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NYCFarmboy · Apr 28, 2004, 05:48 PM

I've been on the edge of purchasing a 12" powerbook for the past 6 months or so, so I broke down and ordered one last night from Amazon.com.

I wasn't in too much of a hurry so I selected the "free ground" shipping.

The powerbook arrived in NYC at my home today less than 18 hours after being ordered however...thank you Amazon.com!

1. No dead pixels..that I can tell anyhow so pleased with that.

2. It runs warmer than my ibook, but not as warm as the previous G4 powerbooks (which I have used) in my opinion.

However....

The display has this magenta cast whenever it is viewed at a slight angle.
You REALLY have to look at it from just a perfect angle to avoid seeing severe distortion.

My 2 and a half year old 500 mhz ibook display is much nicer in that regard, but not quite as bright as the new powerbook. But given the choice, I'd vastly prefer the old 12" ibook display than this new one which has such a unforgiving viewing angle.

--- maybe this is just it being new and will "wash away" over time.
....when it arrived there were very dark areas on the display at the bottom of the screen... but when I "wiped" the area they went away for the most part.

Here are some photos showing the distortion you get at an angle compared to the older ibook.

Any ideas on what is causing such a severe magenta distortion at a angle?

NYCFarmboy · 04:53 PM

<snip>

Spliff · Apr 28, 2004, 06:00 PM

Try re-calibrating your screen with SuperCal. If that doesn't work, phone Apple, because that color hue isn't normal.

Spliff · Apr 28, 2004, 06:02 PM

I just noticed that the dock on your PB is already crowded like your iBook's dock. You didn't clone the iBook drive to the PB drive, did you?

NYCFarmboy · Apr 28, 2004, 06:06 PM

Originally posted by Spliff:
I just noticed that the dock on your PB is already crowded like your iBook's dock. You didn't clone the iBook drive to the PB drive, did you?

Yes my dock is very crowded. But didn't clone..just like the things the same on all my Macs.... I like having every application I use at least once a week in my dock. And I like the icons very small...also use ClearDock to help it blend in more.

Thanks for the tip on SuperCal..working on that now!

Spliff · Apr 28, 2004, 06:13 PM

If you have any current or newish games, I'd really appreciate it if you could post (in a new thread) how well the games run on your new 12" PB.

NYCFarmboy · Apr 28, 2004, 06:25 PM

Originally posted by Spliff:
If you have any current or newish games, I'd really appreciate it if you could post (in a new thread) how well the games run on your new 12" PB.

Games..lets see....I have Pac-Man....and I think Chess came with Panther.

*laughing*..sorry..not much help there.

Thanks for the tip on color calibration.. just ran thru it very vast.. it helped, but I still get these bizarre mirror distortions when I view from an angle....I'll run thru the calibration steps again later tonight when I have more time.

But as long as I look at the powerbook dead on its ok.

Its a great little laptop. I plan on keeping it until the Rev B G5 12" powerbooks come out..which at this point..could be 2 years yet.

My strong advice to those who are on the edge about purchasing the new Rev C's... take a look in person at the screen first though.

NYCFarmboy · May 2, 2004, 01:16 PM

Impressions after a few days of use.

1. I've adjusted to the screen. The screen is in fact not as nice as my old ibook but it is workable as long as you look at it at just the perfect angle.

2. upgraded the ram with a 512 chip from Crucial. so it is up to 768 megs of ram now.

That made a huge difference in performance... I found myself using my old ibook because I like the screen better on the old ibook, but after I upgraded the ram, I use the new powerbook exclusively because it blows the old ibook out of the water in terms of performance.

3. Temperature. It definately gets VERY warm. I can keep it on my lap when using it on the couch, but find myself setting it aside and letting it cool down every now and then. It doesn't burn or anything... but still warm.

What I would like to see changed for the future 12" powerbooks:

1. better screen.

2. colors. I'd love a green powerbook to match my green ipod (on back order of course).

ryju · May 2, 2004, 01:56 PM

Did you try calling Apple about the screen? Perhaps it's not supposed to be like that.

OB1 · May 2, 2004, 02:03 PM

My rev a, 12" pb is the same - colours look "off" when viewed from an angle, but only from either side. Tilting the screen forward and back has little effect. As my pb is usually directly in front of me, so i don't really mind.

NYCFarmboy · May 2, 2004, 02:27 PM

Originally posted by ryju:
Did you try calling Apple about the screen? Perhaps it's not supposed to be like that.

I went down to the Apple store in Soho and looked at the 12" powerbooks and ibooks and they were exactly the same as my new powerbook screen in terms of showing that distortion from an angle.

I also went to TekServe here in New York City and looked at the 12" ibooks and powerbooks they had on display. They had a 12" Rev A powerbook on display and the screen is exactly the same as my new Rev C powerbook.

I just think that is how they are now.

Its not the end of the world though... they are still ok..workable. just not as good as they could be, and it is a dissapointment that at least on the 12 " Powerbook models Apple does not use the best display possible.

The 15" and 17" powerbooks have MUCh nicer screens though..so if you this bothers you just get a 15" or 17". I myself need the most portable powerbook, and this one (the Rev C) does a good job so over all I'm happy with it.

daiSho · May 2, 2004, 02:55 PM

i found the exact same issue when purchasing my 12" PB rev.B a few months back... sitting side-by-side w/ my old 700MHz iBook, the iBook LCD seems much higher quality; the 12" LCD's in the Powerbooks (at least the rev.B's) are obviously built w/ much lower qualiy glass than the older iBooks. my 12" PB's display has a much tigher viewing angle and the ghosting effect is noticeably worse on it than the 12" iBook in my experience..

krassy · May 2, 2004, 03:47 PM

i've the new 12" Powerbook and my display doesn't do those things

NYCFarmboy · May 2, 2004, 04:07 PM

Originally posted by krassy:
i've the new 12" Powerbook and my display doesn't do those things

Zim · May 2, 2004, 04:48 PM

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
some other thoughts:

It came with a 60 gig hard drive, but when I started it up for the first time only 38 gigs were available for me to use..the rest is taken by all the software and demo's presumeably.

Odd, I've spent the last 24 hours installing from my desktop over to my new 12" PB and I _still_ have 42G free.

I was suprised by how few demos/games were installed.

Mike

hldan · May 2, 2004, 04:54 PM

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
some other thoughts:

It came with a 60 gig hard drive, but when I started it up for the first time only 38 gigs were available for me to use..the rest is taken by all the software and demo's presumeably.

I don't own the 12"PB but I have the 17"PB and the iMac G4 and they both have 60 GB HDD. Apple System Profiler should show that your Mac's HDD has a 55.9GB capacity (it's 60GB but it's mathematical) but right out of the box you should have a lot more than 38 gigs. There's not as much software on the Powerbooks as the iBooks so you should've had at least 50 gigs +-. Something doesn't seem right.
You should give Apple a call.

krassy · May 2, 2004, 05:04 PM

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
<green with envy>

hehe... no i'm sorry that your powerbook does this... i don't think this is normal just let it check or try to give it back for a new one. btw: a very good choice - i think the new 12" is just a very cool machine

NYCFarmboy · May 2, 2004, 05:15 PM

Originally posted by Zim:
Odd, I've spent the last 24 hours installing from my desktop over to my new 12" PB and I _still_ have 42G free.

I was suprised by how few demos/games were installed.

Mike

double checked....... not sure what happened..it was 38 gigs when I started it up but now says I still have 38.5 gigs free AFTER I installed all my stuff on it....

10 GB (1,023 MB) on the sysem X file
8.76 GB in the users file (mp3's mostly I think)
3.14 GB in the main library folder.

plus 170 MB in the os 9 applications and 154 MB in the system 9 folder.

60 minus 10 = 50 minus 11 and change =38.5 so it is where it should be now.

zmeyer · May 2, 2004, 05:19 PM

I have been using my new 12" AlBook for three days now, and I am extremely happy with it. Sure, the display has a tight viewing angle, but, when calibrated correctly with SuperCal, it is very nice within that range. It doesn't get nearly as hot as the pismo it replaced, even when gaming. The Graphics chip is totally up to the task of gaming, and expos� etc is smooth. The sound is great. I've gotten over 4 hours out of the batter actually doing something at the same time. That's so exciting. Overall, I think this is going to be my favorite Mac (it's mac number 6) so far.

I think Apple's philosophy behind the "cheaper" display may be that not many people need a wide viewing angle on such a small portable. You're not as likely get a group together to watch a DVD on this computer as you are a 15" or 17". And I'm fine with that. It's bright enough for use in bright light and much better than the Pismo display. Part of what you pay for in a larger portable is the larger display. Just my two cents.

jamesa · May 3, 2004, 10:21 AM

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
double checked....... not sure what happened..it was 38 gigs when I started it up but now says I still have 38.5 gigs free AFTER I installed all my stuff on it....

10 GB (1,023 MB) on the sysem X file
8.76 GB in the users file (mp3's mostly I think)
3.14 GB in the main library folder.

plus 170 MB in the os 9 applications and 154 MB in the system 9 folder.

60 minus 10 = 50 minus 11 and change =38.5 so it is where it should be now.

you only had 256 MB RAM installed before right? I'll bet penny to a pound that was your swapdisk getting very, very big with a few apps open

-- james

Fellow2000 · May 3, 2004, 01:14 PM

Everyone who has a 12" powerbook experiences this whether you think you do or not. It is all the same screen. Guaranteed, if you put the screen up next to a new 15" you can see the quality and brightness issues. I never really thought my screen was bad, but after using a friend's 15" Ti The other day, I came to realize just how good of quality is possible. It sounds to me like Apple just cut corners. When they released the 12" iBook, they probably just decided to keep using the same sub-par screen (that was in the newer iBooks at the time) on the new 12" powerbook just to save cost. I would really appreciate it, and be willing to pay for it, if the screen was updated with added viewing angle, quality, contrast ratio and brightness...