“It’s possible to mistake Apple Computer’s new 12-inch PowerBook G4 for its own manual — the foam envelope that protects the laptop in the box is only a little longer and wider than the plastic pouch for the documentation. About 11 inches wide, 85/8 inches deep and less than a quarter-inch thick, this PowerBook is the smallest laptop Apple has ever built, and at 4.6 pounds it’s almost its lightest.” Read the pretty good review at WashingtonPost. Expect my review this week too.
A PowerBook That Would Make Rodin Proud
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
like that some time ago powerbooks came with a line-in for quick and dirty hard-disk recording. and stuff like that.
This article touched on the little things that most reviewers don’t pay attention to. It may be that the reviewer is a PC user, too, so maybe that’s why he looked for a delete button and PC card slots. Do any Apple laptops offer PC Card slots or are they just “PC” add-ons? The Apple Newton uses PC Cards…
Still doesn’t sound like a machine for me… too much moolah for so little option. But that’s me. I bet a lot of people will adore this thing.
We will say the truth. As always.
I mean, I paid for this machine. It is not that I never asked for it.
So much for proofreading. At “less than a quarter-inch thick”, man, how does it take a DVD? That’s one thin hard drive and display!
This is pretty obvious. but they made a big typo in the first paragraph. The PB is *not* less than a quarter of an inch thick 🙂 It’s a little less than an inch and one quarter thick.
Only major gripe with the review is that he misses all the bundled software and says it comes with little more than Jaguar.
Besides that it’s a pretty nice review.
Looking forward to what Eugenia will say of her new PowerBook
Mine is still some two weeks away…
I have a 12″ PowerBook with SuperDrive and this review is pretty good. Aside from the typo in the first paragraph about the thickness of it, it was only at the end that the review sort tails off. He seems to indicate a lack of software…but you get all the iApps, which would get anyone off to a good start. There is a demo of Office that comes with it, but, lol, full blown free verions of Office have never, ever come with any Apple computer. So, it is odd he is surprised by this. He also mentions the USB ports being only 1.1, but I don’t recall him mentioning the Firewire port. I’ll have to go back and look.
He mentions Firewire on the second page. I think he missed the MS Office demo somehow indeed.
I agree with him on the heat issue. The 12″ Powerbook is toast… I find that to be its worst part.
The best part is the excellent keyboard it has…
I want to buy a laptop, and, why not giving a mac a try ? The price fot the 12″ is very affordable, for a MAC, but… Isn’t 12″ too small ?
Is is mostly for work ( programming stuff on a linux, etc… ), so this point bugs me a little.
It seems that no one in the Apple world will even go near an actual performance benchmark anymore. How fast is the runt of the tiBook litter? With the absence of the 1MB L3 cache, how does the little book handle the heft of OS X?
I thought the reviewer stayed far away from the normal set of Apple problems, though he mention that the built-in drive was sub-par for burning CD-ROMs.
Having used the new tiBook at the Apple Store, I couldn’t imagine spending top dollar for a machine that is grindingly slow and doesn’t offer any sort of real “instant on” to boost usability. The keyboard is slightly better than the iBook, but still not up to par with any of the better PC laptop keyboards.
The author also didn’t mention that the 12.1″ tiBook is about 20% thicker than a normal tiBook. Sometimes vertical height is far more important than saving 1-2 pounds of weight.
And the author also neglected that a very nice feature of the larger tiBooks — DVI out — was omitted from the little tiBook. That means no cool LCD subpixel anti-aliasing on the external monitor or DVI-equipped LCD projector. As almost all new projectors are coming with DVI these days, it’s a shame to not have this sort of output on the laptop.
It does look nice, though.
–ms
Do any Apple laptops offer PC Card slots or are they just “PC” add-ons?
Yep, my 15.2″ Powerbook does, though I haven’t found the need to plug anything into it. Only possibility at some point will be 802.11g (Airport Extreme) if I find the need for it… and if I want to do that, it will have to be a 3rd party card because it’s unlikely that Apple will offer a Carbus card equivalent of their new card (which is MiniPCI by the way). At this point though, the 11Mbps from 802.11b is good enough for me… if I need anything faster, I can just plug into my 100MBps ethernet network and I’m all set.
> I want to buy a laptop, and, why not giving a mac a try ? > > The price fot the 12″ is very affordable, for a MAC, but… > Isn’t 12″ too small ?
They also offer a 15 inch and a 17 inch widescreen model.
Check around in mac forums for benchmarks. I trust user benchmarking more than I do most of these reviewers. So far, I’ve seen benchmarks from tons of users that it performs pretty well considering the cache. There was one review testing against an iMac and others against the Ti867.
As for DVI, where are they gonna put it? That thing is not that big to add every feature on the market. That is why you move up to the next model. They have a range of 3 models to choose from, so basically… get in where you fit in. 🙂
I’ve had issues with benchmarking in XBench so I don’t bother with that as being reliable. But check out http://forums.macnn.com and http://www.macosx.com/forums/ They have a lot of reviews and benchmarks for you there in their Powerbook section. Hope that helps.
I’ve been screaming for faster processors for Macs for a whole year, so I’m no aplogist for Apple. It is not grindingly slow though at all. Over the course of time, since 10.0, the OS itself has gotten increasingly faster with 10.1 and 10.2. It is not blazingly fast, to be sure. But, for ordinary laptop use, so far I’ve found the 12″ to be okay in that department. Of the issues I have with it, really, speed isn’t one of them. As Eugenia said, heat is one, although it doesn’t bother me personally. But, I should wait until summer when I have it on my lap with shorts on and bare legs 🙂
As for 12.1 ” screen being enough, it would be good to go to a store and look at one (any 12″) to see if it’s enough for you. We’ve had a 12.1″ iBook too, so I’m used to it. The screen is beautiful and crystal clear, so it’s great in that sense. It’s so compact though for what’s in it, so easy to carry around. Although there are sub-notebooks out there that are lighter, it gets to the point where, if something’s under 5 lbs., what’s the difference? It isn’t like you’re carrying a millstone around your neck 🙂
I read this, and I could scarcely believe it: it does not come with AppleWorks? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that I would ever use AppleWorks as a replacement for Office, but what is Apple’s reasoning on not bunddling it with the computer? It’s not a huge application, I cannot take up more than 200 megabytes of hard disk space–only .5% of the total 40 GB hard drive. So, is this a mistake on the author’s part, is it only the 12″ Powerook that lacks AppleWorks, or has Apple decided not to buddle AppleWorks with the Powerbooks–or any laptops, for that matter?
Nope, no AppleWorks. Traditionally, Apple only put Appleworks on iBooks and iMacs and cheaper models. It seems that their line of thinking is “if you have the money to buy a Powerbook, you surely have $80 more to buy AppleWorks too”.
Apple only bundles AppleWorks with their consumer Macs – iMac’s, eMac’s and iBooks. I don’t know, but they may have sort of a deal with Microsoft so “professional” users will be more likely to buy Office.
I would sure like to see AppleWorks improve into something that could replace Office. If not for profit, why not to decrease Apple’s dependency on Microsoft? They’re already weaning themselves off of IE, shouldn’t Office be next? It would be a great incentive to buy a Mac, if Apple made a nice office suite only available on the Mac platform. It sure would beat the hell out of paying $300 (I don’t recall how much v.X is) on top of the $3000 you just spent on that G4 Tower and 20″ flat-panel display.
Apple has come out with Keynote, so it could be they may be coiming out with other apps that would ultimately be a full professional office package.
I got my BTO 12″ incher last Wednesday (ordered 2 hours after Macworld).
It’s pretty fast (my other mac is a B&W G3 upgraded to a G4 600 with Radeon 7000, 1 gig ram and fast drives, and the PB is noticeably faster. not like 50 percent faster though). I just have 256 mb in it. Haven’t had time to put in the 512 mb stick I bought – it’s already fine with just 256 so I’m not rushing. First I’ve been loading it up with software.
Virtual PC runs nice with XP. But I haven’t pushed it yet. Soon I will be running emagic logic on it for playing piano and synths, so I will see how fast it really is without the L3 cache (but then my upgraded B&W has no L3 and it’s fine).
Airport Extreme is f***ing awesome!!!! I have the base station in my basement. I walk all over the house, lay in my bed (two floors up) and browse the web at full DSL speed while listening to internet radio at full quality. OK, this is the best!!! From the network, I mounted the drives on my desktop mac and loaded all the software in over Airport!!! Office, photoshop, lots of MB and it did not take any longer than when I had the PB plugged in with ethernet, and I was in my bed!
I haven’t tried the DVD burner yet. I did play some DVD movies.
I think the battery life is going to max out at 3.5 or so. 5 – I don’t see how. But I have not had enough time to tell yet.
The keyboard is very nice as many have reported. No trackpad problems, but it does click loud.
The screen seems nice, but I do not have a lot of experience with different ones (my last notebook was a Powerbook 165!)
The look and quality of the case, hinge, etc. seems super, super nice to me.
It can get real hot underneath, but it also seems to cool off fast.
one more thing on the 12 inch PB. The sound quality out of the headphone jack seems very good to me. I have some HD 600 Sennheisers (awesome) and the detail is very nice. Maybe these built-in D/A converters are getting better. It sounds almost as good as my Audiophile 24/96 card in my B&W.
anyways, I like it of course. If i hadn’t want a laptop so bad, maybe I would have waited for the next revision with firewire 800, dvi out, L3 cache or faster processor, more
ram capacity, etc. etc. But I’m having too much fun for now to worry about those.
Worth the price for one feature alone – mac to mac sync. I synced my desktop address book up to .mac. Then did the same with my powerbook and it pulled in all the addresses. The methods for reconciling differences is also very well thought out.
Another surprise – this works with iCal too. All the dates on my two calendars were reconciled (although I didn’t use ical too much on the desktop because, well, it was tied to the desktop).
Also, I tried Apple desktop remote over Airport. I had no problem controlling my desktop mac in the basement from my PB 12″ upstairs. In fact, I synced the desktop address book to .mac while I was controlling it via Desktop Remote.
why does everything with Apple work so well?
at work we use HP Omnibooks. They run a Pentium 3 at 600MHz. These Notebooks get that hot, you can burn your fingers. After some hours of work, you can feel the heat on the bottom side of the table top and your desks have a 1.5inch thick table top! The cases of the (new) powerbooks are made of aluminum wich is a very good heat conductor. So – no wonder – it gets hot outside.
I own a 667er TiBook (no L3 Cache) an it gets hot, too but not so hot that you can burn you fingers. That’s not avoidable.
Concerning your doubts about the speed. My 677er TiBook runs all the apps I use satisfying.
I use it for MS Office, movie editing (iMovie), audio editing (Spark LE), development (NetBeans, ProjectBuilder) to name some things. And it works ok – not lightning fast – but ok. I expect the new 867MHz 12″ Powerbook to be much faster, because of all the speed-improvements, than my 667er TiBook.
Eugenia: Is it faster than your Cube?
Ralf.
Yup. Expect the review tonight, or in a few hours. I am writting it as we speak.
ok – we are curious about it 😉
Ralf.
I was looking into a new laptop, and decide to buy either an ibook or powerbook. After reading the review, I’ve decided to go for the 800mhz ibook, may not be as powerful but it’s no dog either. Battery life is a big thing for me, so I expect at least 4 hours, which it seems the ibook provides, pitty as this 12″ pb seemed like the thing I was looking for. Oh well different users have different needs.
Welcome back eugenia:)
Will
How come Apple doesn’t offer any high res LCDs? I only a couple hundred dollars more than the cost of a 12.1″ TiBook for my Inspiron 8200, and I got an awesome 1600×1200 LCD. In Linux, which can easily handle the high resolution in the small space, it looks so good it’s actually painful to go back to a regular LCD. A whole lot of PC manufacturers (IBM, Toshiba, Dell, Sager, Alienware, Compaq, HP) offer these high-res (133-140dpi) screens in their laptops, but even Apple top end TiBook (which costs more than most any x86 laptop) offers only standard resolution screen. Given Quartz’s vector nature, it should be a natural fit to include these high quality LCDs in TiBooks.
yes,
I am just wondering, are we going to discuss each piece of hardware apple is going to make or what..?
I mean, we don’t discuss/read if Dell comes with a new laptop, or screen, so why do we need articles about apple hardware either…because it is nice to see..?
Eugenia, are you using the 12 inch powerbook as a desktop replacement or as a supplementary computer? Anybody using the 12 inch as a desktop replacment? Just curious. I’m looking into an apple laptop as a desktop replacement. Speed is not an issue – I guess the only issue would be the 12 inch screen.. but it is 1024×768.. something i am used to. Not sure if I should get the 12 inch or the 15 inch… Wish Apple made the range 13″ 15″ and 17″ .. all widescreen. I think a 13″ widescreen would be perfect..
I would do the following:
Get an 17″ or 19″ CRT Screen, an USB keyboard (Apple or (cheaper) Logitech) and a USB mouse. Now you can use the 12″ PowerBook as a full desktop-system.
@ Anonymous
yes,
I am just wondering, are we going to discuss each piece of hardware apple is going to make or what..?
I mean, we don’t discuss/read if Dell comes with a new laptop, or screen, so why do we need articles about apple hardware either…because it is nice to see..?
2 words… its Apple.
x86 hardware manufactures are run of the mill, Apple is unique, nuff said.
Hi Ralf. Sounds like a good idea.. Especially with the $500 or so i’d save from not getting the 15″. I have to wonder, however, if adding a monitor to the 12″ will slow it down since it has to drive two monitors now? I have an external 15″ which i would probably use and it would fullfill my needs.
well, you can use the Powerbook with the display closed when a n external screen, keyboard and mouse is connected. So it has to drive only the crt.
But even with the tft as second screen, don’t expect significant slowdowns.
I use my 667MHz PowerBook often with a external 19″ screen at 1280x1024x32 and my PowerBook only got an plain Radeon Mobility with 16MB VRAM (= Quartz Extreme minimum) and I don’t get a significant slow down.
I expect the 12″ PB to work much better than my 18 months old 667 TiBook.
Now, now, now, don’t start a flame war. Every once in a while OS News does something a little different, just for some variety. The Apple 12″ PowerBook has gotten a lot of press and there’s been a lot of interest in it (i.e., being so small yet having a full size keyboard and SuperDrive). So, what the heck – Eugenia’s got one, a couple of us others have one, so why not have a change of pace?
Honestly, I’ve used every laptop keyboard I could get my hands on, and my ibook’s beats the pants of anything else. IMHO that is.. I love the sound it makes, reminds me of a quieter keyboard then on my old 40lb one I had on my 386sx (weight is exaggerated), and how the keys aren’t super deep, but spring perfectly.
What keyboard do you like thats better then the ibooks on a diff laptop, cause I just cant imagine one.
Anyone know where to get them?
It’s just curiosity, of course it has no sense to buy this great pb to run Win XP extensive 🙂 but I found it interesting to understand its more common benchmarks.
Is it smaller than a Fujitsu Lifebook P-Series? Nyet. The Apple television commercial calls it the smallest full feature…. The Lifebook claims that title, it’s tragic about the operating system that it ships with however.
Model-P2120 Fujitsu
933MHz Crusoe – no G4 Altivec or raw speed to compensate (like intels or AMD)
4MB ATI Rage Mobility graphics chip – way lame compared to PB 32 MB ddr graphics. Try gaming. Also, will this drive a second monitor other than as mirror? Even if it can, check this limitation out “External max: 1280 x 1024 resolution, 256 colors” 256 colors? forget about photoshop or video on an external. The 12″ PB can do 1600 by 1200 at millions of colors as a dual.
256 or 384MB memory – less than PB at 640 mac
30 or 40GB hard drive – less than PB at 60 GB (BTO)
Modular DVD/CD-RW combo drive – NO SUPERDRIVE, not slot load
Optional Built-in Wireless LAN (802.11b) – not 802.11g with antenna in the screen, no bluetooth either
It’s not really full-featured, it’s a little crippled, esp. in the graphics and processor department. I couldn’t use this to make DVDs, music (most OS X apps make use of Altivec) or do gaming.
dvd burner, bluetooth, firewire, airport extreme, etc makes it the most feature filled 12″ laptop ever…
Appleforever:
I know the P2120, because I was considering it buying instead of the Powerbook. You can’t really compare them. One is a sub-notebook and the other one is a laptop. A subnotebook –by nature– will have less features. Its main point is to be good enough, but most importantly to be as light and as portable as possible. While the Powerbooks is all about power. Don’t compare the two, it depends what the user needs.
BTW, because I played with the LifeBook a month ago, as I was considering it buying, I found two things I didn’t like: the SUPER-SLOW Crusoe CPU and the fact that the graphics card was only 8 MB (so it _can_ do 1600×1200 at millions of colors no matter what Fujitsu says). I wanted a faster CPU and 32 MB of graphics memory. Other than that, it was fine and even as it is, is a _great_ purchase for someone who wants a subnotebook. It does not compare to the Powerbook, they are different.
yes you are right, the lifebook and PB are different animals. The lifebook looks very nice for what it is. I guess what I was responding to was the suggestion that Apple was not being truthful in saying the PB 12 was the smallest full featured notebook, given the existence of the lifebook. Maybe there are more full featured small notebooks out there, but the lifebook is not that as you say.
by the way, good review on the PB. I would just say you need to keep the price in mind. Yes, the screen is not as nice as the old tibooks. but those are more money. I think it would have been hard for apple to offer a nice screen (and L3 cache, etc etc) and keep the price down. One problem with Apple is less hardware choice. You can’t buy a nicer 12 inch for say, 2600. If you could, I probably would have. Oh well, I still love my 12 PB!!
>Yes, the screen is not as nice as the old tibooks. but those are more money.
Yes, but LCD prices have gone down the last year and Apple has some good contracts that can get them in good prices. The Powerbook line of products was always about how cool they looked, and this 12″ doesn’t continue that legacy.
>Oh well, I still love my 12 PB!!
I like it too.
But it could be better, for the same price. 😉
Just to clarify, I do think the 12 inch has a decent screen. I just trust Eugenia is right in saying it’s nowhere near as good as the old tibook 15. It’s the iBook screen and that is one of Apple’s most popular computers, so lots of people find it adequate and suitable to their budget.
Eugenia, maybe you are right about better screen for same money – I don’t know, I don’t have the facts on how much these things cost.