Likes:

• Backlit keyboard: It’s useful, but really it’s just fun to show off.
• Performance: Feels much snappier than my iBook. A lot of that feeling probably comes from the beefier graphics card as well as the faster G4.
• Display: the 1440×960 display is excellent. Some complain of visual lines. If these lines exist, I don’t see them, nor have I met anyone who can.
• The looks and weight: compared to a co-workers 15″ Dell, this PowerBook is sexier and weighs some three pounds less.
• Full DVI Port: When at my desk at home, I run an external Dell 2005FPW flat panel. Having a full DVI port right there is very handy.
• 80GB hard drive: I edit a handful of home movies. I had to struggle with the iBook’s
• 40GB drive to have enough space for editing the current “film” on the local disk. FireWire 800: I don’t have a use for FW800, but when I didn’t have it with the iBook I wanted it (yes, that’s just stupid).

Dislikes:

• Battery life: The other night I was working for my day job from home. I had the screen’s brightness way down (two bars) and I was only running a handful of xterms and a remote desktop session. The PowerBook itself was just there for display purposes, nothing CPU intensive. I got about 3 1/2 hours out of it before it cried for more juice. I’ve purposefully cycled the battery five times now, following Apple’s instructions. It seems to have gotten a little better, but I’m looking for 4+ hours. Apple touts 5 1/2 hours on these new PowerBooks and my iBook got at least 4. Yes, I’m whining about 1/2 an hour.
• The casing: The iBook’s polycarbonate plastic felt sturdier and seemed to either hide, or resist scratches better. I think they should do PowerBook’s with the polycarbonate but in the new “iPod black”. I realize Dell and friends ship standard black hardware, but imagine that polished plastic black. If anyone could pull it off, it’d be Apple.
• Single button trackpad: I’m not holding my breath and I’ve certainly adapted accordingly, but it’d be nice to be right click. This comes in to play a lot for those of us with little ones. If I have to right click one-handed (due to one of my offspring being in the other hand) it’s doable, but it’s a good stretch from the ctrl to the trackpad.
• Restrictive serviceability: Apple does a good job making it’s hardware look nice. The underside of a Dell is very lumpy and full of all sorts of things to pull out. The bottom of my PowerBook has a removable plate to get at the member and a removable battery. Really the only thing I feel I’d ever need to get to is the hard drive. If that thing goes I have no idea how to get at it to replace it. I guess that’s why they sell us AppleCare. I hate it when I realize stuff like that.

I like it. It does it’s job very well.

What the Jo(h)n’s are saying:

• Jon Hicks: he’s had four die on him. Not good. I feel fortunate.
• John Gruber: He gives a much more thorough review than I do here (read it, it’s enjoyable). He likes. It was Gruber’s review that convinced me to drop the tower+iBook and go for the one laptop to rule them all.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 3rd, 2005 at 11:37 pm and is filed under Apple, Hardware, Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.