
- Very well equipped -- no additional hardware purchase required (although some will want more memory and/or extra battery)
- Simply beautiful... the most beautiful PowerBook yet
- Fantastic connectivity options
- Light and slim for a desktop replacement notebook Cons:
- Among the most expensive notebooks in its class
- While it feels fast, it is slower than many Centrino notebooks
- 15.2" LCD is limited to 1280 by 854 resolution, which is among the lowest in its price range
- It is slightly larger and heavier than previous Titanium PowerBooks
- Shorter battery life than earlier PowerBook and many Centrino notebooks
- Earlier builds are plagued with white spots on the LCD and lid not closing evenly (both issues should be fixed by now)
- No docking station option
Rating:
Summary: after 5 windows based systems, and 2 apple based systems...
Review: ladies and gents, i favor apple. if not for their seamless design and functionality integration (which everyone else also agree's with), then i must say simplicity has led me to my decision. I am a sales manager and part-time advertising coordinator (so you can rest assured i will advertise 'Apple' for the masses... i have the need to use my laptop for recording sales and inventory as well as editing some ads on graphics aps. i also use the laptop for word processing. i must say, i have never found it simpler to integrate wireless browsing (including wireless print server), an external dv monitor (for expanded desktop space), and a home network of 5 wireless peripherals. all this took me less than 6 hours to accomplish (without the slightest of road blocks along the way...). you be the judge. if you can point me in the direction of one person who works on a windows (or even linux) system and has been able to do what i have in the time i have, and maintain the system without a headache for even a month, then i salute the person in question but would still recommend an Apple system, just because the OS looks better. i've only worked on the Apple platform for a little over a year and a half now (having bought an Apple iBook first, and now opted for the powerbook G4 1.25ghz). so before any critics step out and call me a 'brainwashed apple lover who is blinded by sheer beauty', think about what i've said above and allow yourself the ability to step out of the confinements of pc globalization... give in to the fruit of your intuition... the fruit that is 'Apple'.
Rating:
Summary: Like driving BMW
Review: Like it or not, I've used Windows/PC for the past 12 years. Macintosh occasionally appealed to me, but I didn't get it partly because it's expensive, partly because of compatibility. At work and at home, I owned: Dell Inspiron, Thinkpad, Dell/HP Desktops, running Windows 98/2000/XP. Also I tinkered with Sun workstations running UNIX (I'm an EE guy and have a respect for UNIX).
After 12 years of Microsoft (and blue screens), I made a bold switch to Apple Powerbook 15" with 1.5GHz/512RAM/80Gb, and I'm so happy with this system that even 5 stars are not high enough. - The sleek aluminum chassis and the wide screen generate Wow! effect.
- This 15" machine is lighter than my old Dell laptop.
- It's very quiet during operation, but the bottom side may occasionally become hot.
- The keyboard has a good depth and touch, and the backlit keyboard is simply cool.
- Using the built-in microphone, you can play the bundled 3-D chess game via OS X's voice-recognition. Isn't that futuristic? About software compatibility (from EE guy's viewpoint):
- MS Office 2004 for Mac became my favorite patch of programs. Even better than the XP version - a very important factor in my decision to switch.
- Math tools, especially Mathematica 5 and Matlab, run well on Mac.
- Favorite design tools, Adobe Photoshop and Carrara 3, work well. After all, Mac was built for them. - There are tons of open source programs you can use: GIMP, A/G BLAST, ...
- Some layout and CAD tools are not compatible. I have to use old PC. For those number-crunching jobs, however, I don't use laptop anyhow. As much as I enjoy steering this elegant silver machine, I love to navigate through the Mac OS X. As Sun's Bill Joy said during an interview, "Mac OS X is rock solid". I like the idea of using UNIX commands on my Mac, although I can do everything with the user-friendly Mac interface. Yes, Powerbook is more expensive compared with Dell and other PCs, but you get what you pay for: top-quality components, futuristic functionality, eye-catching design, and the enormous joy of owning a rock-solid elegant machine (like BMW!). You'll definitely like this one!
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