[beachmark]

Okay I am totally crazy about Apple and then especially portable Apples. Due to my activities I need to have a PC too. So recently I bought myself an Acer Travelmate 800. When I compare this computer with the Apple Powerbook 17inch I have to admit that there area few things where Apple looses out on the PC.

Although the PC is a 15inch the screen resolution is 1400x1150, so more than the 17inch Apple. The battery lasts upt to 2 hours longer and its processor (1.3GHZ) is significantly faster in some cases than the Apple.

Of course the Apple has also many things in favor of the PC but I thought it would be right to mention this as we might all be crazy about Apples in here but the PC is catching up in quality (okay they still have the problem of crashing, altough with XP the number of crashes has gone down significantly).

Lastly the Acer is a lot less dear than Apple. It differs almost 50 per cent in prices (in Europe that is)

I would love to hear from you what your experiences are with both computers. It does not necessarily haveto be with Acer but as long as it is with a Centrino based one I am all ears.

[Superchicken]

we've heard about Low K G4s, and Dual Core G4s, hopefully if Moto ever gets these out they should bring the speed of the G4 up to par with the centrinos, i heard they're aiming for 2Ghz, so they'll get 1.5 but yeah the Power Books could use some help.

Who knows once the die shrink on the G5s take place the Power Book will beat anything with a centrino into the stone age for power. I still thing Apple should be using high speed G3s in the iBooks and turn the iBook into a prosumer product to compette with the centrinos. And then have a new low end consumer laptop.

[Alpha-sphere]

Originally posted by Superchic[k]en:
we've heard about Low K G4s, and Dual Core G4s, hopefully if Moto ever gets these out they should bring the speed of the G4 up to par with the centrinos, i heard they're aiming for 2Ghz, so they'll get 1.5 but yeah the Power Books could use some help.

Who knows once the die shrink on the G5s take place the Power Book will beat anything with a centrino into the stone age for power. I still thing Apple should be using high speed G3s in the iBooks and turn the iBook into a prosumer product to compette with the centrinos. And then have a new low end consumer laptop.

The thing apple laks behind is raw CPU power. Motorola is the bottleneck in this case. I don't know if the G5 @ same clock speed would outperform a Centrino. A centrino 1,6 GHz outperforms a Pentium 4 2,4 GHz CPU.

[Dr Reducto]

Intel doesn't like saying that a slower (clockspeed) chip is faster than some of the higher-end desktop chips in operation, because it gives fuel to the arguments of AMD and Apple fans. I heard thing in a PC magazine.

[Alpha-sphere]

Originally posted by Dr Reducto:
Intel doesn't like saying that a slower (clockspeed) chip is faster than some of the higher-end desktop chips in operation, because it gives fuel to the arguments of AMD and Apple fans. I heard thing in a PC magazine.

They don't like to say it but they sure did put it up on there website. Want proof? OK
A print screen (yup still using PC) i made from the intel website

[desvenne]

I'd say your comparison is quite straight on, imho and ime.

For a pc laptop, the acer is really nice, and the price here in Belgium puts it at a cheaper price than the 12 inch powerbook and on par with the 14 inch (bastard-sized-) iBook. That's with the 1.3 GHz Pentium M.

Shame it doesn't run OS X

I also kinda dislike the slanted keyboard and the trackpad position. But those are personal preferences.

But yeah, you pretty much nailed it, I think.

Originally posted by beachmark:
So recently I bought myself an Acer Travelmate 800. When I compare this computer with the Apple Powerbook 17inch I have to admit that there area few things where Apple looses out on the PC.

Although the PC is a 15inch the screen resolution is 1400x1150, so more than the 17inch Apple. The battery lasts upt to 2 hours longer and its processor (1.3GHZ) is significantly faster in some cases than the Apple.

Lastly the Acer is a lot less expensive than Apple. It differs almost 50 per cent in prices (in Europe that is)

I think the Pentium M is a ****ing brilliant mobile chip, to be honest. I'm not that happy with the included wireless with Centrino (I've had mixed results), but all in all, it really is a good move by Intel.

I still love my iBook, no doubt about it, as I do dearly love OS X, but if I were in the market for a new portable, I'd take a long and deep look at the pentium M / centrino laptops.

And I can't wait to see what Apple has in store for the next powerbook rev.

Wait and see I guess.

[beachmark]

Iam now working again with my new 17 inch for a few days and I haveto admit that the Apple isthe better compute for me. Especially I state 'for me' as I can imagine that for the greater audience the Acer outperforms the Apple 17inch on sevral fronts. But I guess it is also what you are accustomed to work with. For sure I will not do my Acer away. Even if it was only for cross platform testing matters.

I did not wait for a revised 17inch or anything as I believethat what the 17inch is offering at current I can do my work very well. On toop of tht I had the opportunity toget it at educational pricing plus the additional USD200 mail in rebate (you have to know that a few times a year I gest lecture at a multimedia college). These guys also have multi user deal for software so i can get all the latest stufffor free. At this moment it is not that busy so I am tryingto find my way around with FCP. I got hundreds of hours of video thatI finally want to go and edit.

Sofar my input on top of my initional one.