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New 12" notes (Long long post)
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atomium
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Jan 27, 2003, 11:02 PM
 
It's post number 200, so I have to make it count...

Finally bought the machine to replace my Pismo 500. And I've officially owned two 12" powerbooks in the last couple days. I went into the Clarendon Apple store on Saturday evening to check it out. Fell in love. Walked out with a Superdrive model.

Within 16 hours the trackpad button was sticking so badly, I took it back Sunday afternoon. They played with it a while and ended up replacing it on the spot with a new one. This button is sticking too. The right side stays down for a half second, on its own, then pops back up. It almost seems as if the top edge of the button is catching under the edge of the trackpad.

The left side of the trackpad button takes a firm thumb to register a click. Enough so that I have already trained myself to avoid hitting that side of the button. Any casual clicking over there does not register.

It seems to be getting better with time, but I'm leery. They told me when they replaced it that if this one exhibited the same problem, I wouldn't be able to get it replaced again. They said there wasn't enough info on whether or not this is a regular problem and if it will be treated as a defective machine, or a design quirk that can be remedied in repair. I figure I'll wait until a) it works itself out or b) it turns up to be a bigger problem and Apple sets up a repir protocol.

Now on with the review...

This is a Superdrive machine with 40GB HDD and the stock 256 RAM. Any comparisons are relative to a Pismo 500 with 640 MB RAM.

To start with, I love this machine. The size and heft are perfect. It feels bigger than other ultra compacts when you use it, but not when you carry it. Case is very solid. No flex.

The keyboard has a great feel to it. Less "clacky" than the Pismo keyboard. They finally managed to get a spacebar to feel like a real key. I've been hoping for that. The keyboard stays clear of the screen, so no marks. I find the black letters on silver very easy to read when there is light and the keys are reflecting. In the dark, it is more difficult to make them out.

The screen is very nice. Super sharp, nice and bright. Makes my Pismo screen show its age. The screen is bright enough that I can use it one tick up from off on the brightness scale if I need to.

I have one stuck pixel about 1.5 inches up from the bottom and about 5 inches from the left edge. It fires red and blue OK, but not green. Barely noticeable unless I spend a while hunting for it. There was a dead pixel dead center on the first unit I had. This is much better.

The left wristpad does get warm. At it's hottest, it's enough to make the heel of my hand sweat. I can live with it, but may have to rethink that come summertime. I'm already finding myself lifting my hand when I'm not typing, and wiping the sweat from it. I'm not going to complain too much. With a machine like this, there are going to be trade-offs, and I can deal.

Even with the heat, I have yet to hear the fan come on. It runs very quietly. I had it in a conference all day, and was taking notes. Between the quietness of the machine, and the keyboard it was like being in stealth mode.

I've been playing with the modem. it seems less tolerant than the Pismo. Using the same phone lines and configurations, I can only connect at 48000 where the Pismo would connect at 56000. It drops connections where the Pismo never would. Fortunately I will rarely need the modem, but it's a consideration for those who do.

Battery life is awesome. All day, I had the brightness at only one tick, the processor at "reduced" and was running nothing but Omni Outliner to take notes. With that setup I got 4.5 hours and had battery remaining when I left. After the initial charge, I ran a DVD to drain the battery as per the manual's recommendation. I made it through a 2hour movie, and then about halfway through it a second time before the battery finally died.

The flip side to battery life is this thing takes a long time to charge. I'm used to a pretty rapid charge with my Pismo. This thing takes a good 50% longer. For a dead battery to a full charge (using the machine while it is charging) is a good 2.5+ hours.

The speakers sound great. Unfortunately, they aren't very loud. I thought it might just be the level of the MP3s I was trying, but it's not. I've tried CDs I know are mastered loud, MP3s that make my iPod headphones rattle, you name it. Just not much oomph. It was the same with the first unit I had. (Keep in mind, I'm comparing this with my Pismo. Those things are tinny, but they can really crank. Not sure about any of the Ti incarnations.)

The finish on the sides of the keyboard is interesting. Theres a small strip of plastic along the sides of the keyboard. It keeps the sides of the keys from being exposed when the machine is closed. It doesn't feel like the sturdiest thing out there, but we'll see. You can flex it easily by pushing on it. I have a feeling a few of them will find themselves chipped as more of these things hit the streets.

The gap between the spacebar and the palmrest has a strange sharp edge to it. The bulk of the gap is at an angle, except for the top 16th of an inch. That comes straight up so the actual corner where it meets the palm rest is a right angle. It's hard to explain. You just have to see it. It's odd in the same way that the sharp corners of the iPod front are odd, when compared to the back of it. I keep running my fingernail along it. Seems like it will collect dirt over time.

I know this has been mentioned before, But the latch release is pretty much out of the question if you have chubby fingers. The slot is really narrow. I'm a skinny fingered guy, but still find myself sticking a finger nail in there to get it open.

Interesting but inconsequential: the battery LED indicators number 5 instead of 4. Why they bothered, I'm not sure. Since they are on the bottom of the machine, it's not like you ever see them.

Not sure if the Ti Superdrive does the same thing, but there is a serious and authoritative clunk when it takes a disc in.

Been light with my usage. I've only loaded software and data and taken a days worth of notes on it. It definitely loads apps faster, and seems a ton more responsive. I can't wait until I get the 512 chip to put in here.

Tomorrow I'll do some heavier hitting with it and will post more about performance. In the meantime, if anyone is interested in a solid Pismo 500 with almost a year of Applecare left on it...just let me know.

-atomium
( Last edited by atomium; Jan 27, 2003 at 11:24 PM. )
     
mginsberg
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Jan 27, 2003, 11:08 PM
 
Thanks for the detailed review. For those of us waiting, it gives us something to do...
     
seanyepez
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Jan 27, 2003, 11:21 PM
 
The authoritative "clunk" you refer to is normal. The SuperDrive Apple is using sucks in disks very quickly.

Don't bother with the performance tests if you have to go out of your way. There have already been a lot of Xbench results posted on www.xbench.com, and we already have a good idea concerning how fast it is from others' posts.

Thanks!
     
douthat
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Jan 27, 2003, 11:22 PM
 
Originally posted by atomium:
if anyone is interested in a solid Pismo 500
What is your asking price?
     
torifile
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Jan 28, 2003, 12:14 AM
 
Nice review. I concur with most of your findings (I've got a combo drive unit). But, that pixel is not dead. It's stuck. A dead pixel shows no light at all. Turn off your display, get a soft cloth and gently massage the area in circular motions for a little while. That ought to unstick it. Again, that pixel is not dead. You would see no color if it were. HTH.

One comment on the screen brightness: it's almost too bright. I need to turn it down to about 4 from the top in order for it to be comfortable. That's absolutely great because battery life seems amazing. I haven't done a test yet, but I'm sure it's better than my old Ti and iBook.
     
kcmac
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Jan 28, 2003, 12:25 AM
 
Thanks for all of your work on that review. It was fun to read. Congrats.
     
sworthy
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Jan 28, 2003, 12:30 AM
 
Originally posted by torifile:
But, that pixel is not dead. It's stuck.
He knows that.

Originally posted by atomium
I have one stuck pixel
     
torifile
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Jan 28, 2003, 12:37 AM
 
Originally posted by sworthy:
He knows that.
d'oh! I guess I read the next line about the dead pixel on his other unit and confused the two. My bad. Still the advice about massaging it out of its funk will work.
     
atomium  (op)
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Jan 28, 2003, 12:43 AM
 
Originally posted by torifile:
But, that pixel is not dead. It's stuck.
Right. The first unit had a dead one, but I called this one stuck. Thanks for the tip on unsticking it. I thought there was something you could do for them. You saved me a forum search. I'll get right on it.
     
Eug
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Jan 28, 2003, 12:43 AM
 
Some people call that (rightly or wrongly) a "dead subpixel".

ie. The green subpixel only is dead. On a green background it would be black. One could also (probably more rightly) call this a green subpixel stuck off, but everyone gets the point I'm sure.

However, the red and blue subpixels work fine, so it's not a completely dead black pixel. However, this type of stuck subpixel is way better than having a subpixel stuck on. Having a red subpixel stuck on can drive you insane when watching dark movies for instance.
     
stilltron
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Jan 28, 2003, 01:24 AM
 
Thanks for the thorough review. I don't think I've ever read such a thoughtful, fair, and well written review.
i'm dying to get my hands on one of these.
     
xtal
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Jan 28, 2003, 01:27 AM
 
Thanks for the 'real-life' look at the 12". Congrats on the new baby.


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ebisix
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Jan 28, 2003, 01:34 AM
 
Originally posted by atomium:
It's post number 200, so I have to make it count...

Finally bought the machine to replace my Pismo 500. And I've officially owned two 12" powerbooks in the last couple days. I went into the Clarendon Apple store on Saturday evening to check it out. Fell in love. Walked out with a Superdrive model.

Within 16 hours the trackpad button was sticking so badly, I took it back Sunday afternoon. They played with it a while and ended up replacing it on the spot with a new one. This button is sticking too. The right side stays down for a half second, on its own, then pops back up. It almost seems as if the top edge of the button is catching under the edge of the trackpad.

The left side of the trackpad button takes a firm thumb to register a click. Enough so that I have already trained myself to avoid hitting that side of the button. Any casual clicking over there does not register.

It seems to be getting better with time, but I'm leery. They told me when they replaced it that if this one exhibited the same problem, I wouldn't be able to get it replaced again. They said there wasn't enough info on whether or not this is a regular problem and if it will be treated as a defective machine, or a design quirk that can be remedied in repair. I figure I'll wait until a) it works itself out or b) it turns up to be a bigger problem and Apple sets up a repir protocol.

Now on with the review...

This is a Superdrive machine with 40GB HDD and the stock 256 RAM. Any comparisons are relative to a Pismo 500 with 640 MB RAM.

To start with, I love this machine. The size and heft are perfect. It feels bigger than other ultra compacts when you use it, but not when you carry it. Case is very solid. No flex.

The keyboard has a great feel to it. Less "clacky" than the Pismo keyboard. They finally managed to get a spacebar to feel like a real key. I've been hoping for that. The keyboard stays clear of the screen, so no marks. I find the black letters on silver very easy to read when there is light and the keys are reflecting. In the dark, it is more difficult to make them out.

The screen is very nice. Super sharp, nice and bright. Makes my Pismo screen show its age. The screen is bright enough that I can use it one tick up from off on the brightness scale if I need to.

I have one stuck pixel about 1.5 inches up from the bottom and about 5 inches from the left edge. It fires red and blue OK, but not green. Barely noticeable unless I spend a while hunting for it. There was a dead pixel dead center on the first unit I had. This is much better.

The left wristpad does get warm. At it's hottest, it's enough to make the heel of my hand sweat. I can live with it, but may have to rethink that come summertime. I'm already finding myself lifting my hand when I'm not typing, and wiping the sweat from it. I'm not going to complain too much. With a machine like this, there are going to be trade-offs, and I can deal.

Even with the heat, I have yet to hear the fan come on. It runs very quietly. I had it in a conference all day, and was taking notes. Between the quietness of the machine, and the keyboard it was like being in stealth mode.

I've been playing with the modem. it seems less tolerant than the Pismo. Using the same phone lines and configurations, I can only connect at 48000 where the Pismo would connect at 56000. It drops connections where the Pismo never would. Fortunately I will rarely need the modem, but it's a consideration for those who do.

Battery life is awesome. All day, I had the brightness at only one tick, the processor at "reduced" and was running nothing but Omni Outliner to take notes. With that setup I got 4.5 hours and had battery remaining when I left. After the initial charge, I ran a DVD to drain the battery as per the manual's recommendation. I made it through a 2hour movie, and then about halfway through it a second time before the battery finally died.

The flip side to battery life is this thing takes a long time to charge. I'm used to a pretty rapid charge with my Pismo. This thing takes a good 50% longer. For a dead battery to a full charge (using the machine while it is charging) is a good 2.5+ hours.

The speakers sound great. Unfortunately, they aren't very loud. I thought it might just be the level of the MP3s I was trying, but it's not. I've tried CDs I know are mastered loud, MP3s that make my iPod headphones rattle, you name it. Just not much oomph. It was the same with the first unit I had. (Keep in mind, I'm comparing this with my Pismo. Those things are tinny, but they can really crank. Not sure about any of the Ti incarnations.)

The finish on the sides of the keyboard is interesting. Theres a small strip of plastic along the sides of the keyboard. It keeps the sides of the keys from being exposed when the machine is closed. It doesn't feel like the sturdiest thing out there, but we'll see. You can flex it easily by pushing on it. I have a feeling a few of them will find themselves chipped as more of these things hit the streets.

The gap between the spacebar and the palmrest has a strange sharp edge to it. The bulk of the gap is at an angle, except for the top 16th of an inch. That comes straight up so the actual corner where it meets the palm rest is a right angle. It's hard to explain. You just have to see it. It's odd in the same way that the sharp corners of the iPod front are odd, when compared to the back of it. I keep running my fingernail along it. Seems like it will collect dirt over time.

I know this has been mentioned before, But the latch release is pretty much out of the question if you have chubby fingers. The slot is really narrow. I'm a skinny fingered guy, but still find myself sticking a finger nail in there to get it open.

Interesting but inconsequential: the battery LED indicators number 5 instead of 4. Why they bothered, I'm not sure. Since they are on the bottom of the machine, it's not like you ever see them.

Not sure if the Ti Superdrive does the same thing, but there is a serious and authoritative clunk when it takes a disc in.

Been light with my usage. I've only loaded software and data and taken a days worth of notes on it. It definitely loads apps faster, and seems a ton more responsive. I can't wait until I get the 512 chip to put in here.

Tomorrow I'll do some heavier hitting with it and will post more about performance. In the meantime, if anyone is interested in a solid Pismo 500 with almost a year of Applecare left on it...just let me know.

-atomium
Thanks for the detailed review!
     
escher
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Jan 28, 2003, 01:36 AM
 
Originally posted by atomium:
Battery life is awesome. All day, I had the brightness at only one tick, the processor at "reduced" and was running nothing but Omni Outliner to take notes. With that setup I got 4.5 hours and had battery remaining when I left. After the initial charge, I ran a DVD to drain the battery as per the manual's recommendation. I made it through a 2hour movie, and then about halfway through it a second time before the battery finally died.
atomium: Thanks for this great review. I'm especially interested in your battery life test. You are saying that you got 4.5 hours of battery life in Omni Outliner (with some left over) and 3 hours playing a DVD (without any time left over). Did the system go to sleep automatically after 3 hours of DVD playback?

Escher
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Until we get a 3 lbs sub-PowerBook, the 12-inch PowerBook will do.
     
torifile
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Jan 28, 2003, 01:42 AM
 
Originally posted by escher:
atomium: Thanks for this great review. I'm especially interested in your battery life test. You are saying that you got 4.5 hours of battery life in Omni Outliner (with some left over) and 3 hours playing a DVD (without any time left over). Did the system go to sleep automatically after 3 hours of DVD playback?

Escher
escher, I haven't done a test yet, but I can tell you it's absolutely great. Esp. since the display is so bright anyway. Half full brightness is plenty. I was working tonight in bbedit, listening to itunes and testing my webpages (lots of disk hits) and I went 1.5 hours and only got to 73% battery usage. If you do the math, that's over 5 hours. Not bad. I'll run a test tonight and post back.
     
seanyepez
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Jan 28, 2003, 02:19 AM
 
Originally posted by ebisix:
Thanks for the detailed review!
Dude, don't quote a whole post if it's two pages long.
     
icruise
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Jan 28, 2003, 08:10 AM
 
Originally posted by atomium:


Within 16 hours the trackpad button was sticking so badly, I took it back Sunday afternoon. They played with it a while and ended up replacing it on the spot with a new one. This button is sticking too. The right side stays down for a half second, on its own, then pops back up. It almost seems as if the top edge of the button is catching under the edge of the trackpad.

The left side of the trackpad button takes a firm thumb to register a click. Enough so that I have already trained myself to avoid hitting that side of the button. Any casual clicking over there does not register.

It seems to be getting better with time, but I'm leery. They told me when they replaced it that if this one exhibited the same problem, I wouldn't be able to get it replaced again. They said there wasn't enough info on whether or not this is a regular problem and if it will be treated as a defective machine, or a design quirk that can be remedied in repair. I figure I'll wait until a) it works itself out or b) it turns up to be a bigger problem and Apple sets up a repir protocol.
My wife's ibook (one of the original 500mhz models) had what sounds like the same problem with the clicker. We sent it back to Apple and they kept it for about a month while waiting for a replacement part I hope it isn't a common problem with the new books...
     
atomium  (op)
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Jan 28, 2003, 08:34 AM
 
Originally posted by escher:
You are saying that you got 4.5 hours of battery life in Omni Outliner (with some left over) and 3 hours playing a DVD (without any time left over). Did the system go to sleep automatically after 3 hours of DVD playback?
Trust me, no one was more surprised than I was. Keep in mind, though, it was probably not average usage conditions. The monitor was all the way down to 1, nothing plugged into any ports. Bluetooth and airport off. Sound muted the whole time. Fine for the occasional conference, but not a great way to spend everyday working.

Torifile's numbers sound absolutely right. After the first two hours of using it, mine was still at about 65%.

Originally posted by Icruise:
I hope it isn't a common problem with the new books...
I hope so, too. Normally, as a rule, I never buy a Rev. A machine. In fact this is the first time I've done it since my 7600. Apple got me on this one, though. Fell for this machine so badly, I decided to risk the early build flaws....

-atomium
     
OwlBoy
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Jan 28, 2003, 08:53 AM
 
About the battery chargeing / draining on first use, what does this mean?

I Have never owned a laptop.

-Owl
     
atomium  (op)
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Jan 28, 2003, 09:04 AM
 
Originally posted by OwlBoy:
About the battery chargeing / draining on first use, what does this mean?
To condition the battery, Apple recommends that you plug it in and charge it completely, then unplug it and use it until the battery is completely drained. After that you're good to plug and unplug whenever you like.

-atomium
     
MrBenn
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Jan 28, 2003, 03:05 PM
 
Originally posted by atomium:
To condition the battery, Apple recommends that you plug it in and charge it completely, then unplug it and use it until the battery is completely drained. After that you're good to plug and unplug whenever you like.

-atomium
Can you use the machine while its charging,during the initial conditioning charge?

When the battery is completely drained does the machine go to sleep, or shut itself down?

I'm just curious about this stuff, as a prospective 12"PB buyer.
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icruise
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Jan 28, 2003, 03:11 PM
 
Originally posted by MrBenn:
Can you use the machine while its charging,during the initial conditioning charge?
Yes.
When the battery is completely drained does the machine go to sleep, or shut itself down?
The machine will put itself into a deep sleep that you can't wake it from until it is plugged in again.
     
Hozie
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Jan 28, 2003, 03:13 PM
 
Great review pal, much better than what I've seen out there in terms of details. One question though: would you please run the first few minutes of a DVD to check whether it skips any frames? I'm asking because quite a lot of people who got the combo drive are experiencing stuttering or frame skips while watching DVD's. It might not be a problem with the SD though.... Thanks!
     
atomium  (op)
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Jan 28, 2003, 05:05 PM
 
Originally posted by Hozie:
Would you please run the first few minutes of a DVD to check whether it skips any frames?
I haven't noticed any skipping. I've watched a couple since I got it. In fact, I even fired up a Quicktime trailer during DVD playback, Also tried an iTunes playback during movie. Neither one seemed to skip a beat.

I'll check again tonight, though, just to make sure I didn't miss something at the very beginning as far as skipping goes.

The biggest processor strain I guess I've tried is running a Quicktime trailer, playing MP3s and alternating between applying gaussian blurs to a 300 dpi image in Photoshop and rotating 50 objects in OmniGraffle. Neither Quicktime nor iTunes seemed to skip at all. PShop and OmniGraffle took the expected speed hit, but that's no surprise.

I've been running all day and things are really nice. I have an external 17" CRT monitor hooked up and spanning. It's at 1280x1024, millions of colors, 85Mhz refresh. It is a nice setup and I can't say I've really noticed any lagging because of it. It feels just as fast as it did all weekend without the external attached.

Most apps are loading in about half the time that my Pismo took. Adobe stuff is 4 bounces with another 10-15 seconds of splash screen. I think that the addition of RAM will cut that splash screen time down. The Pismo had about the same splash screen time, but a good 8-12 bounces beforehand.

I have no interest in running Xbench benchmarks. For me speed is usability, not numbers cranked out by that app. With that said, I find this machine totally adequate for what I do.

My workday is spent in the Adobe suite, BBEdit, Dreamweaver, Word, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, Mail and various browsers. Terminal is always open, as is iTunes. My Adobe time is low-res web stuff, spot graphics nothing too intensive.

The lag time between apps is much reduced. That was probably my biggest complaint about speed on my old machine. Switching apps was a chore.

The performance of Dreamweaver on this machine is making me think that Macromedia should claim the 500 Mhz G3 in my Pismo is below minimum requirements. It still doesn't fly like it can on a stacked Powermac, but I don't cringe anymore when I have to use it. I can even finally set BBEdit as my code editor for Dreamweaver and not have the machine absolutely choke.

I decided to run the battery through a stress test. No AC power with the following attached: drained iPod charging through Firewire, USB mouse, external monitor, ethernet cable to LAN and headphones. Bluetooth was enabled and active. With this setup I got a good hour and 45 minutes before I hit the 10 minute left warning. Too busy to let it slip into a coma, or else I would have held out to see if I could hit 2 hours.

Another note about the heat. Some say it's bad, others don't. All I know is I that found myself putting a Post-it note on the left palm rest to sit my hand on. It's not to dissipate heat as much as it's to keep the sweaty heel of my hand in check. I was relieved when the fan came on. Doubly so when I heard how absolutely quiet the fan was. If there's any background noise at all, you could totally miss it.

One more observation. iTunes visuals are pretty good. I enabled the Open GL setting and turned off all frame rate capping. Full screen was averaging about 20 fps with peaks at about 25. With the visuals in a window about half the height and half the width of the screen, it was average 35-40 fps with peaks in the low 60s.

-atomium
     
torifile
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Jan 28, 2003, 06:27 PM
 
Well, I ran my test last night. I left it iTunes going, screen at 5 notches, volume about 1/3 up, reduced proc speed, with versiontracker open (lots of annoying flashing ads and frequent automatic page refreshes), checking email every 5 minutes and updating meterologist every 15. Like the dolt I am late at night, however, I forgot to turn of the screen saver.

It played for 3h20 minutes before going to sleep. 3 hours of that the screen saver was on. Tonight, I'll attempt another test.

This is with BT off and no airport card (still waiting for them come out ).
     
itai195
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Jan 28, 2003, 06:34 PM
 
Battery life on mine so far 'seems' to be better than on my TiBook 800, though I haven't done any scientific tests yet. I don't think anyone will be disappointed with the battery life on these, either way.

As for the speakers, they're louder than on my TiBook and definitely produce a richer sound. Not disappointed at all. I can actually listen to music on these speakers without cringing as much... I think the headphone output is also a bit louder as well.

Performance has been about what I expected so far, but when my 512MB module comes in I will be much happier. 256MB really doesn't cut it for OS X.

The screen definitely has some ghosting effects that I never noticed as much on my Ti. For example, if you watch some of the Simpsons DVDs you will notice the problem at fullscreen. Not a huge deal to me, though.
     
icruise
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Jan 28, 2003, 06:47 PM
 
Originally posted by itai195:

The screen definitely has some ghosting effects that I never noticed as much on my Ti. For example, if you watch some of the Simpsons DVDs you will notice the problem at fullscreen. Not a huge deal to me, though.
I'm wondering if that is the screen or an issue with the DVD player. I know that DVDs from video sources (like TV shows) as opposed to film sources (like movies) tend to display a sort of ghosting or tearing effect when there is motion on the screen. This seems to be a fault with the mac DVD player applications, although I would have thought you would have seen the same effect on your tibook. Does it only occur with video-derived DVDs?
     
itai195
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Jan 28, 2003, 07:02 PM
 
Yeah I know a bit is normal. I played Minority Report on the 12" and I still saw some of the ghosting but it is much less noticeable. Played the simpsons on my 17" studio display and still saw some ghosting, but less than I saw on the 12". All in all, I don't think it's a serious problem for me, but I think some people may be picky about it.
     
   
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