The Apple PowerBook G4 has had a few upgrades since the last PowerBook we tested a few months earlier. Yes, it has a faster processor but the standout feature has to be the 17in display that gives you the same viewing area as a 19in CRT. FireWire 800 is also new. The PowerBook still only weighs 3.1kg which is quite remarkable considering this notebook's overall size.
The PowerBook exterior is all grey-silver. It looks reserved but modern and stylish at the same time. The PowerBook also features a huge 80GB hard disk, 512MB of RAM, which can be expanded to 2GB, and a 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics accelerator and comes with a one-inch thick slot-loading Super Drive (DVD-R/CD-RW).
As far as connectors go it has pretty much everything. You will find a DVI port -- which is a rarity except on Apple notebooks -- as well as FireWire 400 and 800, S-Video, and two USB ports. For connecting devices take your pick from Gigabit Ethernet, Modem, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. The Powerbook was shipped with Mac OS X v10.3 Panther which ran very smoothly on this notebook.
Unfortunately we didn't benchmark the PowerBook simply because there aren't any decent cross-platform benchmarks. We have used Photoshop in the past but it only really measures the relative CPU performance in that program. Apple notebooks tend to perform much better than Wintel notebooks in this test, but then it's only one test.
If you want the results of the real test -- the envy factor -- of all the notebooks we tested this is the only one people at the Labs were fighting over. It's the Rolls Royce of notebooks, and if it gets a G5 processor there will be no catching it.
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Sorry guys, but the reviewed x86 machines seem rather lame to me.
On 10th September 2004 I bought a Clevo M375E notebook that beats nearly every specification of the reviewed units.
This unit has a Fujitsu 100GB HDD, Intel Dothan 2GHz, 2GB of PC2700 SDRAM, Pioneer single layer 2x DVD-RW burner, 54MB WiFi, build-in camera, 3 format card reader, 15.6" wide-screen LCD @ 1680 x 1050, S-Video out, dual display support, FireWire, Gigabit LAN, v.92 modem, IR, 3 x USB2, 1 x Type 1 PCMCIA and serial port.
It is the fastest PC I have ever worked on, easily beating most P4 desktops in everything that is not hard drive or CDROM intensive.
The only thing it lacks is BlueTooth, which was available as an option.
The 2GB of RAM dent the battery life a little, as do the 2GHz Dothan and huge screen resolution, but I still get over three hours of practical work on a single charge with the WiFi turned off.
When I bought it, the RAM was very expensive, but this has come down considerably since.
This unit retail now for less than $4500.
For taxation reasons, I normally replace my notebook once every financial year. If this reviewed collection is exciting the "envy crowd" now, I may hold on to this unit for another year. I can't see that updating only to get dual-layer or BlueTooth is worth my while...