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Is a powerbook g4 a good idea?

notblackmac

notblackmac

macrumors regular
Original poster
I'm going to be going traveling for 2 weeks and wanted a laptop to browse the web while in the hotel room, and watch movies on the plane ride. I was browsing ebay and came across a powerbook g4 12" for only 150.00. I'd feel much better carrying a 150.00 laptop compared to my 1,200.00 current one. But is the powerbook a bad choice? Could it handle some light web browsing?
 
It can handle light browsing, but bigger Flash content might be a CPU hog. Watching SD movies will also be no problem, I could watch Xvid/Divx (MPEG-4) encoded movies on my 1.07GHz iBook without problems.
 
How fast is it? There is a HUGE difference between the original 867MHz models and the later 1.33-1.5GHz models performance wise. The later models are quite capable machines with 1.25GB of RAM. The older 867MHz systems aren't bad, but the later ones are a lot better in several aspects aside from just CPU performance.
 
honestly, I wouldn't even bother with it, I'd spring for a windows netbook. G4's are old, really old. Flash kills them, and I bet the battery is really worn out, PowerPC macs are really just collector's items these days except for G5 towers, and those are even becoming long in the tooth.
 
I got a ibook 1.33ghz off of ebay for $99.00, I believe that it will suit my travel needs.. thanks for your help.
 
OrangeSVTguy said:
Good price. Those iBooks/Powerbooks are still pretty decent as travel companions. The 12" size is just perfect!
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I finally received it today, and for being a 4-5 year old computer it actually runs pretty decently. And you are absolutely correct, that 12" size is the sweet spot for travel!
 
I had a 12 inch 1.0 ghz PowerBook G4. Was by far my favorite computer I've ever owned. Was perfect for travel, video on the airplane, actually doing real work. I only upgraded to a MacBook b/c it was stolen in Nov. 2007. That iBook should work great for what you want it for, and it was a great price!
 
I just bought a few weeks back a 1.5GHz PB and it is totally fine. Sure, it isnt that fast, and Safari crashes a lot, and flash is a problem...but it works just fine. I use it as a file base for my Davis Vantage Pro 2 weather station to log all the data that it collects. Works great for that. I love the portability of it though, its a such a perfect size.
 
OrangeSVTguy said:
So a 25 year old car is basically obsolete but that doesn't mean it's still not useful 🙄 Just because it's not good enough for your life anymore doesn't mean it's still not good for someone else.
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Exactly, I still play WoW and use YouTube (with HTML5) on mine. The SSD makes it scream.
 
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