The travels and trials of my new powerbook.
On 20 Oct 03, I purchased a configure-to-order 15” Aluminum Powerbook. I had to penny pinch so I got a 1GHz, 256 MB Ram, Backlit Keyboard, and Airport Extreme but with a government discount I saved around $170. The order shipped on the 22nd of October and I had it shipped to my Mother’s house because I live at an APO. Not knowing if Apple would have at least put the Panther restore CD in with it, I ordered the $20 (free) upgrade. Both the powerbook and upgrade CD arrived at my Mother’s on the 27th. She sent both of them out to my APO 2 days later.
The powerbook arrived on the 5th of Nov. Opening it up I was let down that it shipped with 10.2.7 restore CDs but had my contingency CD on the way. Upon booting it up, I immediately notice a white spot on near the bottom left center of the screen. Nooooo. By 20 Oct Apple was well aware of their design flaw yet they still sent me a defective unit. So I figured I’d wait till my Panther CD to arrive, delete the install and do a fresh install of Panther. After 2 weeks my Panther CD arrived but I had already called Apple Care Europe to get the screen replace on Nov 12th.
Apple Care Europe was excellent though I took 10 days for my repair box to arrive. I waited till the 26th of Nov to send it. Apple repair had it first thing Monday morning the 1st and they replaced the screen and expressed it to me. I got it back on the 2nd. Very Nice!
So I boot it up and the screen is perfect. Checked it out thoroughly with screen query. The only thing is the screen casing has two small abrasions, no big deal but you should expect perfect.
My review is based on comparing it to my TiBook 500Mhz w/512 MB Ram. Both still have Jaguar 10.2.7, going to install Panther and transfer all my data this weekend.
Design – Aesthetically it’s a thing of beauty, feels much more solid than my TiBook. I do notice the size, weight and thickness difference and looking back almost 3 years, even compared to other laptops today the TiBook is a design marvel in itself.
Screen – After replacement the AlBook screen is much brigher but due to the hinge and frame design it doesn’t look as expansive as my TiBook. Just an optical illusion of sorts even with the increased resolutions it looks smaller.
Keyboard – Difference between running in sand and on a rubberized track. The new keyboard is incredible. I’ve read folks who haven’t discovered the usefulness of the backlit keyboard but I enjoy it’s functional every day. In the evening, kicking back in the TV room, we have dim ambient lighting and the feature really is useful. I’m currently in Milan but will be moving back to Seattle. I’m guessing on rainy afternoons, it will be dark enough to kick on there too. Lastly on flights while folks are sleeping, I won’t have to disturb them with the overhead light. The only complaint is the half-sized arrow keys are wobbly and well, half-sized. While not on the move I’ll be using a ABTKB.
DVD vs SuperDrive – Soundwise there’s no audible difference. The AlBook is a bit noisier on inserts. On ejects I prefer my old TiBook, the CD comes out farther and doesn’t have and vertical play in it, the superdrive you have to use more caution when pulling it the rest of the way out. I burned America’s Army 2.0 (658MB) on CD. It took 6 minutes to copy and about 10 minutes to burn and verify.
Sound – I did a side-by-side playing Tool’s Aenima with a 5 second delay, staring the AlBook first then the TiBook (did a video with my Elph). The AlBook has much better depth and volume range from off to full is much “wider”. I welcome the audio in so I can dabble with some track recording.
Speed – No benchmarks but my AlBook feels twice as fast, for compilation, encoding, unzipping, app launching, and iMovie imports. I haven’t got to extensively use the AlBook cause I haven’t installed much of my apps. This weekend I’ll be installing Panther and copying all my old data so I didn’t bother installing “the works”.
Fan – It’s more quit on the AlBook and turns on a little less frequently than my TiBook.
Gaming – Granted my TiBook only has 8MB VRAM, I still played EQMac on it while waiting for my AlBook. Only MoBs and characters had textures, ugly but playable. On the AlBook, I have everything maxed and 50% clip plane depth, very smooth and beautiful. I also played the Tony Hawk demo and America’s Army both run very well.
Haven’t tried to hook it up to my CRT yet but will soon. Gaming on a LCD make my eyes tired after a few hours.
Summary – Overall it’s the nicest computer I’ve ever owned. The white spot issue was resolved in a timely manner but I shouldn’t have been sent a defective unit in the first place. I’ll be using it mostly for writing code and light 3D design, but also as a digital hub, and I’ll get one or two evenings of gaming in. I thoroughly pleased with performance and quality of the system and have confidence it’ll easily withstand the rigors I put my TiBook through. It's been from Taiwan to Alaska, Indianapolis, Birmingham, Mentone, Vicenza, Milan, Denmark and back to Milan already. What a journey.
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