Apple PowerBook G4
The Apple Titanium PowerBook G4 has had some major upgrades since we last had a look at it some six months ago.
It sports a faster 1GHz G4 processor and a 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics accelerator. The PowerBook is still only 2.54cm thick and only weighs 2.5kg, making it the lightest notebook in this review. This is quite remarkable considering it has a 15.2in screen display. And the display quality was absolutely stunning. You can now for the first time watch DVD movies on your notebook in a widescreen format (outside work hours, of course).
From the outside, the PowerBook is all silver-grey. It looks very reserved but modern and stylish at the same time. The PowerBook also features a huge 60GB hard disk and 512MB of RAM, which can be expanded to 1024MB. Also featured is a one-inch thick slot loading Super Drive. The Super Drive (DVD-R/CD-RW) will let you read and burn data CDs, as well as DVDs that can be played in most consumer DVD players.
Unfortunately, we did not benchmark the PowerBook simply because there aren’t any comprehensive cross-platform benchmarks that can run on both a Mac and PC. We have used Photoshop benchmark in the past but that only really measures the relative CPU performance in Photoshop.
We should also make you aware that a new top-of-the-line PowerBook G4 has just been released in the US that has a huge 17in LCD display as well as built-in Bluetooth and a built-in AirPort Extreme card (54Mbps).
| Product: | Apple PowerBook G4 |
| Price: | AU$5,995 |
| Vendor: | Apple Computer |
| Phone: | 13 36 22 |
| Web: | www.apple.com.au |
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| Interoperability: |
½Includes DVI; no legacy ports. |
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| Futureproofing: |
Huge 60GB hard drive; large display. |
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| ROI: |
½Slightly pricey, but worth the money. |
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| Service: |
1-year warranty. |
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| Rating: |
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3%
2%
