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twinsen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 26, 2005
13
0
This is my first post on this site, but I've read plenty of threads discussing how the next PowerBook would look like and I thought it was time for me to offer my own expectations. I've also been reading articles on Freescale, ATIs and NVidias homepages.

I think the updated PowerBook line will look like this:
12" ComboDrive
1024x768
1.6Ghz G4 (7448) @ 200mhz
ATI MobilityRadeon 9700 64MB512MB DDR400
80GB@5400RPM
ComboDrive (CD-R/DVD)

12" SuperDrive
1024x768
1.6Ghz (7448) @ 200mhz
ATI MobilityRadeon 9700 64MB
512MB DDR400
100GB@5400RPM
SuperDrive 8x

15" ComboDrive
1600x1068
1.6Ghz (7448) @ 200mhz
ATI MobilityRadeon 9800 64MB
512MB DDR400
100GB@7200RPM
ComboDrive (CD-R/DVD)

15" SuperDrive
1600x1068
1.8Ghz (7448) @ 200mhz
ATI MobilityRadeon 9800 128MB
512MB DDR400
100GB@7200RPM
SuperDrive 16x

17" SuperDrive
1920x1200
1.8Ghz (7448) @ 200mhz
ATI MobilityRadeon 9800 256MB
512MB DDR400
100GB@7200RPM
SuperDrive 16x

I'm most uncertain when it comes to the graphic chip. I'm not sure if it's possible to use Radeon 9800 in a small portable, the only laptop that use this at the moment is a monster from Dell. However it's the only upgrade avalible that is AGP compatible.

Screen updates is also a bit uncertain. I'm not sure how much job it is for Apple to change the LCD panel. If it's only a small upgrade it would be smart of Apple to do it, it would make the current PowerBook more attractive despite the Intel upgrade around the corner.

These are only my humble suggestions and I would really like your comments!
I think the new PowerBooks would be released in september/october.
 

bodeh6

macrumors 6502a
May 18, 2005
773
0
Ding, Ding, Ding we have a winner. These should be the specs of the next PB revision this fall before the transition to Intel. This would be the best time to get a PB since you don't want a Rev A Mactel.
 

beige matchbox

macrumors 6502a
Mar 16, 2005
521
0
Oxfordshire, UK
All good except the screen res of the 15 and 17's, there about right as they are now, from a average distance screen text etc. are just the right size, i don't have to move my head close to read anything, just about perfect.

And before you say anything, i'm not a half blind 80yr old :p
 

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
I would have thought that changing the screens would be a pretty major update. Maybe something to coincide with the processor change and perhaps a slight change in form factor also?

Otherwise, those are pretty decent and realistic IMO.
 

Spanky Deluxe

macrumors demi-god
Mar 17, 2005
5,282
1,741
London, UK
I really do think that the 17" PowerBook should have a screen res of 1920x1200. In fact the 15" one should have an option of that res too. The laptop that I'm typing on right now is a Dell 8600 15.4" screen with 1920x1200 resolution and I absolutely love all of that screen real-estate. I've always thought its a bit odd that Apple (who are reknown for having the highest res LCDs in the business) let themselves get beaten by Dell for the highest res laptop screens.
 

realityisterror

macrumors 65816
Aug 30, 2003
1,354
1
Snellville, GA
All Apple displays share similar dpi's so dual monitors works as expected...
How would you compensate having an ultra-high-res PowerBook next to a Cinema? Right now, windows line up between displays, but that would no longer be possible...

I wouldn't really expect LCD upgrades except maybe as an option on the 17".

reality
 

DakotaGuy

macrumors 601
Jan 14, 2002
4,226
3,791
South Dakota, USA
Don't forget to add 1MB L2 cache as well.

The 7448 should be a pretty fast processor. A 200Mhz FSB is not great, but every little bit will do wonders for overall performance. I will be very suprised if this "last" G4 won't be performing darn close to a G5 with the same Mhz rating. Who knows, if the bugs are not worked out on the first Intel powered ones, these might provide better performance during the transition period. Even with Intel coming, I could see Powerbooks with these specs selling well.
 

homerjward

macrumors 68030
May 11, 2004
2,745
0
fig tree
sounds good but not sure about the 9800--isn't that a really powerful, high-wattage/heat card that's basically an 8-pipe x800 mobility? i read somewhere that with a pencil you can turn one into an x800? other than that sounds like a great update :) and re the res, 1920x1200 15" is fine in windows because windows is more resolution independent than os x, but i wouldn't want to use it under os x...
 

eXan

macrumors 601
Jan 10, 2005
4,731
63
Russia
1600x1068? Whats res is that? Maybe 1680x1050, like in 20-inch widescreen displays?

I doubt they will make hi-res screens for new PBs. I like them what they are now :)
 

eric67

macrumors 6502
Oct 17, 2002
271
0
France, Europe
HD my friend HD

eXan said:
1600x1068? Whats res is that? Maybe 1680x1050, like in 20-inch widescreen displays?

I doubt they will make hi-res screens for new PBs. I like them what they are now :)

1068 will define a HD display...since ST has been claiming that 2005 will the year of HD at the NAB.... it could make sense.
 

lexfuzo

macrumors 6502
Mar 15, 2005
262
0
The heart of Europe
H.264 decoding in hardware

That's what they need. Let's just add ATI's R520 or some other decoder chip.
It's quite embarrassing that a Computer at the price point of a PowerBook is so lame at HD decoding.
 

EGT

macrumors 68000
Sep 4, 2003
1,605
1
twinsen said:
15" SuperDrive
1600x1068
1.8Ghz (7448) @ 200mhz
ATI MobilityRadeon 9800 128MB
512MB DDR400
100GB@7200RPM
SuperDrive 16x

:eek:

I'd buy that in a second! I hope your expectations are right.
 

Spanky Deluxe

macrumors demi-god
Mar 17, 2005
5,282
1,741
London, UK
I don't think the fact that the board will be AGP limited would necessarily limit which graphics cards the system could have. The AGP versions of top end cards in the desktop world are now basically PCIe versions using AGP bridges - basically a few chips (if that) and some wires. Not exactly stuff that takes up a huge amount of space. It would be far easier to go this route rather than upgrade the motherboards to PCIe at such a late stage in the G4 Powerbook's lifecycle.
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
eric67 said:
1068 will define a HD display...since ST has been claiming that 2005 will the year of HD at the NAB.... it could make sense.

It would seem that if they are going to bother using that logic, they would go for 1080p instead of 1068....
 

thehuncamunca

macrumors 6502
Jul 9, 2003
447
0
NJ
here's my 2 cents, expect them to come out around sep/oct

BT 2.0, Backlit keyboard, AE, FW 800, 10/100/1000 network, digital audio standard across all lines

13" ComboDrive
Wide Screen
1.6Ghz G4 (7448) @ 200mhz
ATI MobilityRadeon 9700 64MB (BTO 128MB)
512MB DDR2 400 (Max 1.5GB)
60GB@5400RPM (BTO 100GB 7200rpm)
ComboDrive (CD-R/DVD)

13" SuperDrive
Wide Screen
1.6Ghz (7448) @ 200mhz
ATI MobilityRadeon 9700 64MB (BTO 128MB)
512MB DDR2 400 (Max 1.5GB)
80GB@5400RPM (BTO 100GB 7200rpm)
SuperDrive

15" ComboDrive
Wide Screen
1.6Ghz (7448) @ 200mhz
ATI MobilityRadeon 9800 128MB (BTO 256MB)
512MB DDR2 400
80GB@7200RPM (BTO 100GB)
ComboDrive (CD-R/DVD)

15" SuperDrive
Wide Screen
1.8Ghz (7448) @ 200mhz
ATI MobilityRadeon 9800 128MB (BTO 256MB)
512MB DDR2 400
100GB@7200RPM
SuperDrive

17" SuperDrive
Wide Screen
1.8Ghz (7448) @ 200mhz
ATI MobilityRadeon 9800 256MB
512MB DDR2 400
100GB@7200RPM
SuperDrive
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
So...I'm not so motherboard savvy...isn't adding FW800 a fairly substantial mobo change? Or is it not that big a deal? Then again, if you think there are going to be 13" PPC PBs.... I guess you've already thrown fairly substantial to the wind. ;)
 

Spanky Deluxe

macrumors demi-god
Mar 17, 2005
5,282
1,741
London, UK
What makes you think they'll swap the 12"ers for 13" widescreen versions?

Also, realityisterror, if what you say is true about the DPI of Apple screens, then how come both the 12" ibook and its 14" counterpart share the same resolution? I can't believe they would simply not bring out a high res laptop screen because of that. I do loads of graphics editing stuff on my laptop at the moment and truly relish the vast number of pixels I have to play with and since OS X is so easily scalable to different resolutions and is often used by designers I would have thought they would have a 1920x1200 res powerbook available.
 

tsk

macrumors 6502a
Jan 14, 2004
642
0
Wisconsin
Spanky Deluxe said:
Also, realityisterror, if what you say is true about the DPI of Apple screens, then how come both the 12" ibook and its 14" counterpart share the same resolution? I can't believe they would simply not bring out a high res laptop screen because of that. I do loads of graphics editing stuff on my laptop at the moment and truly relish the vast number of pixels I have to play with and since OS X is so easily scalable to different resolutions and is often used by designers I would have thought they would have a 1920x1200 res powerbook available.

The correct statement (I think) is that all laptops except the 12" share the same dpi.
 

michaelrjohnson

macrumors 68020
Aug 9, 2000
2,180
5
53132
1) Welcome to MacRumors!
2) I think the biggest discrepancy will be HD speeds. For some reason, perhaps their history of lagging in this departement, I don't see Apple jumping all the way to something great from the current defaults in the lineup.
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
tsk said:
The correct statement (I think) is that all laptops except the 12" share the same dpi.

I think the 14" iBook is the biggest outlier. (I found this list here, all regards to Andrew Zamler-Carhart, who wrote it in that post on that forum.)

12" iBook G4 -- 105.79 dpi
14" iBook G4 -- 90.78 dpi

12" PowerBook G4 -- 105.79 dpi
15" PowerBook G4 -- 101.23 dpi
17" PowerBook G4 -- 101.21 dpi

17" iMac G5 -- 101.21 dpi
20" iMac G5 -- 99.75 dpi

20" Cinema Display -- 99.75 dpi
23" Cinema Display -- 97.71 dpi
30" Cinema Display -- 101.65 dpi
 

michaelrjohnson

macrumors 68020
Aug 9, 2000
2,180
5
53132
zap2 said:
i would be sad if the came out with 13'' powerbook in place of the 12. Teh 12 is so portable and tiny!
I agree. I owned a 12in Rev C PowerBook, and It was the perfect size for an ultraportable powerhouse!
 

Spanky Deluxe

macrumors demi-god
Mar 17, 2005
5,282
1,741
London, UK
keysersoze, I don't think higher resolutions would drain the battery that much faster at all than a lower res model since the biggest drain is the backlight of the display.

My Dell 8600 with an HD display has a manufacturer's battery life of 3 hours I think. That's for the normal basic low-res model. Mine happily does 3.5 hours of web browsing with maximum brightness. 5-6 hours with the extra slot in battery I use most of the time instead of the DVDRW.
 

twinsen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 26, 2005
13
0
eXan said:
1600x1068? Whats res is that? Maybe 1680x1050, like in 20-inch widescreen displays?

I doubt they will make hi-res screens for new PBs. I like them what they are now :)

The reason that I wrote 1068 is because the PowerBook has a 15.2" screen instead of 15.4 that Dell use on their widescreen laptops. If the horizontal resolution is to be 1600 the vertical have to be 1068. If I have not completly misunserstood the ratio aspect.

Thank you for all the good replies you have provided!

I don't think the fact that the board will be AGP limited would necessarily limit which graphics cards the system could have. The AGP versions of top end cards in the desktop world are now basically PCIe versions using AGP bridges - basically a few chips (if that) and some wires. Not exactly stuff that takes up a huge amount of space. It would be far easier to go this route rather than upgrade the motherboards to PCIe at such a late stage in the G4 Powerbook's lifecycle.

If this is true than there is a many graphic chips that I think are more likely to be used in the PowerBook than 9800. As someone said, that is a very powerconsuming and therefor also hot chip. I think that Nvida has a portable version of the 6600 that would fit nice in the PowerBook. They also have an upgraded version of the chip that is now used in the 12"
 
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