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Apple Releases New PowerBooks

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OMG, everyone who says a higher res is worth cr*p, i say, look in the mirror. I just got to see the new PB's and they are amazing. The 15" looks like the 17" and so on. Definetly worth the price. I'm on the road of selling my 12" for the 15".
 
I was hoping for the 7448 chip to make the new PBs, but beggars can't be choosers. I am really liking the higher pixel density in the displays; in my mind, it was one of the things that was really holding the PB back. Otherwise, speed notwithstanding, I will put it up to any Windows based notebook anyday. In the end, it is not the numbers that count, it is the user's experience. Just my $0.02. 🙂

P.S. The pic is in relation to efoto's post 😛
 

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What this one said...well...except the 10,00 dollar part for me and replace "photography" with "music."

These are nice books and all, but i couldnt efficiently run many of the programs i want to. and the point isnt that that is inherently ba..it is that it makes no sense to pay 3000 dollars for a computer that cannot handle my demands out of the box. (after RAM updgrdess and such, obviously)

iGary said:
<snip>
No offense to anyone, but Apple's portables are beautiful and elegant, but lacking in performance compared to the rest of the market.

I'd buy a 17" PB in a heartbeat if it had what I needed. Until Intel, Apple remains behind.
Click to expand...
 
macaddiict said:
It was 30 minutes until the local Apple store closed, so I decided to call them and see if they had any in stock. The guy who answered said they did and asked if I'd like him to pull one out for me if I was coming tonight. Needless to say, I'm typing this on a new 15" model. They offered me the old 15" w/1GB ram, 100GB HD, and SuperDrive (single layer) for $1699 - a bit less than the new 15" with my student discount applied, but I decided to go for the new one. Wow. It is simply amazing!
Click to expand...

I would have almost been tempted to go with that deal for $1699. At the very least you should buy and then resell on ebay and probably make $100. The upgrade for the 1 Gig of RAM and the 100 GB Hard Drive is probably worth at least $300+. i would call the store in the morning and ask if that deal is still good...

Buy it, put it on ebay without opening the box. if it doesn't sell you are only out the listing fee... But if does sell, you pocket another $100 or so.

Deepdale said:
Thankful there will not be a need to order any protective eye goggles. Your review was very helpful and I know you will enjoy your new PB for years to come. Maybe later today I will have a chance to inspect them myself ... mostly interested in seeing the difference in the screen brightness that Apple cites.
Click to expand...

I took the plunge and got rid of the 12" Rev C Powerbook, and got the new 15" Powerbook. What a difference. I think it is drastic improvement over the last rev.

The best part? The price drop and the feature add. I have always wanted the digital in/out for audio, and until now could only get it on the 17" i could not afford the 17" so i settled for the 12". The cost of $2,099 (ed discount) for the 15" with SD was to much over the $1499 for the 12" with SD. But with the cost dropping, I get all this for $1799... What a deal. Even at $1999 it is finally getting worth the money you pay.
 
Agent Smith said:
I was hoping for the 7448 chip to make the new PBs, but beggars can't be choosers. I am really liking the higher pixel density in the displays; in my mind, it was one of the things that was really holding the PB back. Otherwise, speed notwithstanding, I will put it up to any Windows based notebook anyday. In the end, it is not the numbers that count, it is the user's experience. Just my $0.02. 🙂

P.S. The pic is in relation to efoto's post 😛
Click to expand...

I second this notion, however you got to realise something... as consumers, you are not the beggars.

If everyone decided "alright, we really should get more than a 170Mhz after SO LONG" and vote with their wallets, Apple (and even Microsoft) will be beggar.
 
Bought powerbook before the change

I bought my powerbook 6 days before the change, for two reasons, it was 400 dollars less the price of a 15" powerbook, as it was refurbished. Also my ibook powersupply died the evening before, and I had to have a laptop for school and my master's class. I was lucky that apple lowered the refurbished price another 300 dollars a few days later. I am receiving that as a credit because it was lower within 10 calendar days of shipping. I don't feel cheated, as I don't use my powerbook in high resolution and I don't play games enough to use the 128 nor am I impressed by DL DVD burning. I have it on my wife's PC and have never used it. I can say if I didn't receive the 300 dollars credit for the price drop, I would have been mad as hell paying 1899 for a powerbook and the new one is 100 less for a teacher and better, but now that apple is giving me the credit, I really don't feel the extra 200 for the new powerbook would have been worth it.
 
7447A/7448 debate

I see the debate is still raging about the lack of an upgrade to the 7448 CPU in the new PowerBooks. Some further research on Freescale's site raises a few more points:

1. The 7448 doesn't have a "buy from distributor" button on the following page, so maybe it isn't available yet:

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/taxonomy.jsp?nodeId=0162468rH3bTdG8653

That would certainly stop Apple offering it in the new PowerBooks! They had to update them somehow - imagine what would have happened if they hadn't released new PowerBooks last week. I think some people would have exploded! 😀

2. According to the following page the 7448 tops out at 1.7GHz and the performance per MHz is the same as the 7447A:

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=MPC7448&nodeId=0162468rH3bTdG8653

1.67GHz to 1.7GHz is a lousy 30MHz speed increase, and I'm sure loads of people would have moaned just as much about that! 😀

The tiny clock speed increase, extra L2 cache, slightly faster FSB and minor AltiVec improvements offered by the 7448 would probably have yielded such a small performance improvement (a couple of percent?) that it wasn't worth Apple spending loads of R&D on it. Perhaps instead they chose to reduce the price.

3. Apple managed to improve the battery life without using the 7448.

What we need is a huge step-change in performance like the G5 offered over the G4 when it was first released, i.e. FSB running at 50% of CPU clock speed, advanced 64-bit architecture, Serial ATA, etc. We're only going to get that with the Intel PowerBooks because the G4 design is going nowhere.

Given the current PowerBook situation, if Apple has any sense (and I'm sure they have lots!) they'll release Intel versions of them before anything else. My money's on June 2006 with no further upgrades to the current PPC line in the mean time, because Apple will surely be devoting all their portable R&D efforts to the new IntelBooks (I really hope they don't call them that though!!).

Of course we don't know for certain if that'll happen, so the bottom line is: If you need a new PowerBook now, buy one now and enjoy it. If you don't, wait a few months and see what turns up.
 
They have added a new feature to the Powerbooks: Safe Sleep
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302477
http://www.macbidouille.com/news/2005-10-22/#11773
http://www.hardmac.com/news/2005-10-23/#4658

ChrisWright said:
1. The 7448 doesn't have a "buy from distributor" button on the following page, so maybe it isn't available yet:

That would certainly stop Apple offering it in the new PowerBooks! They had to update them somehow - imagine what would have happened if they hadn't released new PowerBooks last week. I think some people would have exploded! 😀

2. The tiny clock speed increase, extra L2 cache, slightly faster FSB and minor AltiVec improvements offered by the 7448 would probably have yielded such a small performance improvement (a couple of percent?) that it wasn't worth Apple spending loads of R&D on it. Perhaps instead they chose to reduce the price.

3. Apple managed to improve the battery life without using the 7448.
Click to expand...

I think you hit the point with 1.

And if 1. is true than the 1.7 GHz limit could also be true (the 7447A is specced at 1.42 GHz, Apple is selling it at 1.67 GHz, but then they might use a 7447B which has simply not been released officially and whose equivalent, a hypothetical 7448A running at 1.8 GHz to 2 GHz, simply does not exist (yet)).

If it took Freescale years to go from a 167 MHz FSB to a 200 MHz FSB, I could assume that it would take Apple at least some resources to adapt the system controller to run at 200 MHz. As you said Apple might have chosen not to spend that money.

So your 1. and 2. are two independant reasons, both of which could be true or just one of them.

Regarding 3., maybe we can just dream where battery life would have been with a 7448 (even with 1.7 GHz and 200 MHz FSB).
 
manu chao said:
I think you hit the point with 1.

And if 1. is true than the 1.7 GHz limit could also be true (the 7447A is specced at 1.42 GHz, Apple is selling it at 1.67 GHz, but then they might use a 7447B which has simply not been released officially and whose equivalent, a hypothetical 7448A running at 1.8 GHz to 2 GHz, simply does not exist (yet)).

If it took Freescale years to go from a 167 MHz FSB to a 200 MHz FSB, I could assume that it would take Apple at least some resources to adapt the system controller to run at 200 MHz. As you said Apple might have chosen not to spend that money.

So your 1. and 2. are two independant reasons, both of which could be true or just one of them.

Regarding 3., maybe we can just dream where battery life would have been with a 7448 (even with 1.7 GHz and 200 MHz FSB).
Click to expand...

While there is no 'buy' link on their site, there are specific part numbers for the 7448.

Search for the part number '7448', and you'll get results.

If you look at the 'status' field, it says 'available'.

As far as R&D, the 7448 is a 'drop in' replacement for the 7447/A.

You flash the bios (to bump the bus), and bingo-bango.
 
igetbanned said:
While there is no 'buy' link on their site, there are specific part numbers for the 7448.

Search for the part number '7448', and you'll get results.

If you look at the 'status' field, it says 'available'.

As far as R&D, the 7448 is a 'drop in' replacement for the 7447/A.

You flash the bios (to bump the bus), and bingo-bango.
Click to expand...

If all of what you said is true, why did Apple not use them?

(And don't come me with the argument that Apple wants to have a bigger bang, performance-wise, when it introduces the IntelBooks and compares them with the last PPC Powerbook iteration. According to what we have heard, it should not be a problem for Apple to show that the IntelBooks will be a step ahead performance-wise, Apple will simply focus on the Intel-native apps.)
 
BWhaler said:
What will the battery life impact be with the 7200? I want the speed and can spare the 20 gigs (or so I hope), but I travel on international flights, so I cannot afford less battery life.
Click to expand...

I have a 4200 rpm, 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm. The snappyness of the system when the 7200 rpm is in is very noticeable. I do not notice any greater power drain with the faster drive.

I would go with the fastest drive possible. The extra 20GB of space on the slower 120GB 5400 rpm drive is not significant in my case as I have a 250GB 7200 rpm external which I use for backup and archival.
 
manu chao said:
If all of what you said is true, why did Apple not use them?

(And don't come me with the argument that Apple wants to have a bigger bang, performance-wise, when it introduces the IntelBooks and compares them with the last PPC Powerbook iteration. According to what we have heard, it should not be a problem for Apple to show that the IntelBooks will be a step ahead performance-wise, Apple will simply focus on the Intel-native apps.)
Click to expand...
Could be any number of reasons but it would be fair to say that Mot/Freescale has never been able to deliver on time. For Apple I think it was just a good business decision to move to Intel; Intel is able to deliver product and has a great looking road map. Freescale has a compelling dual-core G4 chip in development but who knows when there might be volume product. IBM has a great chip but nothing for a portable.

Plus I recall something about Intel looking for a partner to really innovate using their chips rather than just slap them into a plastic box. Sounds like serendipity to me.
 
pubwvj said:
I have a 4200 rpm, 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm. The snappyness of the system when the 7200 rpm is in is very noticeable. I do not notice any greater power drain with the faster drive.

I would go with the fastest drive possible. The extra 20GB of space on the slower 120GB 5400 rpm drive is not significant in my case as I have a 250GB 7200 rpm external which I use for backup and archival.
Click to expand...


Thanks pubwvj.

I went with the 7200 RPM on your recommendation.
 
AidenShaw said:
I like how that site adds every possible option to the Dell to get the price to exceed the Apple....
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not to mention how easy it is to find a coupon for 30-40% off dell systems. that drops u down to near $1200 and that includes microsoft office which apple doesnt and that 9 cell battery last 6-8hours not 4hours.
 
New PowerBook developer notes released

Apple have posted developer notes for the new PowerBoooks:

15": http://developer.apple.com/document...acintosh_CPUs-G4/15inchPowerBookG4/index.html
17": http://developer.apple.com/document...acintosh_CPUs-G4/17inchPowerBookG4/index.html

None for the 12", though that's not surprising. 🙂

The CPU is definitely a 7447A because in Appendix A > PowerPC G4 Microprocessor there's a link to the Freescale page for the 7447A.

Quite a bit of other interesting information too, if you're into that kind of thing. 😀
 
consider switch to pc...then...

ruprick said:
Check out this site for price comparisons between apples and PCs. This link is for the PB15" and inspiron 6000. The powerbook is a nobrainer haha check it out http://www.systemshootouts.org/shootouts/laptop/2005/1022_lt2000.html
Click to expand...


If you, like me, are seriously considering a switch to pc for a while...as Apple transitions...check THIS out... AMD X2 (dual core) laptop to be released next month. Top notch graphics too! This will blow the doors off the latest Powerbooks...

http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/go_np9750.html

by the way...it's 64bit !!! A comparable Intel (merom) laptop is 12 months away!
 
Spazmodius said:
I mean the Rev. A MacTels are likely to have significant problems, just like Apple Rev. A anythings, so we'd be better off to wait until Apple works out the kinks before buying a MacTel Powerbook.

Which will be like, a year-and-a-half from now...F*&K!
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agree. Like first version of iMac g5, loads of problem such as loud fan.
1 and half year, How much you gonna miss?

Chrispy said:
I totally agree. I have $1800 to spend and I could stretch and get a 15" powerbook but its just not worth the price for what you get. The 20" iMac is a MUCH better deal... even if it is not portable. I am also thinking about just getting a 17" iMac and keeping the extra money to get a 12" iBook down the road should I really need portability.
Click to expand...

I own 2 macs, mini and ibook, sometime it's really confuse using both.

michaewh said:
I bought my last Powerbook on Oct 16, 2001 (667 MHz). It was time for a new one and I can't wait any longer. This powerbook has treated me well. I've thrashed is hard, and its held up. I even replace the hinge. Hinky power connection and usb ports forces a change. I'll be paying a grand less for something twice as good.
Click to expand...

not as complicated as I did to my ibook g3. Since 2nd time logic board failure free replacement, I have managed to change hard drive, replaced cd rom to slot load combo(odd looking), and even replaced hinge(man, that's pain in the ass to plan, find out right components, open up, ..., and...), Right now I am typing on it, it has served me well.
To powerbook, 167 MHz system bus, ATI 9700 can not be pathetic anymore compare to modem Cetrinio laptop.
Most of software( exclude video, music, cpu-intensive ones) are running smooth in my 100Mhz ibook, that why I stick my old hardware, it is just not the right time to buy obsolete hardware.
 
It's my reading

Intel for Apple
Yonah is likely to be the first Intel processor used by Apple. Because of its low power consumption, it is likely to find its way into PowerBooks and iBooks as well as iMacs. Unfortunately, the use of Yonah will return Macs to 32-bit operation. When Apple uses Merom, OS X will return to 64-bit operation. This would be an excellent way of differentiating PowerBooks and iMacs from iBooks and the Mac Mini.

It’s likely the Intel dual-core 800 D series will be used in Intel powered PowerMacs. The 840 D series is ideal for editing 1080i HDV. The next generation dual-core desktop processor, codenamed Presler, which features two 2 MB L2 caches will be even better.

Any opinion?
 
wrxsti86 said:
Intel for Apple
Yonah is likely to be the first Intel processor used by Apple. Because of its low power consumption, it is likely to find its way into PowerBooks and iBooks as well as iMacs. Unfortunately, the use of Yonah will return Macs to 32-bit operation. When Apple uses Merom, OS X will return to 64-bit operation. This would be an excellent way of differentiating PowerBooks and iMacs from iBooks and the Mac Mini.

It’s likely the Intel dual-core 800 D series will be used in Intel powered PowerMacs. The 840 D series is ideal for editing 1080i HDV. The next generation dual-core desktop processor, codenamed Presler, which features two 2 MB L2 caches will be even better.

Any opinion?
Click to expand...

Reason #1 for skipping the first wave on Intel Macs.

The big leap will come with Merom. (Plus, more software will be ported and the first gen kinks will be ironed out)
 
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