Apple PowerBook G4 15.2 in. (M8362LL/A) Mac Notebook

First off, let me say that I'm a long time PC user, but I have used Apples/Macs in the past. So I should provide an objective review of the PowerBook without the heavy Apple favoritism.

SPECIFICATIONS
These are the specs for the Titanium PowerBooks G4s we got at work for web development:
PowerBook G4
15.2" TFT display
99.5% pure grade CP1 titanium
500 MHz PowerPC G4, 100MHz bus
256MB SDRAM memory
1MB L2 cache
20GB Ultra ATA/66
Slot-loading DVD-ROM
8MB ATI RAGE Mobility 128 video controller with AGP 2X
16-bit CD-quality stereo output (minijack)
24-bit video output port
Two built-in stereo speakers
Internal omnidirectional microphone
10/100BASE-T Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)
56K V.90 modem (RJ-11 connector) (6)
11-Mbps AirPort card
Infrared technology port (4-Mbps IrDA)
One 400-Mbps FireWire
Two 12-Mbps USB ports
One PC Card and CardBus slot
50-watt-hour lithium-ion battery
Power adapter with cable management system
Power adapter port
1 inch thick (WxD=13.4"x9.5")
5.3 lbs. (w/ battery)

PACKAGE
The PowerBook G4 comes in a trim box with a convenient handle for easy carrying. We ordered several of the PowerBooks directly from Apple, so I don't know if the retail store boxes are the same, but you don't see any specs written on the box itself. Inside, neatly protected within styrofoam cushions was the notebook, a cool round power adapter and power cord, a phone line, composite-to-S video cable, a 7-CD package and a small package of manuals and user's guide.

HARDWARE & DESIGN
When you first look at the PowerBook, all you can say is "Wow....cool!"
This is truly a beautiful machine. Upon further inspection of all the notebook, you notice that a lot of care and love went into its design in all the little details such as a knob on the power cord that fastens securely in place so it doesn't dangle around when you wound it up, to a tiny multi-function transparent keyboard screw that serves not only to hold and lock the keyboard in place, but also as a Caps-Lock led light.

Case Design: The case is made of practically pure titanium. Minor annoyance with the titanium cover, though, is that it's really susceptible to finger smudges. It's really thin and although not the lightset notebook, it's still lighter than many others. The slick silver-metal look coupled with its thinness makes the PowerBook the most elegant notebook I've ever seen. However, this design comes at a price. The compact design means there's little room for circulation inside the machine, and titanium metal conducts heat. As a result, the notebook gets extremely hot on the bottom. This is understandable; but just don't sit the notebook on your bare lap. The lid closes shut with a magnetic hook that recedes into the slot when open so it doesn't get snagged and broken off. As an added plus for all you Apple lovers who like to beam with pride, the apple logo on the cover lights up when the computer is on.

Display & Components: The G4 sports a huge 15" TFT display with beautiful resolution, although really bright settings give it a flushed/faded look. It comes with a cool DVD front-loading drive, but this also means it can only take regular sized CDs. All the ports are neatly lined up and identified at the back of the notebook. It includes the standard modem & ethernet jacks, infrared port, monitor & tv-out ports, 2 USB ports, as well as a firewire port. All this is housed behind a small cover that you can close up when you're not using any of the ports to keep it free of dust and unsightly ports, but I'd recommend leaving it open to allow the ports as holes to help cool off the machine.

Keyboard Surface: Detaching the keyboard gives you access to the innards of the machine, where you can install more memory, add airport card, etc. This is really cool because you don't usually have that much free access to the inside of most laptops. The drawback is the keyboard is really flimsy and the keys mushy. There are stereo speakers on either side of the keyboard, making the notebook dimensions wider, though less deep, than many other notebooks. Notebook speakers are usually very poor quality, but the G4's speakers are one of the best I've heard on a notebook. The notebook includes a built-in one-button touchpad which works well, but if you don't like it, you can easily hook up a USB mouse which the system will recognize automatically. There are function keys to adjust the display brightness and the speaker volume, but they don't seem to work consistently.

Battery: The specs say the battery lasts for 5 hours. This must be tested under the minimum "sleep" mode because most of the time the battery only lasts about 2 hours max under normal usage (Less if you'll be using the DVD drive), which is still good, but the "5 hours" is very misleading.
And the battery meter under OS X doesn't seem very reliable. It displays an estimated amount of time the battery has left, but the time seems to go up and down in a single session. I like the battery led display at the bottom of the notebook a lot better--you just press the button and the number (4 max) of led lights light up to indicate fully charged the battery is. It only measures in 25% increments, but it seems more reliable than the OS battery meter.
The battery recharge is incredibly slow. I haven't timed a full battery recharge, but it takes over 1 hour to do a half battery recharge. And there's no led light to indicate when the battery is done recharging when you close the notebook.

NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS
While the G4 comes with standard modem and ethernet jacks, the best networking protocol to use is the AirPort cards which makes use the new wireless IEEE 182.11 protocol. You need these small mound-like devices called AirPorts hooked up to your server, and they act as the wireless receiver/transmitter that you connect to your network and the internet. Although it only transmits at 10Mbps, you no longer need to be tethered to an ethernet cable or phone line. The airport meter on the OS indicates how strong or weak is your signal. And the network system preferences allow you to easily set up different networking profile so you can easily switch to a pre-set networking profile of your choice.

Mac OS X & Software
One of the reasons we got the PowerBooks G4 notebooks is because the new Mac OS X is built on Unix which allows us to run a server environment for our development testing. Note the right out of the box, the notebook only comes with only Mac OS 9 installed. You have to install OS X yourself if you want it, but it was a simple installation. When you do so, you end up with both OS's installed and you can choose which system to boot up.

Apparently the Mac OS X is a completely different beast from OS 9--software written for OS 9 will not run under OS X, though OS X contains a OS 9 "environment" for backward compatibility and it takes a couple of minutes to initially start up. There isn't a whole lot of software optimized for OS X yet, but they'll come up eventually. And OS X doesn't have full hardware support either. If you want to watch a DVD, you have to reboot to the original OS 9 system before you can watch it, but there are reports that DVD support should be available in the next OS X release some time by the end of this year.

If you're used to the classic Mac desktop look, you'll be surprised with the brand new translucent "Aqua" look, which I think is really cool and slick looking. The OS 9 environment retains its classic desktop look, so you can tell which OS system you are currently using. Windows users will have to get used to the different interface, but it's not that difficult to learn.

Performance
I don't know what is the Intel processor equivalent to the 500MHz PowerPC in the G4, but it seems fast enough. We are able to do complex programming and development on it fine. The 8MB ATI Rage isn't the best available video chipset, but it's still quite good and performs solidly. Once, I had installed something which I shortly uninstalled which resulted in the machine completely failing to boot up. The only resolution was to reinstall both OS's. Luckily, I hadn't installed much on it yet and didn't lose any work. There have also been some reports of the G4 display cover coming into contact with the keyboard when it's closed so that the keys scratch the display surface. This isn't an uncommon occurrence with laptops, and putting a clean sheet of paper between the display and the keyboard solves the problem.

Final Analysis
Given a choice, I'd prefer a PC system because I have the software support for it. But if you want a Macintosh and a notebook for mobility, the Titanium PowerBook G4 is definitely the one to get if you can afford it. This is an absolutely elegant machine. And once the new OS X update comes up along with more software support, this notebook is a real winner.