Apple PowerBook G4 17 in. (M9689LLABUN) Mac Notebook

Update: After 4 years of reliable service my trusty Powerbook had it's first major failure. This evening when I went to open it up the screen was almost completely blank. Upon a close inspection I could see that there was a tiny bit of light and that the screen appeared to be fine, just couldn't get above %1 brightness. A new screen costs about $700, or about a quarter of what it would cost to get a similar new computer replacement these days so I think I will be investing in a new screen since the rest of the computer is still running so well. Definitely a bit of a bummer, but I can't say I didn't get a huge amount of great use out of it.

Original Review
I've had my Powerbook for nearly 3 years now and it is still going strong in every way. After being a Windows user for my entire life, I was a bit hesitant to switch to a Mac, but now I can't imagine ever moving back to Windows. This Powerbook has been my faithful companion for the past 3 years, and hopefully I'll be able to do it some justice in this review.

Out of the Box
As with all Apple products, deboxing (hey if you can defenestrate a computer, deboxing should be a word too!) the Powerbook is way too much fun. The 17" comes in quite a large black box with a beautiful image of the Powerbook on the front and back. Inside the box is a slick white piece of cardboard with the simple words isolated in a beautiful use of white space: "Designed by Apple in California." And thus begins the journey.

Under the white piece of cardboard lies the Powerbook itself looking just as clean and perfect as it did in all the ads. Booting up for the first time brings you to a smoothly designed registration process with way too much eye-candy for a Windows-user like myself to handle all in one go. When it was over I wanted to buy a new Mac so that I could do it all over again. But fortunately the rest of the Mac experience pulled me in and kept me fascinated enough for the next couple of hours, days and now even years, to make that unnecessary.

OSX – The Mac Experience
The Powerbook, like all other Macs, comes preinstalled with the latest version of Mac OSX. I'm not going to go into the inner workings of the operating system or how it compares to Windows because that is a topic for another review, but I will suffice to say that working on OSX has been nothing but awesome. As this was my first Mac experience, there were a few things that took me a little while to get used to, but in less than a week's time it all felt so natural that all I could think was "This is how a computer is supposed to feel." Everything just seems to work right on OSX, and even 2 years later I am still falling in love with new and different features every day. Working in OSX is like being a kid in a candy shop with an unlimited budget.

Of course many people will be wondering if they can run their special Windows-only software on OSX, and the answer is, yes, for the most part. Most Windows-only applications have great Mac counterparts, and where that isn't the case you have the option to install Windows (any version prior to Vista) as a virtual machine using Virtual PC or some equivalent virtualization software. Of course that means purchasing extra software just to be able to run your current software, but unless you have a ton of really specialized apps this isn't usually much of an issue for people.

The only thing you need to worry about is Windows-only applications that require access to the video card (such as games) because none of the current virtualization software is able to access the video card from Windows, and so you have no graphics support. I am able to run Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator in Windows (I'm using Windows 2000, but as I mentioned before, any version prior to Vista should work) on my version of Virtual PC, so your standard graphics programs should work fine, it's only really graphics intensive programs like games that require full use of the video card to be able to run.

And of course running Windows in a virtual environment is an extreme waste of system memory so make sure you have a good amount of RAM (at least 1GB) or it will be an extremely frustrating experience. I have 1GB of RAM and I find it frustrating just trying to boot into Windows to do browser testing in Internet Explorer, so don't expect this to be the perfect solution to your Windows needs.

When it comes down to it, if you plan on spending a lot of time in Windows, get a Macbook or another one of the new Intel based Macs because they can actually install Windows like normal and run it without any of the issues associated with a virtual environment.

But enough about Windows. If you like beautiful, clean interfaces that just work, you will love OSX and that is all I will say about that in this review. We are here to talk about the Powerbook after all!

Design
I have always been a sucker for Apple ads, even before I was a Mac user. My first Apple product was a 40GB iPod (which is still serving me faithfully I might add), and the beautiful, clean design was always a huge sell for me. If you like that kind of style, the Powerbook has got to be the best looking computer on the market for you. While many Electronics and PC manufacturers try to make things look cool and fancy by turning their products into Swiss-Army-like gadgets, Apple has been simplifying things and smoothing out their designs in true minimalist fashion.

The Powerbook is made of solid plates of smooth aluminum encasing the entire computer, and from the outside looks just as beautiful as the ones you see in the ads. Under the hood Apple has hidden a whole set of goodies just waiting for you to dig in.

The illuminated keyboard is one of my favorite features and still makes me smile when the lights go out and my keyboard slowly quickly lights up, fading in smoothly from the sudden darkness.

The glowing apple on the back of the screen is a really nice touch, and one that always sets Macs apart in a room full of laptops. I just wish I got to see it more since it is always on the other side of the screen!

One of the coolest little design frills though is the sleep light indicator. Located on the front of the computer on the open latch is a small white light, which pulsates on and off when the computer is in sleep mode. This makes the computer look as if it is breathing, giving it just the faintest touch of humanity that will make you feel that much more connected to the computer.

Everything on the top of the main part of the computer is a smooth, aluminum silver, blending together perfectly as one solid piece. I don't think I have seen a better-designed computer to this day, and even Apple couldn't improve on this design as their latest Macbook Pros still feature the same design.

Build Quality and Durability
The aluminum casing of the Powerbook is quite durable and despite banging it around a lot more than I would like to it has yet to pick up a dent. The top does have a few nicks and scratch on it, but fortunately they don't stand out at all and are hardly noticeable. Unless you really analyze it closely, it looks as good as new after 2 years.

The interior of the computer appears to be quite durable as well, as my Powerbook has taken its fair share of abuse. A couple of months ago I experienced my first hardware failure when my wireless card died after a particularly nasty bump the laptop took while sitting in my backpack in my car. I quickly learned exactly how these machines are not meant for quick part replacements because all of the parts are buried in a tightly packed jumble of parts beneath the hood and in fact opening up the computer voids the warranty. My Powerbook was well out of warranty however and I consider myself a bit of an expert in computer hardware, so I didn't hesitate to take the thing apart and replace the wireless card myself, but I would not recommend doing this unless you really know what you are doing. Before doing the replacement myself I took it in to the Apple store to see what they would want to charge me for the replacement and they apparently have a one-size-fits-all repair option for these kinds of issues. I can't remember exactly what the price was, but it was somewhere in the range of $300 when out of warranty. It sounds like that is the price you are going to have to pay any time you need to get the laptop serviced, but I am happy to say that after 2 years I have yet to need it (although that failed wireless card would have required most people to drop the $300).

Apple will cover most hardware issues for free while the computer is still in warranty. All new Apple computers come with a 1-year warranty with the option to extend it to 3 years for $349. When you consider that the cost of one repair is going to be close to the cost of the extended warranty, it's probably not a bad idea to get the extended warranty. While the Powerbook is an extremely well-built computer and I have not had any problems with mine, laptops are extremely intricate and valuable little machines, and having the option to get it serviced for free is always nice.

All-in-all I am extremely happy with the durability of my Powerbook and the basically negligible cost of maintaining it. Should something go wrong though, it can be expensive to fix, so getting the extended warranty is definitely a good option.

Keyboard and Trackpad
The keyboard is extremely smooth and quite quiet. The keys have very little resistance and provide one of the smoothest typing experiences I have ever come across. When I have to use another keyboard if often drives me crazy because so much extra effort is required to push down the keys and they just don't bounce as nicely as on my Powerbook.

The trackpad is quite large, sitting squarely below the keyboard. At the bottom of the trackpad is a large single button. The Powerbook has no built-in right-click and so you have to ctrl-click to activate the standard right-click menus. For Windows users this will take some getting used to, but right-click functionality is easily added with an external mouse.

Screen / Graphics Quality
The 17" LCD screen is a beauty, displaying 16.7 million colors at up to 1440x900 resolution. Those of you familiar with screen resolutions will note that that is a fairly long screen-size, and in fact the 17" Powerbook is a widescreen display. For me it took a bit of getting used to coming from mostly square computer monitors, but now it seems that the rectangular format has become the norm. It is great for watching movies on, and the screen real estate afforded by the 1440 pixels wide screen has been great for doing graphics work. I do a lot of web and print design so I spend a lot of my time in Photoshop and Illustrator and every minute I am thankful for the large screen.

The Powerbook comes with a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics card which does a great job powering your every day graphics. I am not a gamer so I haven't test it on any graphics intense games, but it works great for all of the design work I do.

I did get one dead pixel in the screen after a couple of months, but it never really bothered me enough to take it in and see about getting the screen replaced. Other than that, the screen has served me quite well and while not quite as bright as the current Macbook models, it definitely gets bright enough to keep me from having to squint in a well-lit room. Outdoors is another story though, and it can often be quite hard to see the screen in direct sunlight. I am sure if even the new brighter screens are able to handle those kinds of conditions though, so learning to find shade when you are planning to work outdoors is definitely a skill worth having.

Portability
The Powerbook is a very portable computer because of its extremely thin size, but the 17" model does take up some space in order to accommodate the large screen. It won't fit into your standard backpack, so make sure you get a case large enough for it, and at just under 7 pounds it isn't the lightest computer to carry around. If you are especially keen on portability I would highly recommend not going larger than the 15". You can get close to the same functionality out of the 15" with only a loss of a couple inches of screen real estate while avoiding quite a bit of extra hassle of the large 17" model.

In addition, battery life is going to be lower because you have to power a larger screen and the weight is significantly higher.

One of the biggest problems facing the Powerbook line though is the amount of heat they generate. The bottom of the computer quickly becomes too hot to place on your bare skin, and even with pants on it is uncomfortable to have the Powerbook on your lap for more than a few minutes. The computer is set up well to cool the interior hardware so that it never overheats, but the heat has to go somewhere and so if you enjoy working with your laptop on your lap, you will have to work on positioning it in such a way that is comfortable. I am actually working with my Powerbook on my lap as I write this and while my legs are sweating, they are not terribly uncomfortable. Just keep in mind that Powerbook may not be the friendliest laptop when it comes to actual lap top residency.

With that said however, I have been extremely happy with my 17" Powerbook and take it with me everywhere. When I see other standard laptops I am always so surprised at how thick they are and have to remind myself that I am just spoiled with my Powerbook and that it is not the norm. I have used this puppy everywhere from my morning meditation on the toilet to 30'000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, and all kinds of places in between.

Battery Life
As for battery life, the downside to having a big screen is of course the hit you take in this department. When the Powerbook was new I would get between 3 and 4 hours of use out of it on one charge, but after 2 years I rarely make it through a 2-hour movie without the power cord handy. That's not actually that bad though considering that laptop batteries really don't have the longest life spans and you should probably expect to buy a new battery every 2-3 years if you want to maintain a reasonable amount of charge. There are several free applications for checking your batteries capacity, and I've been keeping track of my battery's capacity over the years. After 1 year it was still at 86%, but by now it has dropped down to 58%. I don't know how that compares to other laptops, but at least you can expect to have to purchase a new battery every 2 years or so with this Powerbook.

The battery is easily replaceable, popping out at the flip of two switches on the bottom of the computer. It also has a nice capacity reader made up of 5 green lights that display the current charge of the battery at the press of a button. This works whether the batter is connected to the computer or not so you can keep track of the charge of separate batteries if you are using multiples.

A new battery will set you back about $100 so it's not exactly a huge cost when you consider that it should be about the only thing you will need to replace during the life of this computer.

The operating system handles battery failure quite gracefully. When your computer reaches 10% battery power the operating system quietly alerts you (although you have the option to turn on a voice alert as well), and at around 1-3% the computer goes into sleep mode preserving anything that you were currently working on. While it is annoying that the computer just shuts off on you, it is better that it does it while it can still preserve all the live data than waiting until the battery completely gives out on it causing an actual shut down to occur. I have left the computer at critical battery levels for several hours at a time and never seen it completely shut off, so it seems to go into sleep mode early enough to be able to wait a good amount of time before receiving fresh power.

Specs
The following are some specs that you might want to take note of in this Powerbook:

Screen Size: 17 inches
Processor: 1.67 GHz PowerPC G4
Memory: 512MB DDR SDRAM (expandable to 2GB)
Hard Drive: 100GB
Disc Drive: DVD-RW / CD-RW (8x / 24x)
Weight: 6.9 lbs

Speed and Useage
The only upgrade I purchased was an additional 512MB of RAM boosting my system up to a solid 1.024 GB of RAM. Apple allowed me to purchase this upgrade as one single memory chip giving me the option to upgrade to a second GB at a later time. I've been pretty happy with the speed of everything at 1GB however and haven't really felt the need to max out the RAM, and I am a fairly intense user. I frequently run multiple programs including Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator all at the same time and rarely feel a slowdown in the system. The only time you might really benefit from an additional RAM upgrade is if you are planning on spending a lot of time in a virtual windows environment or you do a lot of intensive graphics processing.

For the most part though this system is zippy and reliable. I rarely experience a frozen application, and don't think I've ever experienced a completely frozen system forcing a reboot. Coming from the Windows world I always found it hard to believe that Macs could be so reliable, but after 2 years with my Powerbook I understand.

Connectivity
The Powerbook comes with built-in wireless networking which connects to wireless networks within 50 feet at 54 mbps and 150 feet at 11 mbps. The built-in wireless works flawlessly and picks up networks all the time. I have never had a problem connecting to any network, and OSX does a nice job of managing your favorite connections allowing you to automatically connect when you come into range. I've got an Aiport Express set up in my dorm room, and can access it from a good ways down the hall. I've connected without any issues in all kinds of places from hotels and airports to random wireless hotspots while driving down the highway, and even once with free wireless in an airplane. The built-in wireless works flawlessly behind the scenes so that you have a connection wherever there is a network without you having to do any work to set it up.

Additionally the Powerbook comes with built-in Bluetooth which allows you to connect to Bluetooth enable devices such as cell phones and external mice and keyboards. I have a Mighty Mouse which connects wirelessly via Bluetooth, and saves me from one extra wire. I also use Bluetooth to keep my contact and calendars synced between my computer and phone, which is a simple task with Apple's native syncing app iSync.

Audio In / Out
The Powerbook comes with some pretty crappy built-in speakers, but they do the job to get you some sound on the run when more power hungry speakers aren't available. Of course when that is the case I usually prefer plugging in my headphones because the laptop speakers really can't do justice to any decent music. There is also a built-in microphone which allows you to communicate with the computer hands-free, but the quality is way too poor for any kind of decent sound recording so Apple has provided a line-in microphone jack for more advanced sound input.

Security
The Powerbook has a Kensington Lock Slot on the left side of the computer allowing you to connect any standard laptop security cable. I've got mine hooked around my desk most of the time, and it is definitely a bit of a relief to know that someone can't just walk away with it without a fight. I haven't really tested the strength of the lock slot, but it appears strong enough to do some serious damage to the casing of the computer before it would give way. My guess would be that somebody would have to rip off the whole side panel before the lock could be separate from the computer, and that would take quite some force, not to mention destroying the computer.

The Apple Experience
One of the best things about owning Apple products is the amazing customer support that Apple provides through their Apple Stores. I haven't had the opportunity to try out their phone support since I have several Apple Stores within driving distance of my home, but if it is even only half-as good as the support you get in the store I would be duly impressed.

Buying a Mac is kind of like joining a cult where everyone expects you to have the best computing experience possible and will stop at nothing to assure that it happens. You can always stop by the local Apple Store for quick free support from the Apple Genius, and even if the Genius is booked solid for the day (which happens quite often in busy stores) you can usually find an answer to your question from the retail staff.

In addition to great Apple support, there is also a crazy online community of Mac users and plenty of forums to tap their vast knowledge of Mac-related issues. In particular Macworld.com is a great place to find answers to any issue you might run into. Despite what some people might make you think, there is also a booming industry of Mac apps designed to streamline just about every facet of your every day computing experience. While Apple has done a great job making OSX the most useable operating available, sometimes there are little things that you want to improve on and there is usually an application out there that can do just what you are looking for.

Bottom Line
The 17" Powerbook is a great option for anyone who needs a solid workhorse with the option to carry it around. If portability is one of your priorities though I would highly recommend going with a smaller model as you can get close to the same functionality out of the 15" while gaining quite a bit of extra portability. But if you are looking for a strong desktop replacement with a large screen and lots of power the 17" will serve you well.

In general the Powerbook line is a solid set of computers with looks to seduce the pickiest of gadget freaks, and reliability to keep you on your feet around the clock. After 2 years with my Powerbook and barely an issue to speak of I can only recommend these laptops with my highest regard. If you are looking for a solid computer but aren't ready to pay full price for a Macbook Pro just yet, take a look around the net for a 17" Powerbook G4 because you can get just about all the functionality of the new Macbooks for a fraction of the cost. And since most software available for OSX today doesn't take advantage of the new dual-core processors you aren't going to see much of a speed difference between the Macbook Pro and the Powerbook.

You May Also Want to Check Out
Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse - An awesome little wireless mouse that will go great with any Mac and provides a nice alternative to the Powerbook trackpad.