[RodriCO2000]

Well, I have had my PB for 2 days now and I have to say I am very impressed with the machine, it actually feels a bit faster than my old iMac 1Ghz.... Anyway, I have noticed a few things on this PB, people keep on telling me this thing doesn't get, hot... It does, It gets really hot right where the screen hinge is, and also right bellow it, It was HOT.... just in thet area thought, the palm rest and the rest of the machine are cool to the touch

I guess I am lucky I haven't noticed any white spots on my PB but I have to check enought for it, I might be overlooking it. This is the first time I owned a slot load drive and I didnt think it was going to be as loud as it is. Its cool but it makes loud noises when it grabs the CD It was unexpected I guess I cant "silently" pop in a game CD while I am supposed to be taking notes for class....

[AssassyN]

Yeah, the PB's tend to get hot, but most likely, you'll adjust and it'll never really bother you. PC laptops can get unbelieveably hot, so hot you cannot hold it for an extended period of time.

And the slot-load was a surpriser for me as well, and I thought the loudness was a bit tacky at first, however again, you'll grow fond of it...but you're right, you better cough loudly when inserting a CD during a quiet class

[aapljack]

It is a good thing winter is coming up. The PB will be a good lap warmer!

The CD drive is a trip when it grabs the CD. It sucks it in so fast I was surprised. It was cool that it doesn't constantly spin tho. I was happy with the way the CD drive works.

-b

[PBG4 User]

Coming from a Rev. A Ti I was surprised by the way the new slot loading drive works also! The first time I put in a CD I was being all tentative and stuff, then, all of a sudden the CD just disappears into the PB! Kinda like those windup coin banks where you put the coin in the mouth of the bank lol.

As far as game CDs go, try making a .dmg out of the CD and see if the game will run with that mounted.

[nuraoar]

I got my first ever PowerBook and my first ever apple product. I have been crazy about MacOS X for a while now and was waiting for the new 15" to be realesed. I jumped on it the day It was released.


I got the 1.25Ghz Superdrive standard version.

I have visited this forum and many more and I noticed that the same questions that bothered me, were asked many times. I have experimented and have some resonable answers.

1. Lid warpped: The lid is a little peculiar because once it is closed it is not a snug fit and the corners are a little lifted. I checked out another model on display at the Applestore and it too had the exact same behavior. My conclusion is that this is normal and is as designed.


2. 10.2.8 and battery life: I was unfortunate enough to have installed 10.2.8 as soon as I first powered on the laptop. I noticed the battery meter was erratic. I ran a few tests and logged them with X-charge.

On mormal use some music, web surfing, quicktime movies, airport use and half-3/4 screen brightness I get around 2.5- maybe 3 hours.

On watching a dvd in a dark room (screen automatically dims and key board backlight off) I got 2:11 hours:mins. So the conclusion is that the battery meter in 10.2.8 is horribly broken. I am not sure if 10.2.7 would have resulted in more battery life (the PM subsytem could be broken as well). I came to realize that apple's 4.5 hours estimate is probably with a 1Ghz machine that is left to drain while Idle.

3. Heat : Yes all the observations people have made are correct. This unit operates cool/warm and also gets pretty hot.

Cool/warm: Under normal use on battery power the unit gets warm but not ridiculously hot. Also if the battery is fully charged and the unit is plugged in it remains cool/warm. It also remains cool if the unit is sleeping while being charged.

Hot. This unit gets very hot underneath on the left and at the hinges if the battery is being charged and is in use. However the heat is not bothersome as the Aluminum is very good at dissipating heat and it cools fairly quickly so won't burn skin. I recommend keeping it on a flat table if used this way.

Well these were the most nagging questions I have had, as have so many others. Hope this post clarifies these questions/issues for everyone.

General impressions.

I am extremely pleased with this laptop and MacOS X in general. After years of using Microsoft products, linux and Solaris. MacOS X is probably the best personal computer OS I have used, the others mentioned above have thier strengths and weaknesses in thier markets.

The powerbook is a beautiful machine, well engineered and built. Though it may seem to have slow processor in terms of clock speed, it seems and is very fast for my normal everyday use. I personally would buy a G5 for performance as I think laptops are meant to offer decent performance with good portability and battery life. The 15" powerbook does well in the first two but the battery life could have been better. I think Apple had to make some design compromises with the battery and had to deal wtih tough questions like "Do we make the unit heavier or sacrifice a little battery life" those are tough choices to make and if users were polled would yield almost inconclusive results.

That said. I think I have made the right purchase and will never doubt the amount of money I spent on this unit. I would not call my self a switcher since I use many platforms over the course of my day ( constantly switching). But I am definitely satisfied and will be a long term Apple customer, now on to evangelizing the powebook.

Cheers.