Apple PowerBook G4 15.2 in. (M9422LLABUNDLE) Mac Notebook
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- HDD Size: 80 GB
- Mobile Technology: Wi-Fi Certified
- Family Line: PowerBook G4
- Processor: PowerPC G4 1.5 GHz
- Operating System: Apple MacOS X 10.3
- Installed Memory: 512 MB (DDR SDRAM)
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Excellent engineering
Pros
Excellent connectivity, snappy speed, good capacity, rock stable OS, solid design, superb software.
Cons
Sharp edge of computer is hard on the hands, track pad is too wide.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Built to last. Powerful enough to be your main computer. Consider a second keyboard if you're going to be typing for prolonged time periods.
I've been using my PowerBook now for 3 months and it has proven to be a very well designed and reliable piece of equipment. It is very thin and light weight so I have gotten into the habit of carting it back and forth to work to work on ongoing projects. It works very well with wireless networks.
The only issues I've had with it is the ergonomics of the track pad and the leading edge in front of the key board. The track pad is a little too wide for my taste. When I'm typing my hand often brushes the track pad moving the cursor to a random location. The edge of the the computer is too sharp and can be uncomfortable on your hands. I end up shifting them so they don't rest too hard on the edge.
The keyboard is metalic and seems sturdy. The keys have a nice snappy feel which is less spongy than a typical Mac keyboard, but takes a little getting used to. It was probably designed this way to allow flatter keys that have less vertical travel with each keystroke.
I seriously considered an iBook as an economical alternative. One problem with the iBook is that it has no DVI output and thus is limited 1990's era digital projectors for slide presentations. One P.C. reviewer I read dinged the PowerBook for having a slot loading CD/DVD drive. That's pretty silly because the slot loading drive works very smoothly and has doesn't have the bulk of a tray loading device.
I routinely get 2 1/2 hours of use from a single battery charge. I don't have a spare so I keep my power cord handy. The battery is easy to pop out on the bottom side and has series of small LED's which can be activated to show the current charge even when the computer is turned off.
Boot time: 60 sec. (Includes automatic login to wireless network.) Note: I reboot the computer approximately every two weeks, e.g. if I find an application is behaving badly. The remainder of the time I simply close the lid which puts in sleep mode.
Speakers: Pretty average. The sound is is perfectly understandable for audio chat (also has a built in Mic), but I plugin headphones when listening to music.
Software Installation: In general software vendors use the Vise application installer these days and I haven't had issues with slow or problematic installs for several years on the Mac OS X platform.
Mac OS X updates work very smoothly. Apple seems to release a routine security update about every 1 - 2 months, very soon after they are first detected in the open source programming community. Depending on User preferences the OS will check for updates automatically or only when you ask. The updates install flawlessly even over a wireless network. It's probably not a good idea but I usually go about my usual business of web surfing or email while system updates are installing and I've never had a hang up.
The storage capacity is adequate for my needs. I recommend 512MB of RAM, but honestly it is hard for me to detect if or when you run out of RAM because the shared and virtual memory usage is very efficient (256 might be fine).
The smallest hard drive is now 80 GB which is adequate for video editing. (A one hour uncompressed DV movie is close to 20 GB). You'll need this much for iMovie. It used to be that you also needed this much for iDVD but the upgraded version of iDVD is more efficient at sharing resources and only stores compressed versions of your project (~5 GB). The OS itself takes up 1.0 GB. The old OS 9 system folder (necessary if you plan on running classic mode for legacy applicatons)is 156 MB.
The iLife suite of software that comes with a PowerBook is a phenomenal set of software, the best that Apple has ever made by far. iPhoto and iTunes are virtually uncrashable and very well organized. iMovie is remarkably powerful movie editing software. I also own FinalCut Express and although it has almost endless capabilities in general the learning curve and effort required to carry out a task isn't worth it. With FinalCut you WILL need to read the manual which is almost never the case with the iLife suite. It's typical Mac stuff, just launch it and go. You can figure it out faster than you can look it up in an index.
Hope this helps!
The only issues I've had with it is the ergonomics of the track pad and the leading edge in front of the key board. The track pad is a little too wide for my taste. When I'm typing my hand often brushes the track pad moving the cursor to a random location. The edge of the the computer is too sharp and can be uncomfortable on your hands. I end up shifting them so they don't rest too hard on the edge.
The keyboard is metalic and seems sturdy. The keys have a nice snappy feel which is less spongy than a typical Mac keyboard, but takes a little getting used to. It was probably designed this way to allow flatter keys that have less vertical travel with each keystroke.
I seriously considered an iBook as an economical alternative. One problem with the iBook is that it has no DVI output and thus is limited 1990's era digital projectors for slide presentations. One P.C. reviewer I read dinged the PowerBook for having a slot loading CD/DVD drive. That's pretty silly because the slot loading drive works very smoothly and has doesn't have the bulk of a tray loading device.
I routinely get 2 1/2 hours of use from a single battery charge. I don't have a spare so I keep my power cord handy. The battery is easy to pop out on the bottom side and has series of small LED's which can be activated to show the current charge even when the computer is turned off.
Boot time: 60 sec. (Includes automatic login to wireless network.) Note: I reboot the computer approximately every two weeks, e.g. if I find an application is behaving badly. The remainder of the time I simply close the lid which puts in sleep mode.
Speakers: Pretty average. The sound is is perfectly understandable for audio chat (also has a built in Mic), but I plugin headphones when listening to music.
Software Installation: In general software vendors use the Vise application installer these days and I haven't had issues with slow or problematic installs for several years on the Mac OS X platform.
Mac OS X updates work very smoothly. Apple seems to release a routine security update about every 1 - 2 months, very soon after they are first detected in the open source programming community. Depending on User preferences the OS will check for updates automatically or only when you ask. The updates install flawlessly even over a wireless network. It's probably not a good idea but I usually go about my usual business of web surfing or email while system updates are installing and I've never had a hang up.
The storage capacity is adequate for my needs. I recommend 512MB of RAM, but honestly it is hard for me to detect if or when you run out of RAM because the shared and virtual memory usage is very efficient (256 might be fine).
The smallest hard drive is now 80 GB which is adequate for video editing. (A one hour uncompressed DV movie is close to 20 GB). You'll need this much for iMovie. It used to be that you also needed this much for iDVD but the upgraded version of iDVD is more efficient at sharing resources and only stores compressed versions of your project (~5 GB). The OS itself takes up 1.0 GB. The old OS 9 system folder (necessary if you plan on running classic mode for legacy applicatons)is 156 MB.
The iLife suite of software that comes with a PowerBook is a phenomenal set of software, the best that Apple has ever made by far. iPhoto and iTunes are virtually uncrashable and very well organized. iMovie is remarkably powerful movie editing software. I also own FinalCut Express and although it has almost endless capabilities in general the learning curve and effort required to carry out a task isn't worth it. With FinalCut you WILL need to read the manual which is almost never the case with the iLife suite. It's typical Mac stuff, just launch it and go. You can figure it out faster than you can look it up in an index.
Hope this helps!
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