Apple PowerBook G4 12.1 in. (0718908426234) Mac Notebook

I've owned numerous Macs, and laptops over the years. I started out with a second hand PowerBook 180 in 1997, and had numerous PowerBooks and iBooks over the years, but nothing seemed to have that same charm of being small enough to carry, but large enough to actually be usable when you get where you're going. Of the various laptops I've had over the years, most were good, but not as insanely great as that old 180. Then came the white iBook in 2001. It looked and felt right. I waited six months before buying one to make sure that there were no issues cropping up. I bought it and was in bliss for two years. I eventually sold that machine to my sister, who had been in PC hell for a while. She uses that machine daily.

I remember watching the unveiling of the 12 inch G4 PowerBook through the stream of the January 2003 Macworld Keynote. The 17 inch had been announced there too, but it doesn't really appeal to me. The 15 is nice too, but again, no real appeal. As nice as those machines are, they aren't the size where you'd be able to use it on the road and not worry heavily about breaking it. Built in Bluetooth, the airport extreme card (an option at the time I bought, now standard equipment on all PowerBooks), and the combo drive make it easy for me to do everything I need to do. The machine has nearly endless capabilities. While only having an analog vga port is a limitation, but given the fact that I also have a nice big lcd on my iMac, I don't find it to be too great of a hardship.

The computer has an excellent, crystal clear active matrix lcd set at a resolution of 1024x768. For some, this screen size may be hard on the eyes, fortunately, for my young eyes, it's not so bad. The combo drive was standard, with an optional superdrive. I opted for the combo drive in order to afford an iPod. The combo drive is excellent, as a dvd burner, while nice, wouldn't really suit my needs. The combo drive lets me burn discs anywhere, as well as allowing me to watch dvds, making trips more bearable. On my unit, I had expanded the ram to 640 mb. In 2003, this cost roughly $120. However, I feel that it was money well spent. Going from 256-640 made a serious amount of difference in the computer's performance. (I am one of those people who will max out the ram irregardless).

In terms of size, this is the greatest compact mac since the days of the PowerBook Duos from the early-mid 1990's. They were really small, compact machines, however they were missing ports and components like a floppy drive. In order to get full functionality from those machines, you'd have to connect it to a bulky dock. The 12 inch PowerBook is smaller than the Duos, and has no compromises, as all the ports you could ever need are there. About the only things I'd recommend carrying with the PowerBook are the ac adapter, and an extra battery. I carry my software discs and dvd's with me, which sadly, outweigh the PowerBook and it's second batter + ac adapter.

There were some pretty serious issues with regards to the heat that the computer generated when I first bought it. It would run silent, run hot. Fortunately, OS X 10.3 and subsequent updates addressed this issue. The machine runs cooler, and the fan spins more. All tolled, I love the compact size, versatility, and reliability that this machine has given me.

However, I would never buy a PowerBook/iBook without having Applecare. Components in these machines should last a few years, but I don't like to bet that things will not break. And so far, I have yet to lose money on Applecare. Be it with batteries, ac adapters, dead pixels on an lcd screen, and such, I've come out ahead with everything. Their telephone technical support is top notch, and the depot service (the Apple Stores, and few dealers have portable certified technicians, so the machines have to go to Memphis or Austin for repair) has been good.