Apple PowerBook G4 12.1 in. (0718908426234) Mac Notebook

This is the best notebook computer I have ever used. I purchased it after looking at a number of ultra portable computer like the Dell X200, Sony Vaio and Toshiba Portege series. I had little intention of switching operating platforms when I first started looking at notebooks. The Apple won on pure merit. I have a 60GB hard drive, 384 MB RAM, Airport extreme card and a Superdrive which includes CD/DVD read/write capability. I also bought an Airport Extreme base station.

Design

The notebook is superbly designed. It looks fantastic and the aluminum finish is much nicer than the finish of the Titanium Powerbook. The machine weight 4.6 pounds and is a little under 11 inches wide. The machine feels very solid indeed. The keyboard is the best I have ever used on any notebook. The touchpad is very good and has a nice feel. The touchpad button is below the pad and is slightly raised. It feels a little flimsy but functions very well. All of the connection ports are on the left which is a very tidy arrangement. The two built in speakers are at the rear of the computer. When the screen is in the open position the sound bounces of the lower edge of the screen giving a more impressive sound than one would expect. The computer comes with external VGA and SVHS connectors together with a modem cable and mains adapter. The adapter is noteworthy in that it is exceptionally well designed. It has little pull out flaps to allow you to store the wire neatly and is constructed out of very high quality plastic.

Documentation

The computer comes with a well written 104 page manual describing the main features of the computer. I also got some documentation with the Airport Extreme base station which includes a step by step guide for installation.

Construction

The quality of construction is first class. The machine came well packaged with everything well protected. The machine is built in Taiwan but the quality control is beyond criticism.

Screen

The screen is very high quality. It may not be large enough for some but is entirely adequate for me. The size is perfect for watching movies using the built in DVD player.

Battery life

The battery life is well below the 5 hours which Apple suggests. I average about 3 hours with the processor on maximum speed and hard disk set to sleep whenever possible. Reducing the processor speed makes about a 10% difference in battery life.

Operating system

I still use a desktop PC running Windows XP Professional. The biggest surprise when I first bought the Powerbook was how good the operating system is. OS 10.2.4 is an excellent operating system which is amazingly stable - much better than XP in this respect. The included utilities such as iCal, iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD and Sherlock are an absolute joy to use. I also like the way that CD and DVD recording utilities are part of the system. Using the operating system is totally intuitive. Another thing I have liked so far is the quality of software written for OS X such as Keynote. In comparison to a lot of programs written for XP they appear much more user-friendly. My machine spends most of its life in sleep mode. I particularly like the instant wake-up when one opens the screen.

Performance

This is a fast computer. Loading files and applications appear faster than my 1 GHz PC. I cannot comment on graphic intensive applications like games as I don't use the Powerbook for these. I have had no problem watching movies either via the DVD drive or from the hard drive. For the latter, I use a program called VLC media player.

File sharing with Windows

I have connected my Airport Extreme base station directly to my PC and use it wirelessly to connect with the Powerbook. I can share files easily between the two computers. I am using Microsoft Office for OS X on the Powerbook and I have had no trouble reading these files on my PC and vice versa. The only thing worth noting is that when you e-mail using an attached Word file, for example, to a PC user they cannot simply click on the attachment to read it. Instead they must save the attachment and then open the document from Word. I can work effortlessly between the two platforms; either e-mailing or using the Airport Extreme wireless connection to share data.

Airport Extreme base station

This works very well. I have the base station at one end of my house on the second floor. It works well within the house up to 40 feet (that includes going through floors and walls). There is a little symbol on the Powerbook desktop to show that the computer is connected and also indicates signal strength. Even if this shows a low signal I have had no problem surfing the net or transferring data at very high speeds. Before setting the base station up for the first time I would suggest that you visit http://www.info.apple.com/ and download some information on setting up networks and file sharing. The initial setup of the base station was quite simple. In my case I had to connect my internet cable modem to the WAN outlet of the base station. I then used the Airport setup utility to configure the base station. After that I connected my PC ethernet card to the LAN outlet of the base station. The PC automatically recognized the base station and was able to access the internet. The Airport Extreme card and station are theoretically capable of transfers of up to 54 Mbps. I have not been able to achieve these speeds. Typically I can transfer a 100 MB file in about 80 seconds. There is no degradation in my internet speed in comparison to a direct connection.

Heat

The computer does get hot over the left palm support area. This is directly over the hard drive. The temperature obviously will vary with the hard drive and processor-intensity of ones work. I recently watched a movie which had been downloaded to my hard drive. The movie lasted 90 minutes. Simultaneous with that I was writing a word document and was surfing the internet with the Airport Card on. The processor speed was at maximum. I measured the following temperatures:

Start - 22 centigrade; 60 mins - 35 centigrade; 120 mins - 42 centigrade; 170 mins - 41 centigrade

I am not sure whether this is overheating or what one can reasonably expect from a machine which is running an 867 Mhz processor with a 60GB hard drive, which is slightly over 1 inch thick and made out of a very conductive material. The body of the machine will obviously act like a heat sink. The temperature of the bottom of the machine is more of a problem and if I am using it on my lap for more than twenty minutes I have to have a thick pad underneath the Powerbook otherwise my thighs would become very sore. I personally do not find the heat to be too much of a problem. I would prefer that the fan came on more frequently than it does. Presumably this is something which could be remedied in the operating system. The temperature also varies with what the machine is resting on. The problem is not so severe if the machine is on a hard surface which allows space for ventilation on the underside of the machine.

Warranty

The machine comes with a standard one year warranty but only 90 days of free telephone support. I purchased the optional Applecare warranty primarily to cover hardware failure. The Applecare warranty includes telephone support for three years. I have only contacted Technical support once and on that occasion they were exceptionally polite and helpful.