15″ Aluminum PowerBook G4

The 15" PowerBook moved from titanium to aluminum in September 2003. This brought a unified look to the PowerBook line, as the 12" and 17" models were already aluminum. It also addressed one of the biggest failings of titanium PowerBooks - horrible AirPort range due to the titanium blocking much of the WiFi signal.

The first generation AlBookstarted where the TiBook left off with a 1 GHz entry-level model with a Combo drive and a 1.25 GHz top-end model with a SuperDrive.

These were replaced by an updated model in April 2004. This time the entry-level PowerBook ran at 1.33 GHz while the deluxe version sprinted along at 1.5 GHz.

Come January 2005, and Apple upped the ante once again. The 2005 PowerBooks zipped along at 1.5 GHz and 1.67 GHz - the highest clock speed G4 CPU ever built into an Apple computer.

The final revision of the 15" Aluminum PowerBook was launched in October 2005, just two months before the Intel transition began. It also ran at 1.67 GHz, but it had a higher resolution display - 1440 x 960 pixels vs. 1280 x 854 in earlier models. This was also the only 15" PowerBook to use PC4200 DDR memory.

The 15" PowerBook was replaced by the first 15" MacBook Pro in February 2006, bringing an end to the PowerBook era. (Apple had first used the PowerBook name in October 1991, when the first three PowerBooks were introduced.)