[EdipisReks]

or those of you who have followed my saga since i entered the Mac world last may, i have had a torrid love affair with my mac (and dumped my affair with pc's completely), but i kept having hardware problems with my SuperDrive TiBook. between pixel anomolies, broken hinges, and failing trackpads, i had most of the problems that people complained about. after calling apple last week and finally talking to the worldwide director of applecare after a vicious game of applecare phone tag, i recieved my replacement today: a 1.25 ghz superdrive Aluminum PowerBook.

i was pretty excited at getting it, as i'm sure you can understand. now that i've had a few hours to play with it i would like to jot down my impressions. opening it up was great. i think that current PowerBook box is even better than the previous one. the machine itself immediately struck me as being gorgeous. i have fondled plenty of these machines at the cincinnati apple store, but its different when it is your machine . despite how beautiful i think the machine is, i still think that the tibooks look better. they have a supersleek and very classy look that i think screams "quality". unfortunately, in my case, what it screamed and what it was were two very different things.

on to the meat and bones of this. first thing, the screen on this is incredible. it has no white spots and, knock on wood, perfect illumination. it is also super bright. i always ran my TiBook at the highest brightness, but i am running this machine at about 3/4 brightness. the keyboard is incredible. i am a history major, and i write A LOT. the keyboard on the TiBook was always kind of a weak spot, and i love the fact that the keyboard on this machine gives some real tactile feedback. the illumination feature is also really great, especially since i do a lot of web surfing at night with the lights turned off. having the keys be a light color is great, too. i have never been a fan of white lettering on dark keys.

i'm not sure i like the fact that the ports are on the sides. i loved routing everything through the back of the machine, but i'm sure i will get used to this. i am also not so keen on the size and the weight, though once again i'm sure i will get used to it. the touchpad was strange at first, because of how recessed it is compared to my previous machine, but i'm already used to it.

firewire performance seems much better, and i seem to get a better connection with my wireless network than i did with the TiBook. the audio out is also much better. the TiBook had great audio out with absolutely no hiss, but this machine seems to have a MUCH better driver. both my Grado SR-60's and my Shure E2c's sing on this thing.

this PowerBook is extremely quiet compared to my TiBook, which is a very good thing. however, it gets just about as hot as my TiBook, which surprised me. the machine is much faster, however, than my TiBook, despite having only 512 MB of RAM vs the 768 in my Ti and the lack of l3 cache. things like word are faster, and photoshop is noticeably fasters at renders. even things like Expose and the magnification of the dock are smoother. Aliens vs Predator 2 is also MUCH better . does anyone know how UT2K3 is on these? it was almost playable on my TiBook, but not quite there. about the only thing i really don't like is the fact that the power adaptor doesn't fit as snugly in the socket and is easily pulled out accidentally.

overall, i really like the machine. is it heads and shoulders above my TiBook? no. would i have gotten it if i was having to pay the difference? probably not. i also don't see myself loving this machine as much as i loved my TiBook, but that may change in a week. its a great machine, and much better than the Dells my friends use. even though it isn't as trim as the TiBook was, physically, the machine packs in a lot of features and it is kinda amazing that they made it as small as they did. thanks for reading .

[fizzlemynizzle]

LOL, anyone that says a tibook is better than an albook is jealous. the albook is significantly faster, has FW800, doesn't scratch, has airport extreme capability, integrated bluetooth, backlit keyboard, better wireless reception. the tibooks were great but don't delude youselves, time moves on.

[Paul Huang]

Jealous? Forget about it. I have both and I prefer the Titanium.

802.11g? Don't kid yourself. I lock it down at 802.11b. If I need anything faster, I hook it up to the RJ-45 plug and do it at 10MB/sec. (80Mb/sec).

Photoshop certainly is faster with 1.25 AlBook. However, after putting in a 7,200 RPM drive in the 1GHz, the overall productivity on Photoshop tasks is much faster on the Titanium.

Try to hook it up to an external monitor cable and you will know why connectors should not be on the sides.

If you run into those three-hour-long layovers a lot, be ready to replace the motherboard soon. The AlBook has the connector on the left side. When you are sitting on the ground against the wall like a monk (and have the power supply plugged into the wall), the plug is rubbing against your leg. This will cause premature loosening of the soldering spots on the logic board, and Apple does not do any soldering--the whole thing is replaced ($1,000 repair).
Buy an L-shaped power connector.

The bottom case is ten folds stronger, but the lid is not.

The curved edges make the corners gather light, so it makes it look MUCH fatter than just 10%. I don't care about looks, but it's just not visually appealing.

Now all the companies are OD on silver, you want to bet that the next newly-designed Mac is going to be black? The G5 is looking more and more like a slab of concrete under the desk or on a poorly-lit desk. But then who sets up studio lighting (with quartz lights) just for the computer?

Hey, what about the battery that is 25% smaller? It wouldn't matter if you fly business or first-class with power jacks on the seats, but...

Originally posted by fizzlemynizzle:
LOL, anyone that says a tibook is better than an albook is jealous. the albook is significantly faster, has FW800, doesn't scratch, has airport extreme capability, integrated bluetooth, backlit keyboard, better wireless reception. the tibooks were great but don't delude youselves, time moves on.

[Lateralus]

The 1GHz Titanium PowerBook (GigaTi) will go down in history as one of the all time great PowerBooks. If only for the simple fact that it had pretty much every kind and design flaw worked out.

I have handled a few GigaTis as well as a few AlBooks, and have been a bit more impressed with the Gigas.

[Paul Huang]

The fatal flaw of the titanium is that the carbon-fiber frame that is bonded (more like glued by spit) to the bottom plate flexes at different rates as the titanium foil cover.

The internal frame (rib) is poorly designed also. The stress/pivot points are too close to the anchor screw. ALL of the Titaniums that are used normally (not babied) have such hairline cracks which eventually develops into 50% cracks (losing most of the support). The flex of the base becomes excessive and eventually the whole thing disintegrate.

The hinge imbalance (left and right) have also caused stress fracture on the lid. The arm extension below the titanium foil only extends about two inches from the hinge, so the LCD's glass and the titanium foils (two pieces together) are transferring all the opening and closing forces. When one of the hinges seizes or loosens up, hairline fracture develops. This problem is addressed by the new design.

Nothing is perfect.

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
The 1GHz Titanium PowerBook (GigaTi) will go down in history as one of the all time great PowerBooks. If only for the simple fact that it had pretty much every kind and design flaw worked out.

I have handled a few GigaTis as well as a few AlBooks, and have been a bit more impressed with the Gigas.

[macxtal]

I had both, my AlBook is much much faster than my old Ti. I haven't had a single problem at all, the screen and everything else are flawless. My only complaint is the white connectors for DVI and power don't match the albook at all, but that's relatively minor. I hated the paint chipping on the Ti, but I usually actually USE my mobile computer as a mobile computer, so the odd ding doesn't bother me.

Anyone concerned about long term reliability is crazy. Use the ability of mac notebooks to hold value and sell it off at the first opportunity when the 1yr anniversary approaches. Recover most of your money, including the OS upgrade and Applecare expenditures you didn't need to buy, and get a brand spanking new one.

Only exception to this might be if the new models are ugly. Heh.

[siflippant]

Originally posted by fizzlemynizzle:
LOL, anyone that says a tibook is better than an albook is jealous. the albook is significantly faster, has FW800, doesn't scratch, has airport extreme capability, integrated bluetooth, backlit keyboard, better wireless reception. the tibooks were great but don't delude youselves, time moves on.

LMAO

[Dubya's Dealer]

I'm sure the Al is an improvement over the Ti, but there isn't enough to make me jealous.

The Tibook isn't perfect, of course, but after a year of flawless performance, looking more or less as good as when I took it out of the box (the scratches and paint chipping thing haven't happened yet-could it be thanks to the sleave?) can I really complain? Let's talk about this later this year when the new g5 models come out.

Oh and I do prefer the ports on the back.

[nagromme]

Cables in back bend and stress against my legs on my lap. I very much prefer cables on the sides.

The Ti is classic and a great machine in many ways--it's smaller than the Al, too.

But across the board, the newer 'Book is of course a huge upgrade. That's how things go. Doesn't mean those old TiBooks can't still do the job!