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Apple Archive

Nice as They Are, PowerBooks Still Have Some Room for Improvement

- 2004.03.12

I guess it was April of last year that I purchased my 12" PowerBook G4, replacing my 15" Titanium G4 running at 400 MHz. It's hard to believe that I've had the 12" for almost a year, but I guess time goes by fast.

Now that I've had considerable experience using it, I've gotten very used to it. I know its little quirks, how long before the battery will start getting worn down, and when it's going to start getting warm under the palm rests.

I don't expect that my comments here will improve my machine, but perhaps they will help Apple when it comes to designing new PowerBooks.

Since the G5 has been out for a while, people have been speculating that Apple will start using those chips in PowerBooks at some point - and they probably will. My question is, if my 12" PowerBook G4 gets hot, how hot will the PowerBook G5 get? I'm not sure if I even want to know. Apple better make it run fairly cool, otherwise people will be returning the machines like mad, and then word will get out and sales could drop significantly.

The next concern is battery life. I get roughly 3 hours from my 12" PowerBook, which is perfect for me. I can get through all of my classes with it, and I usually still have about 45 minutes of running time left after the end of a school day. This is absolutely perfect for me, as I can go home, add any comments I need to add to class notes, and then charge the computer's battery.

Unfortunately, for the one 17" PowerBook user our school has, the battery only makes it through about two classes before it dies. I would laugh about it - him spending $3,000+ on a computer only that doesn't even last through the day on battery power - but it's really not funny.

For what the 17" PowerBook costs, you'd expect at least a 3-hour battery life, if not longer. I've still got the poster for the original PowerBook G4: 1" thick, 5.3 pounds, DVD, 5 hour batteryÖ. See, "5 hour battery."

Okay, so it doesn't actually last for 5 hours (mine lasted about 3.5), but it's certainly better than the current 17" PowerBook's battery life.

How about the iBook? From what I hear, the G3 iBook's battery life was fairly good, a little bit longer than my 12" PowerBook. That's to be expected considering the lower power demands of the G3 processor. Since I haven't used and don't know anyone who uses a G4 iBook, I can't compare that.

Apple needs to make sure that its portables have good enough battery life. If you spend $3,500, you don't want a 2-hour battery. You can get two hours out of a PowerBook 540c; you'd expect something a bit better out of a modern PowerBook, even though it does have a larger screen, a faster processor, and an internal CD drive.

Little performance quirks are also an issue. After not playing any sound for a while, my G4 PowerBook's audio system seems to go to sleep. When you want to play an MP3 file, or, just before a system alert would sound, the machine makes an annoyingly audible "pop." This is a small issue, but it drives me insane, so much so that I leave the sound muted at all times. It should be an option in System Preferences whether you want the audio system to shut off to save power, and I think Apple should address this on the newer PowerBooks (if it hasn't already been done on the 1 GHz 12" PowerBook G4).

The machine also takes a very long time to open up the Applications folder and display all of the files in that folder. This shouldn't be an issue on an 867 MHz G4. Most likely this is an OS issue, as I recall the listing of Applications being slightly faster under Jaguar. Maybe the 10.3.3 update will fix this - one can only hope.

The last issue is the hinge. For a while there were no issues: It was completely silent. This past summer, however, it started making creaking noises while opening and closing the screen. The screen still stays open fine, stays closed fine, and works just as well as it ever did, except for the slightly annoying noise. I simply can't live without the computer long enough to have it fixed, provided Apple would even fix this, which they might regard as "cosmetic" since it doesn't affect the performance of the machine.

Given that mine was one of the earlier production models, I can't expect it to be as perfect as a later version. But when it comes to designing a PowerBook G5, Apple should look back at the annoyances that plagued users of previous models and make sure they are eliminated in the new one.

After all, there are will probably be a whole new set of annoyances present in the first G5 PowerBooks - to be eliminated in the Rev. 2 models.

Recent Apple Archive articles

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More in the Apple Archive index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 17" MacBook Pro Core Duo, Apr. 2006 - The top-end MacBook Pro includes a 1680 x 1050, 2.16 GHz Core Duo CPU, and supports Apple 30" Cinema Display.
Group of the Day: G4 List is for those using Power Mac G4s or G4 upgrades.
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Recent Deals

Best iPod nano Deals, 11.25. Refurb 8 GB 4G nano, $99; new, $126; refurb 16 GB, $129; new, $150; new 5G/8 GB, $134.60; 16 GB, $161.12. Shipping included.
Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 11.25. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
Best 15" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.25. Used 1 GHz Combo, $400; 1.5 GHz SuperDrive, $449; 1.67 GHz hi-res, $600.
Best G4 iMac Deals, 11.24. Used 15" 700 MHz CD-RW, $150; 800 MHz Combo, $229; 1 GHz, $289; 17" 1.25 GHz, $200; 20" 1.25 GHz, $509.
Best MacBook Air Deals, 11.24. Used from $899; refurb from $1,099; new 1.6 GHz/120 HD, $1,150 after rebate; 1.8/64 SSD, $1,150 a/r; 1.86/128 SSD, $1,350 a/r; 2.13/128 SSD, $1,694 a/r.
Best PowerBook G3 Deals, 11.24. Used 233 MHz WallStreet, $75; 266 MHz, $160; 400 MHz Lombard, $199; 400 MHz Pismo, $289; 500 MHz, $350.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.23. Used 867 MHz SuperDrive, $348; 1 GHz Combo, $379; SD, $519; 1.33 GHz, $529; 1.5 GHz Combo, $549; SuperDrive, $609.
Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.23. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 4-core. $1,919; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.93 8-core, $4,999; new 2.26 8-core, $2,290.
Best Time Capsule and AirPort Deals, 11.23. Used 802.11g AirPort Extreme, $49; 500 GB Time Capsule, $150; new, $190; 1 TB dual-band, $280; 2 TB, $469; 802.11n AirPort Extreme, $170.
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