[jindrich]

Hi everyone, I picked up a few days ago my new 1.67 15" alupowerbook. After some quality time with it, i thought it might be useful for the mac community as well as for future buyers to write a kind of detailed "power user review".
I've been using macs for about 15 years. This is going to be my 4th apple laptop -in four years (yes, i am broke). Prior to this one, i had the first generation of the icebook, a Titanium and then a 1.25 alupowerbook, who's just been replaced with this new 1.67 alu.
I'm a Pro and do use many Top Professional and cpu taxing applications, like Microsoft Word, iPhoto and Garageband, but also some other simpler, less demanding stuff like Photoshop, Logic 7 Pro, Illustrator, cinema4D, Excel, Dreamweaver.. etc. Wait, Dreamweaver should go into the first category... oh, i forgot i'm replacing it with BBEdit.
Well, I make use of many of those apps at once, and I'm used to surf with no less than 12 tabs on Safari and Camino, sometimes more than 20. I use the powerbook as a desktop replacement because i travel a lot all over europe.

Ok, enough with intros. Let's get started.



-SPECS: my new powerbook is the top of the line 15" model: 1.67 G4 processor, Superdrive, 80GB 5400rpm HD, 9700 Radeon with 64MB (had to be 128, but something happened �?)... etc.
The main differences between these new Powerbooks and the last generation are as follows:

-slightly faster CPU
-8X Superdrive, that FINALLY also writes and reads DVD+R/RW media
-5400 rpm HD as standard
-Radeon 9700 videocard
-improved backligthed keyboard
-touchpad with scroll capabilities
-Bluetooth 2
-512MB RAM, in 1 chip as standard
-lower prices ;-P

I'm using 1GB of RAM. I took a 512MB chip from the older 1.25 and put it on the new machine. The RAM bus/architecture hasn't changed, unfortunately for the global performance and fortunately for my pocket. Just 512MB of RAM is OK, but if you're going to drop more than �2000 on this machine, �80 more won't hurt you, and you'll appreciate very much having so few pageouts having upgraded to a total of 1GB RAM. OsX is very hungry.

-THE OPENNING CREDITS
Well, sooo, just by opening the box you get to discover the beauty of Apple's packaging and attention to detail -for those who doesn't know what i'm talking about, please go buy a Mac and experience it by yourselves; can't be explained. I Won't waste many lines here, but i'll comment that besides the computer, manuals and cables, there are some other nice things included worth mentioning: Two white Apple's logo stickers, the usual completely useless coupons for new OS releases, and the Grey software restore DVD, which is actually two, one of general purpouse and another one with OS9. iLife 05 is already installed on the HD, and it doesn't come on a separate DVD but on the included restore disc (i guess), as i didn't see any green and colorful disc around. Remeber, this is a Pro Powerbook, not a Mac Mini. Not a single game comes installed either, but Graphic Converter instead. Shade.

The all elegant black carbon box containing the Powerbook, reads inside "designed in california" and "assembled in CHINA". I didn't know apple took some of the manufacturing/assembling lines to China. Usually my Mac laptops came from Taiwan. I guess that's how they managed to lower the price on the new powerbooks. It took as long to arrive to my european city as if it came from Taiwan though.

Out of the box, the Powerbook looks and feels just like the other two previous generation alus (gorgeous). Nothing's changed here. They still smell so much to this Apple's trademark "new machine" flavour, that actually i got a very nice headache yesterday, after many hours of non-stopping use. This smell surely fills a whole room -you can tell when there's a new Mac laptop on the house just by the smell, and it takes around 1 month to dissapear. Once it does, you certainly miss it.
I'd say Apple sprays some kind of addictive drug on the aluminium surface before packing them up, so you're on the need of buying/updating your laptop every 1-2 months, just to get your dosis. Clever, very Jobs indeed.


-A CASE OF THE CASE
As i've already said, nothing has changed from the original alu case, but to compare it to my previous 1.25 alu, I'd like to comment some small details: The screen lid stays firmly closed once you close it down now. I sense a minor redesign of the latch mechanism as the screen doesn't rebound back a little bit, like the older did. Now the lid is firmly grabbed by the chasis. Come to Mama.
I measured a quite unnoticeable warping of the lid btw, in the form of an inversed pond. You wouldn't definetely notice it, had i did not tell you -it's less than 1 mm. My last alu's screen was really warped, and had a very big gap on the right side when closed, about a half cm.

Following to the bottom side, everything is really smooth, and the battery of this precise new model does not protuberate like some many others did. This could change with time though.

The new Powrebook in general, feels like a solid brick. I mention this because my previous alu was serviced a couple of times, and when it came back it never "felt" the same. It was going from "a solid brick" to a "assembled pieces toghether". It's a very minor difference in feeling, really hard to explain, but if you had this happenend to you, i'm sure you can understand it. Bottom line, pray for yours not to need service.


-TOUCH ME
These Powerbooks introduce a new touchpad which can sense dual finger presence (or so i'm told), so they can be used to scroll as well as for moving the cursor.
I've been using "ucontrol" for 2 years, therefore i've been enjoying from a scrolling touchpad since, when simultaneously pressing the "fn" key. The new touchpad scrolling capabilities are really great though, specially when combining both horizontal and vertical scrolling simultaneously, something i never got right with ucontrol. Oh, and now i can enjoy scrolling with a single hand, while my left one holds the phone. That's really handy.
The scrolling speed is of course user-adjustable, and it can be REALLY fast. I've set it to a mid-fast level. Also, you don't need to align both fingers on a horizontal or vertical axis to scroll. In other words, you can scroll say vertically, moving two fingers up or down, and it doesnt matter how one finger is positioned respect to the other: above, besides or as far as you can set them. Move them both and it simply scrolls.

Coming from the previous alu, the new touchpad did feel different at first. It was also kinda slower. I set it to the highest speed, and after a few hours, I felt at home again, but i had to get used to it, which means something has changed. It has more inertia to me, but felt somewhat slower initially.

On a "health note", this new scrollling touchpad could potentially help reduce finger stressing if taking scrolling duties out of the index finger. I mean, use the index for cursor movements, and the next two fingers for scrolling. This way you can make use of all fingers and not only index and thumb. What? Yes, i play the piano.


Oh, I forgot. This trackpad button makes some "spring back click noise", depending on WHERE it's depressed; that my 1.25 didn't make.

After some days of use, the new touchpad feels great and does brilliantly the scrolling tasks. I won't need ucontrol anymore. sorry you guys.

[jindrich]

-KEYBOARD
Apple says the new backlighted keyboard is ten times brighter than the older one. Well, it's true. I was amazed at how bright the new kb was, the first time i turned off the room lights, it truly was a wowing experience!. I'd say the new backlight system at only 2-3 "bricks" equals the last one at a full setting. Now the whole keyboard is fully illuminated, including the function keys and those on the corners, unlike on the previous generations.
Time to impress some PC geekies. Or a flying hostess in the plane.

Ah yes, the keyboard itself hasn't changed and it feels and types great, best in a laptop IMO.


-SPEAKERS
Well this is an odd one. When i first got my alu 1.25, i complained the left speaker was much louder than the right one. I thought the right one was broken, but it turned out that the computer is designed like that, where the right pulls mostly high freqs, whereas the left one brings more bass tones, (although also highs), as it has one more speaker (or so it seems by looking thru the mesh).

The left side still sounds louder here, but on this new powerbook i'd say it sounds slightly more balanced.
Anyway, it's plenty loud and clear for a laptop at full blast. When set at max, system sounds can distort though.

I use a pair of AKG K501 headphones if i want to listen to music. The phones out drives them quite well, just as the 1.25 did.


-SCREEN
Some surprises.
My previous powerbook was of the first 15" aluminium generation, and came with a screen infected with white spots. The screen was replaced thereafter, and I got really nice uneven illumination instead, on the new implanted one. A semicircle on the bottom center, just above the "powerbook G4" letters, grew up like a sun in the dusk. Only that this particular sun imparted shadow instead of light. Sometimes this shadow-sun moved to the left side, someday to the right top corner, just like -as we all know, all suns get bored to some extent, and love to change sometimes. It was VERY annoying to say the least, and drove many threatening phone calls to Apple's support service.

I write this only to advance that i may not be the best to judge the new powerbook's screen, but then again, i'd say it is...
..brighter. And... maybe bluer.
Compared to my 1.25 alu, the new powerbook's screen is noticeable brighter, but also with some kind of bluer tones. I've tried playing with the settings to no improvement (LCD, RBG, RBGs, advanced manual), so I've concluded the screen is just like that. Maybe my older one (1.25 powerbook) was too "warm", i don't know, but that is precisely what i would definetely say about the older titanium powerbook i had. The Titanium's screen was REALLY "oranged", compared to the alu's 1.25 it was replaced with.

Fortunately, this new powerbook's screen doesn't have a single dead or color-stuck pixel, unlike the ibook or previous powerbook i owned (1 and 2 respectively). Anyhow, after a few hours of adapting to the screen's new colours, i was finally really happy with it... until my brother came.
He was wondering what this strange and stark smell in the house was, and walking following his nose, ended up with his head on top of my new powerbook. As i was just in front and very close to its screen -for a better experience of the lovely computer's flavours, he had to look to it from a very side. After some initial questions (can i have it? did you get another one for me?), he begged me to load a new personal web he is working on, just to see how it would look like on Safari (he uses linux):

-Oh great. But, why is all so BROWN?
-What?

Yes. The screen is quite nice and bright. But once you move slightly off center, horizontally speaking, the colors SHIFT completely.
This is quite a shock i didn't expect, and something older powerbooks didn't have (edit: false. A friend's 17" "older" 1.33 does the same). With this new screen, everythig look's right as long as you're just in front. But move your head horizontally to the left, up to aligning your nose with the screen's edge, and you'll see. When positioned like that, if you look to the right you'll see the screen getting an orange/pink cast. If you move still farther you'll think the metallic finder has been outside playing with some other windows in mud, because now they all look tinted in a light brown colour.
The proper horizontal viewing angle has been reduced to something like... 90 degrees (45 from center axis). Out of that you can no longer trust colours anymore.
Some would say that seeing anything -albeit "oranged", it's better than seeing nothing, like with some other cheap PC screen laptops, but this Powerbook is neither a PC nor a cheap laptop whatsoever.

Vertically, there's no color shift, only a lightness shift, which may be slightly worse as with my previous alupowerbook. Yes, i would say so, more than the previous one.

All this is very subtle and subjective. The screen is not "broken", but if you're used to deal with colour, this is a nasty surprise. To my mother it doesnt really matter, but my mother is not using a powerbook (yet). Again, this is not a cheap laptop and I would expect something better. You may consider my thoughts out of the blue. I don't know. Go to an Apple center and check by yourself. I'm only stating than Apple's changed the either the screens supplier or model (at least form the revA) and these newer have an odd colour behaviour.

Oh i forgot, the screen also likes windsurfing. I love very much waves as well, because i have been windsurfing since i was a kid, but i like them to be on the sea, not on my screen. The (very tiny) waves on screen appeared when i was seated on the floor with the powerbook on my lap, and i readjusted my legs. Suddenly, some small waves appeared as the bottom of the powerbook was very slightly "knocked" with my knee, and the screen slightly vibrated for 1 sec. I then carefully pressed on the back of the screen to better check it out, and saw more small waves developing, mostly on the bottom side.
My previous alupowerbook didnt have this issue -and consider that i had 2 screens on it. The waves were a real problem on the titanium screens though, because the lid was so thin it could not properly tense the TFT.
The truth is that the waves are very small and dont really imply a problem per se -i believe, but i feel better not having them.

I don't know if the waves will show off on every new powerbook or if it's just some sample's issue.

update: after some days i'm starting to notice that the screen is not evenly illuminated. The right side is _very_slightly_ brighter than the left one. I can only sense that occasionately though.

[jindrich]

-BATTERY LIFE
I fully charged the powerbook as i got it out of the box, and used it then on batteries. Had it on automatic energy settings and screen brightness was at half or less. I was using Mail, Safari, Terminal and something else, but nothing too demanding, out of surfing into the odd web forum with some of the "Killing Simis" (you know, those very tiny smiling gif's, that salute you while eating 99% of your cpu).
I used the computer until it turned itself off, so to calibrate the battery.
It lasted 3 hours 15 minutes.
The second time i was on batteries, I was using similar apps. Started using it uplugged at 17:00. At 19:00 went out to buy something and came back 50 mins later. The powerbok was sleeping. Continued using it and also tried a DVD for 2 minutes. At 21:15 it went to sleep.
That means i got 3 hours 25 minutes out of it.
Well, not bad for low profile computing, but far from the promised 5 hours (sci-fi), which my uncle's cheap 14" ibook can almost obtain.

update: I have the impression that the battery is getting better after some recharging cicles, but could be wrong. Also, I watched the first DVD of Lord of the Rings III, running for 2 hours and still had 30 minutes left at the end of the movie. MUCH better than my previous alu who had the worst batteries of all the mac laptops i've used to date.

EDIT: update2: i realized i had airport on since i started using this new powerbook. Having the airport switched off i gained around 10 mins of battery doing the same things (DVD watching, mail, surfing, writing...)

-i was watching a DVD yesterday (laptop unplugged from a/c) and the HD stopped spinning, dont know how long but at least for quite a while. That's great and makes lotsa sense, because when you watch a movie you dont need the HD or any other thing working. Thus your battery will last longer.


-SPEED
Here I have to set my previous 1.25 G4 powerbook as the master reference.
Compared to it, this new 1.67 does feel faster. I must admit that with the 1.25, i didnt have any trouble runnig (with 1GB RAM) both everyday and Pro apps -like Photoshop, except maybe for the HD performance -which can always be solved with fast external firewire drives. The 1.25 was stable and could load ten big applications, and i could copy and paste complex things between them with ease. Of course if you want to crunch HD video in real time you're better off with a dual G5 desktop, but out of that, the powerbooks still deliver.

I haven't done anything very cpu intensive yet, but with the same OS (10.3.7), RAM, and same auto energy settings, it's perceptibly snappier than the 1.25 powerbook. Like yet windows open somewhat faster, i can speedly scroll any web without a single trace of sttuting, or when typing a reply on forums (like this one) with some dozen "killing Simis", text appears as you type it and not 1/3rd of a second later (although is still slower than on Textedit). I also played around a little bit with Garageband 2 and it performed better than i remember the 1.25 did. After all, it's theoretically a 33% CPU increase, which for apps like Logic it could mean to be able to load another instance of a Space Designer Reverb (that's a convolution process reverb based on real rooms' impulse responses, that sound very realistic but are very cpu consuming).

The HD is now 5400 as standard vs the usual 4200. Tests on previous powerbooks showed that solely factor to make the biggest performance difference -besides RAM amount. I can confirm that lauching applications is now noticeably faster than with a 4200 one.

final note: remeber though that is not only the cpu, but the combination of everything along with the OS what defines performance. Expose alone makes a whole world of a difference compared to other OSes for instance.

EDIT: btw, i always use "automatic" on the energy settings, whether i'm plugged or not. Don't have complaints about performance. I'll sett it on "full" when i install and use logic7 though, but not with photoshop, freehand, fireworks, dreamweaver, safari, mail, terminal, preview, textedit ... all toghether at the same time.
Also, after a week+ of use, it really it makes a difference from my previous 1.25 alu (almost always on "automatic"). When editing a post in forums, the GIFs turned the cpu so down it was a real PITA to edit something, everything was sooo slow, and even got some fan awakenig sometimes. Therefore i hardly did it. Now i just dont ever care; i edit my posts because typing is not delayed at all, and idle cpu is anything from 20-40% ( remember, on "automatic").
Apple or someone has to do something about it though; GIFs bringing down cpu is just ridiculous.

FWIW, someone i know montly makes a 60-80 pages car magazine (A3 hig-res photos) ENTIRELY on his off the shelf 17" 1.33 alu, without any extra, even with just 512MB -i told him to put at least 1GB. He runs Quark, Photoshop, CS one and Freehand, besides all other typical apps. It works very well. he complains not.


-NOISE and HEAT
Houston, do we have a problem?
My first Mac laptop, the icebook G3 500mhz, was completely silent. It was quieter than a shoe. Then the Titanium was a nightmare, very hot to the touch and almost always had both fans on, which more often than not pumped into Schwarzenegger mode. It was VERY annoying. Then i got the 1.25 alupowerbook. What a change! It never got *too* hot, and was quite silent. Very confortable and low level sounding fans turned on, only with heavy game playing or with Garageband (!). Its HD was very quiet as well, although after one year it got slightly noticeable.

Up to this new 1.67 powerbook am typing on.

Well, it doesnt get too hot. Actually, i think it will behave just like the 1.25 noise and heatwise. Well, except for the HD. The new 80GB Fujitsu HD running at 5400 it sports, makes much more noise out of the box. It's only a constat low-level whinning, which would be unheard in many *normal* office/home surroundings, but for those who are on VERY quiet enviroments, or work during the night, this HD IS loud.
My previous 1.25's HD only got noticeable after one year of use. This new powerbook's HD is slightly louder than that, out of the box. I'm very mad at noise levels because i engineer from time to time and appreciate the sound of silence and because when recording audio with a quality condenser mic into logic, this whinning gets into the mic.
Yesterday at night i was surfing and loaded a dozen pages to read. As i didn't do anything else but reading, the HD stopped spinning. What a difference did it make. SILENCE!. I though my previous 1.25 never stopped his HD, but it did, only that the difference wasn't so big. Yesterday when it stopped, the change was brutal.
BTW, when simply reading at night is when the HD noise becomes more annoying to me.

Stupid note: when the HD stops, it loudly sounds like "Coyote" falling down from a mountain on those cartoons: WHEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh! It does it twice, like with a kind of echo. Never heard like that before on a mac laptop.

As for reference of noise levels: with the 1.25 powerbook and it's quieter HD, i could tell between the different GPU loads, because the GPU would emanate very different "electric noises". With the 1.67 though, GPU noises cannot be heard because they are masked by the HD.

Again this is a very personal appreciation. Many of you will consider the HD's whinnig whisper quiet, but i think it's not -specially considering this can get worse with time. Older alupowerbooks where quieter. I know it's a faster disk and some price had to be paid, but... i don't know, just wish it was quieter.

The fans havent turned on yet. Gonna pump them with... Garageband ;-P
(...) After adding 13 tracks of loops and assorted soft instruments tracks and seeing unused cpu still at 35-40% i got tired, and thought i'll let the fans to quick on when they need it. Btw, my 1.25 would have both on by now, and its idle cpu close to 0%. I have a happy smiling face.

EDIT: after more than a week, fans haven't turned on yet. Not while burning a DVD or transferring files, or even with cpu at 100% charge for a minute (not more than that). I guess they'll do when i install and play some HALO or similar game.
As i'm typing this, the HD stopped spinning. Cpu load at 35% idle. ABSOLUT SILENCE, is just unbeliavable, i can hear my breathing ;-). My brother's HP laptop FANS Never stop.
I'd say this 1.67 powerbook stops the HD more often than any other mac laptop i ever had, up to the level of the icebook G3 500. I guess that having more cpu force, same workload will tax less the processor make it run way cooler, and as long as you have enough RAM, the system thinks the HD won't be needed either.
But dont think that to happen with Microsoft Word. thank you Bill.



-AIRPORT: have not tested airport deeply yet, but it appears to work just like my previous 1.25. Both being much better than the titaniums i had.


-OTHERS: i initially forgot to write this, but i'd like drop a line on the matter. The "sleep-light" on powerbooks, specially on the alus, is VERY bright. It pulses up and down, and if you have it on the same room as where you sleep it will become VERY noticeable. I use to cover the light when going to bed because it drives me crazy ;-)



-THIS IS THE END, at last
Gosh, this mini-review has gone way beyond what i expected. Anyway, if you got the impression that the new 1.67 powerbooks have some issues, think not. I'm very picky about many things, and I like everything to be perfect. Well yes, there may be some hi-end laptops with brighter screens (sony?), but this one is not that bad (although it COULD be better). Regarding HD noise, that's a very subjective consideration, and maybe my Fujitsu HD is louder than normal, don't know.
Those are my two only minor gripes. But hey, this powerbook is gorgeous, thin, light, fast and runs the best OS out there. It's also quite competitively priced. I paid around �600 more a year ago for the 1.25 powerbook. Now you can have this top of the line model for �2,250, or �2,050 with educational discount, 16% euro VAT included (and 512MB in single chip wont cost you �100 more). Those prices are really good news. I still remember when not so long ago, the top titanium powerbook went for more than �4,000.

Don't wait for a G5 powerbook (a year+ away?) if you need one. Just buy the current powerbook and enjoy it. It's the best laptopt apple has ever produced.



jindrich.

[osxisfun]

awesome review.

thanks.

do you hook it up to external lcds?

do you compile stuff? xcode gcc?

[hldan]

Originally posted by osxisfun:
awesome review.

thanks.

do you hook it up to external lcds?

do you compile stuff? xcode gcc?

Suprisingly enough after that extremly long review in which I wouldn't take time to read he didn't mention doing any of that...

[osxisfun]

so i don't get it, what's the point of your response?

In the grand scheme of the universe is it possible that he does those things and simply did not post it?

are you saying this is impossible?

do you know for a fact he does not do this?

[jindrich]

Originally posted by hldan:
Suprisingly enough after that extremly long review in which I wouldn't take time to read he didn't mention doing any of that...

well, i dont compile anymore. was tired of having to learn a new langauge every month. the only "coding" i do now is html/xml/javscript/css..

regarding external screens, i've never used one because i'm always on the move (planes). Have a 17" crt here, which i may try to hook up tomorrow.

bis bald.

[osxisfun]

thank you jindrich for responding.

I am in the middle of thinking of switching to a 15" 1.67 powerbook for mobility reasons and your review gave me food for thought...

[iREZ]

Originally posted by jindrich:
I'm a Pro and do use many Top Professional and cpu taxing applications, like Microsoft Word, iPhoto and Garageband, but also some other simpler, less demanding stuff like Photoshop, Logic 7 Pro, Illustrator, cinema4D, Excel, Dreamweaver.. etc. Wait, Dreamweaver should go into the first category...

I'm no pro.....yet, but iPhoto, Garageband, and Word (maybe) are not pro applications. Did you get the demanding stuff confused with the not so demanding stuff? If you didn't than the rest of this review is rather pointless to read.

[EmilioA.]

he's right the non pro apps such as garage band, iMovie are very cpu-demanding. Have you ever tried Logic, it's much more light, also Final cut express is snappier than iMovie. I don't know why but maybe the gui, the optimization.....


Anyway good review

[iREZ]

You can't honestly say that iPhoto is a pro app and Photoshop isn't, or is less demanding....could you? I mean I don't use iPhoto other than storing my photos somewhere but I don't think iPhoto is more taxing than huge PS file.

[jindrich]

about the "Pro and cpu taxings apps", being Word, garageband and iphoto...

i was just being SARCASTIC. It's a joke that those entry level apps (a word processor is not rocket science, btw), are SOO cpu demandig, when the REAL pro apps (logic, photoshop, fcp ...etc) are VERY well optimized.

for instance, remember the PR? "BBEdit doesn't suck" (...memory, resources... ;-) Dreamweaver though runs slow as molasses, much worse than on a PC. Funny that Macromedia (macromind) started as a mac-only company ages ago. (i've been using macs for a while. started on 1988, with a Mac SE/30 and a IIfx. anyone here remeber those? Motorolas 68000 at 2mhz? 1MB of ram chips that costed like a current ipod photo...)

anyway, i just wanted to throw some humour into the review.

[Agent69]

I want to thank you for your review. It obviously took some time to write all that up.

[TailsToo]

Thanks for the very complete review!!

[jindrich]

Originally posted by Agent69:
I want to thank you for your review. It obviously took some time to write all that up.

your welcome :-)
i started writing it 20 hours after receiving the powerbook. I finished it yesterday, 5 days later. After the initial paragraphs, I went on adding and adding new comments till i got sick of it, and though about forgetting it as i wasn't capable of putting an end to it.

I only finished it as a "personal dare" and a writing exercise. English is only my third language (out of 4). oh, and i wrote it on text edit, without spell checking

[asxless]

Originally posted by jindrich:
...I only finished it as a "personal dare" and a writing exercise. English is only my third language (out of 4). oh, and i wrote it on text edit, without spell checking

Thanks for the detailed review. I've had my new 1.67Mhz AlBook for a few weeks and still found your experiences interesting.

The only differnece that I have noted is that my AlBook came with an 80 GB Hitachi HTS541080G9AT00. It is the quietest HD I have had in a PowerBook (over a dozen so far).

FWIW I would never have guessed that English was not your 1st language. If I tried to write a review of my PowerBook in my 3rd language it would have been a little shorter... like, " Das ist gut"

-- asxless in iLand

[jindrich]

Originally posted by asxless:
Thanks for the detailed review. I've had my new 1.67Mhz AlBook for a few weeks and still found your experiences interesting.

The only differnece that I have noted is that my AlBook came with an 80 GB Hitachi HTS541080G9AT00. It is the quietest HD I have had in a PowerBook (over a dozen so far).

FWIW I would never have guessed that English was not your 1st language. If I tried to write a review of my PowerBook in my 3rd language it would have been a little shorter... like, " Das ist gut"

-- asxless in iLand

you've got an hitachi and i got a fujitsu. Is yours running at 5400 too? mine is a "FUJITSU MHT2080AH" from about this computer.
I though possible that apple could be shipping powerbooks with different HD brands, like it's already doing with ipods. Thus the difference in user's perceived sound levels. I think my previous 1.25, which was quieter, had an hitachi, but i'm talking just from memory.
Are my descriptions and comments very far from your experiences with your new powerbook?

PS: thank you for your compliments about my english :-). it's great to be able to speak many languages, isn't it? �brigens, mein Deutsch (vierte Sprache) ist auch noch nicht so gut um ein gutes Review zu schreiben. Gar nicht.

[asxless]

Originally posted by jindrich:
...Are my descriptions and comments very far from your experiences with your new powerbook?

PS: thank you for your compliments about my english :-). it's great to be able to speak many languages, isn't it? �brigens, mein Deutsch (vierte Sprache) ist auch noch nicht so gut um ein gutes Review zu schreiben. Gar nicht.

ROTFLOL My German is so weak that I could barely read, let alone write your followup

Everything you covered in your review conforms to my experiences except the HD drive noise issue and the wavy screen. Maybe I just haven't seen the wavy screen issue yet.

FWIW Hitachi markets the HTS541080G9AT00 as an 80 GB "Travelstar 5K100".

http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techl...256EBA00749D6D

The pdf datasheet lists it as a "Parallel ATA - 6" drive running at 5400 RPM. BTW the pdf also contains a description of "How to Read the Travelstar Model Number" ...
HTS541010G9AT00 = 100GB/8MB
H = Hitachi
T = Travelstar
S = Standard (E = Enhanced Availability)
54 = 5400 RPM
10 = Full capacity - 100GB
10 = Capacity this model 10 =100GB (80 = 80GB, 60 = 60GB, 40 = 40GB)
G = Generation code
9 = 9.5mm z - height
AT = ATA interface (SA = Serial ATA interface)
0 = Reserved
0 = Reserved

-- asxless in iLand

[Lukas]

Originally posted by jindrich:
English is only my third language (out of 4)

Podle jm�na soud�m, ze toto je tvuj matersky jazyk, ze...?
Tedy d�k za recensi, uz se tes�m na muj novy PB, mel by dorazit do dvou tydnu.

Pozdrav z Basileje
Luk�s

[jindrich]

Originally posted by Lukas:
Podle jm�na soud�m, ze toto je tvuj matersky jazyk, ze...?
Tedy d�k za recensi, uz se tes�m na muj novy PB, mel by dorazit do dvou tydnu.

Pozdrav z Basileje
Luk�s

Ahoj Lukas, jak se mate?
i'm using the czech version of my name but i'm not czech, although I've been living in the Czech Republik for some time (guess why. A hint, surname ends with "...chova" ).
Anyway, when i started studying German i forgot all the little Czech i had learnt.

BTW, are you Luke? this very nice guy i first met in Roxy in Praha more than a year ago, who was ultra excited for the new G4 powermac he had just bought? The same guy who listens to great music: Royksopp, Moloko, Doves and KHOIBA?

[Lukas]

Originally posted by jindrich:
i'm using the czech version of my name but i'm not czech

Oh...

A hint, surname ends with "...chova"

Oh!

Anyway, when i started studying German i forgot all the little Czech i had learnt.

My wife is Swiss and she wants to go to learn Czech - an expensive 4-week course in Prague. I keep on telling her that it's a waste of money because I prefer to speak German with her anyway, to make sure that she really understands what I want to say...
Czech is a very difficult language for non-slavics (besides of all non-indo-german speakers anyway). Once you have started to learn you need to keep on using it, otherwise it will get lost.

BTW, are you Luke? this very nice guy i first met in Roxy in Praha more than a year ago, who was ultra excited for the new G4 powermac he had just bought? The same guy who listens to great music: Royksopp, Moloko, Doves and KHOIBA?

No, I'm not. But coincidentally, I used to be called Luke by my classmates while being in school in Prague some 25 years ago. I recall it was because the Lucky Luke cartoon was a big hit then.
Of course I know Roxy though. And I have two Moloko records (vinyl!).
(Hehe, we're getting a little OT now, aren't we...?)

[cenutrio]

Impressive review, hopefully I'll upgrade my old TiPB 400 1GB RAM/5,400 HD soon...

However, just wanted to say hi.....y felicitarte por vivir en un sitio tan maravilloso como Mallorca. La ultima vez que estuve all� (1996) lo pas� genial. Pocos sitios mejores que la bahia de Palma para navegar.

(prety much I congratulated him for living in such a paradisiac island (Mallorca) a beauty... sailing is really great too!)


Have fun :-)

[k2director]

Thanks for the review. I also have the original 1.25Ghz Alu and am waiting for delivery on my new 1.67MHz.

[stukdog]

That was a great review. Thanks. My sole reason of upgrading from my 1.25 is because I want the bigger hard drive. I always seem to be running out of space with my 80GB.

[TailsToo]

Originally posted by stukdog:
That was a great review. Thanks. My sole reason of upgrading from my 1.25 is because I want the bigger hard drive. I always seem to be running out of space with my 80GB.

Well, you could have bought a portable HD for much less!

[workerbee]

Originally posted by asxless:
If I tried to write a review of my PowerBook in my 3rd language it would have been a little shorter... like, " Das ist gut"

Actually, that's a rather nice PB review. Almost everything that needs to be told is in there. Well said!

[photoeditor]

Which TiBook did you have that made all the fan and heat noise? I have the late 2002 1GHz (revision D) and I get the feeling it is less obnoxious than any of the three that preceded it, but not nearly as good as the AluBooks. I'm taking an interest again because my warranty will be up in December and I am trying to prepare for any replacement contingency.

[TailsToo]

Originally posted by photoeditor:
Which TiBook did you have that made all the fan and heat noise? I have the late 2002 1GHz (revision D) and I get the feeling it is less obnoxious than any of the three that preceded it, but not nearly as good as the AluBooks. I'm taking an interest again because my warranty will be up in December and I am trying to prepare for any replacement contingency.

I had the same one... the new 1.67 is silent compared to that TI.

[jindrich]

Originally posted by photoeditor:
Which TiBook did you have that made all the fan and heat noise? I have the late 2002 1GHz (revision D) and I get the feeling it is less obnoxious than any of the three that preceded it, but not nearly as good as the AluBooks. I'm taking an interest again because my warranty will be up in December and I am trying to prepare for any replacement contingency.

hi photoeditor,
i originally had the 550mhz ti, wich got TOO hot to the touch very easily, specially during summer. I could not watch a DVD wearing shorts. The fans turned on as soon as the cpu reached 40% cpu load or so -that is, anything other than textedit, and were really loud.

later on (last fall) i used during two weeks the 1gz ti model -while my alu was being repaired, and its fans were quieter than the 550 model, but it run them quite often, while my alu did almost never. It was irritating going back from the silent alu to the 1ghz ti, during those 2 weeks.


on another topic, i've discovered i had airport enabled since the fisrt day. knowing airport to be a noticeable battery drainer, i should test batt time with it disabled. stay tuned.

oh, more data. the scrolling touchpad doesnt seem to work well with firefox. when scrolling up a page too much, it jumps back to previous loaded pages. 3 at a time!

[Kyros]

I believe many people are having toble with firefox, I think a fix is out there though.

[stukdog]

Originally posted by TailsToo:
Well, you could have bought a portable HD for much less!

I don't like to be tethered to a desk with a portable HD. I like all my stuff with me all the time.

[asxless]

Originally posted by jindrich:
...oh, more data. the scrolling touchpad doesnt seem to work well with firefox. when scrolling up a page too much, it jumps back to previous loaded pages. 3 at a time!

Search this forum (and possibly the Apple PowerBook forum) for the solution. I don't rememebr the details but essentially you disable _horizontal_ scrolling in FireFox to keep it from jumping back a few pages. Works fine now

-- asxless in iLand

[zzimbob]

Originally posted by jindrich:
on another topic, i've discovered i had airport enabled since the fisrt day. knowing airport to be a noticeable battery drainer, i should test batt time with it disabled. stay tuned.

In addition to letting us know how it affects battery time, could you comment on the Airport reception compared to your previous Powerbooks?

Much appreciated.

[Scallywag]

Originally posted by jindrich:
about the "Pro and cpu taxings apps", being Word, garageband and iphoto...

i was just being SARCASTIC. It's a joke that those entry level apps (a word processor is not rocket science, btw), are SOO cpu demandig, when the REAL pro apps (logic, photoshop, fcp ...etc) are VERY well optimized.

I got the joke. A very funny one.

iPhotos is a CPU-hogging POS.

[gjas18]

I've had basically the same powerbook for about 2 weeks except i got the extra 512MB installed by apple and i got the 100GB drive (Its a Seagate by the way) and a combo drive instead of the superdrive. the screen seems to be bent slightly, the left bumper touches the base while the right doesnt. Battery life seems to be decent i seem to get around 3hrs with airport on and light cpu tasks (this is a peeve of mine with apple... they need add a little weight to this thing and put a higher capacity battery in) anywa i love it and very anxious to see what what core video and core image will do for battery life..

oh and the updated version of firefox fixs the trackpad issue


I almost forgot... the fans dont seem to come on during normal light use but if i do anything putting the cpu over 50% usage for more than a minute or so they kick on... but the only reason i know they do is I have a little program called temperox and itll tell me the speed of the two fans... after about 20 mins of unreal tournament 2004 with the detail cranked both fans are spinning at around 2000rpm and they are still barely audible over the slight HD whine and after abou 2-5 mins they are off again

[ashley_easter]

I've had my 15" 1.67 GHz PowerBook (Standard + 512 MB = 1 GB total RAM) for two weeks and two days now and, aside from it being fairly hot, especially when charging or under high CPU usage, there are no major issues at all. Yeah, it still has that new-laptop smell. The optical drive and HD make some interesting noises when 'awoken', but they're nothing to worry about. The system is really snappy, beats my iMac by miles in terms of responsiveness.

I've not encountered any crashes of any kind, a few spinning beach-balls occasionally, but nothing at all worrying. There is a bit of a warping of the base of the PowerBook, on known flat-surfaces there is about a millimeter of movement between the bottom-left corner and the desk. It can wobble a bit when typing, but I've become accustomed to it. The backlit keyboard is sensational! The ambient light sensors can be a bit too responsive sometimes, a hand when typing can make the screen dim when lighting is dull, or if you cast a strong shadow over the grille.

Aside from all of that, the battery lasts between 4 and 2 hours, depending on what you're doing. Encoding a DVD wasted the battery in about 2:10, but with Bluetooth and AirPort off, the screen dimmed to an average level, still very usable and Energy Saver set to reduced processor and just using iTunes, iPhoto, Word and stuff like that you'll get very close to 4:00, maybe 4:15. I get about 3:20 per charge normally, which is fine IMO.

A good buy, it performs really well, better general response than say a 1.6 GHz G5 iMac, but this has 4 times the memory so that's not too fair. Plus you get all the extras and portability. Really good.

[kaoru]

2 weeks ago, I also just bought a 15� 1.67 powerbook. Same config as the original post (except that my extra ram is new). I had a 800mhz t-book before this and I must say the new machine is quite a bit faster at almost everything. No major issues, though my 80g Hitachi drive is a little bit loud at times especially waking from sleep.


To contribute to the ongoing discussion, I do have it connected to an external 17inch Phillips LCD monitor (through the DVI to VGA). I picked up the monitor at Surcouf a few days after I got the new powerbook (I do a lot of language translation so it is good to have the original text in one screen and my translation in another). After 2 minutes of messing with the settings, the monitor is working quite well, and the image is much crisper than my old CRT (but not as crisp as the pbooks screen). The only thing I�ve noticed negatively about the set up is that it slightly increases application crashes. The most recent when my girlfriend was running SimCity and the program wasn�t sure which monitor it was on. Leading to a program freeze and eventual unexpected quit. However, all that said overall it works quite well. (I�d be happy to answer any questions about it.)

Also, I have noted that the airport reception seems to be very slightly worse than my last machine. I have them both sitting next to each other on the desk and I get full bars from the old one and only only 3 from the new. I've tried swapping positions and changing angles but it changes nothing. Not sure if the airport connect bars are the most meaningful measure...

[theduffsronme]

iPhotos is a CPU-hogging POS. [/B]

Wow. I use both pro and consumer apps, and I think iPhoto is great for what it is. Do you have a photo cataloging alternative that doesn't hog the CPU?

[macdaemon]

Originally posted by jindrich:
Nothing's changed here. They still smell so much to this Apple's trademark "new machine" flavour, that actually i got a very nice headache yesterday, after many hours of non-stopping use. This smell surely fills a whole room -you can tell when there's a new Mac laptop on the house just by the smell, and it takes around 1 month to dissapear. Once it does, you certainly miss it.
I'd say Apple sprays some kind of addictive drug on the aluminium surface before packing them up, so you're on the need of buying/updating your laptop every 1-2 months, just to get your dosis. Clever, very Jobs indeed.

Nice review, I like this part very much!
Smell of Apple brand new mac's makes me crazy too.
I always was wondering why they smell like this, it's really
addicted smell. Do you have guys the same feeling, or it's just I have some mental problems? ))
Do they put some drugs that addict you to the Macs?
Really strange, smell, probably somebody from U.S. gov. should do some research about this drug.
P.S. Do you have a mobile phone with Bluetooth? I suppose you do, could you tell about compatability of the new version of Bluetooth 2 and old devices. I suppose there is no phones on the market yet with 2.0 version but how does apps works with the old Bluetooth devices?

[jindrich]

hey, i made it to the "cover" of macnn ;-)

thank you all for the compliments. Truth is, that i really enjoyed writing that, although i got slightly tiresome at the end.

review updates:

-having the airport switched off i gained around 10 mins of battery.

-i was watching a DVD yesterday (laptop unplugged from a/c) and the HD stopped spinning, dont know how long but at least for quite a while. That's great and makes lotsa sense, because when you watch a movie you dont need the HD or any other thing working. Thus your battery will last longer.

-have not tested airport deeply, but it appears to work just like my previous 1.25. Both being much better than the titaniums i had.

-Fans haven't turned on yet. Not while burning a DVD or transferring files, or even with cpu at 100% charge for a minute.



i dont have a bluetooth cellphone right now therefore cannot test bluetooth2. I frequently drop or loose my phones, and as i need a "liberated" one to use a different SIMM wherever I am, just bought a cheap nokia in germany after my previuous cellphone died 2 months ago.
Looking forward to the new sony K750 though. This can be the one. Better keyboard than the k700 (reason i returned it), memory slot up to 1GB to play mp3 and AAC, and 2mpx camera. Of course it will sync with Macs, well hoffenlich.


i LOVE this new Powerbook! best mac i ever had.

PS: odd, safari crashed when posting this. tried to undone soemthing i wrote in the posting box with "command+z", and it crashed-closed.
btw, why does safari "save as pdf" take twice the size in MBs as Firefox? (and firefox doesnt break the images when they dont fit, it puts them on the next page)

[macdaemon]

It's kind tough to decide to upgrade from Al 1.25 to 1.67.
I was thinking about this upgrade since Apple released new Al version, but didn't decide yet. Probably will wait for some real changes, like dual core cpu would be perfect to have this summer.

[jindrich]

Originally posted by macdaemon:
It's kind tough to decide to upgrade from Al 1.25 to 1.67.
I was thinking about this upgrade since Apple released new Al version, but didn't decide yet. Probably will wait for some real changes, like dual core cpu would be perfect to have this summer.

well, honestly i don't think the upgrade is worth it, unless you desperately need DVD + R/RW compatibility and you can sell the powerbook at a very high price. And even then, you'll loose quite a sum (my new 1.25 costed �600 more than the current new 1.67)

Wait for the G5 powerbook if you already have the 1.25.


on another matter, i added some comments to the last -third, part of my review. Moslty updates about new foundings.

[ashley_easter]

Originally posted by macdaemon:
P.S. Do you have a mobile phone with Bluetooth? I suppose you do, could you tell about compatability of the new version of Bluetooth 2 and old devices. I suppose there is no phones on the market yet with 2.0 version but how does apps works with the old Bluetooth devices?

Well I have a Sony Ericsson__T610 which I sync everyday with Addressbook and iCal, and send photos from it to iPhoto, and there've been no issues. It also works with Salling Clicker just as well. I'd have to say that it seems as though things transfer faster, maybe because now there's only the one bottleneck at my phone?

[galactusofmyth]

Thanks for the review. Well done.

[SierraDragon]

Originally posted by theduffsronme:
Wow. I use both pro and consumer apps, and I think iPhoto is great for what it is. Do you have a photo cataloging alternative that doesn't hog the CPU?

Extensis Portfolio, iView Media Pro and Canto's Cumulus all work well and each vendor makes full demos available. You have to test to see which works with your workflow, because there are significant workflow differences. I own them all but have not found one that suits me perfectly (60k+ images), but so far Portfolio v7 is my preference.

iPhoto is fine as a free app buy it sucks in comparison to professional image database apps.

[Garage81]

thanks for your detailed review.

im typing this on my new 15" pbook, and i cant even audibly tell the thing is on, its so quiet.

[ciparis]

Originally posted by iREZ:
I'm no pro.....yet, but iPhoto, Garageband, and Word (maybe) are not pro applications. Did you get the demanding stuff confused with the not so demanding stuff? If you didn't than the rest of this review is rather pointless to read.

Snobbish and clueless about CPU use at the same time, with a finishing flourish of rudeness. Well done. What forum is this again? Starting to sound like Rage3D...

[Garage81]

Originally posted by ciparis:
Snobbish and clueless about CPU use at the same time, with a finishing flourish of rudeness. Well done. What forum is this again? Starting to sound like Rage3D...

'

i enjoyed his review, and could easily pick up, and appreciate, the sarcasm i guess a few innocent people, completely ignorant of sarcasm, are still left in this world?

[dantewaters]

Originally posted by jindrich:
hey, i made it to the "cover" of macnn ;-)

thank you all for the compliments. Truth is, that i really enjoyed writing that, although i got slightly tiresome at the end.

review updates:

-having the airport switched off i gained around 10 mins of battery.

-i was watching a DVD yesterday (laptop unplugged from a/c) and the HD stopped spinning, dont know how long but at least for quite a while. That's great and makes lotsa sense, because when you watch a movie you dont need the HD or any other thing working. Thus your battery will last longer.

-have not tested airport deeply, but it appears to work just like my previous 1.25. Both being much better than the titaniums i had.

-Fans haven't turned on yet. Not while burning a DVD or transferring files, or even with cpu at 100% charge for a minute.



i dont have a bluetooth cellphone right now therefore cannot test bluetooth2. I frequently drop or loose my phones, and as i need a "liberated" one to use a different SIMM wherever I am, just bought a cheap nokia in germany after my previuous cellphone died 2 months ago.
Looking forward to the new sony K750 though. This can be the one. Better keyboard than the k700 (reason i returned it), memory slot up to 1GB to play mp3 and AAC, and 2mpx camera. Of course it will sync with Macs, well hoffenlich.


i LOVE this new Powerbook! best mac i ever had.

PS: odd, safari crashed when posting this. tried to undone soemthing i wrote in the posting box with "command+z", and it crashed-closed.
btw, why does safari "save as pdf" take twice the size in MBs as Firefox? (and firefox doesnt break the images when they dont fit, it puts them on the next page)

loved your review... helped a lot and made me realize what I'd actually be getting. Thanks

[iREZ]

Originally posted by ciparis:

Snobbish and clueless about CPU use at the same time, with a finishing flourish of rudeness. Well done. What forum is this again? Starting to sound like Rage3D...

I don't see how my comment was clueless....those aren't pro applications. Sure they're CPU taxing, but that hardly warrants them being called Pro Apps. I understood what he meant but whatever...poke fun all you want...you guys are soo much cooler than I am anyway, I'll stay ignorant. By the way, try really using Photoshop other than editing snapshots, then run iPhoto and you tell me which is more demanding.