New 15" Powerbook - One Week's Impressions

[Megaquad]

I just got 15" 1.33GHz Powerbook, 256mb and 4200 rpm.
Coming from 350 MHz iMac this is huuuge improvement.
I'm ordering 512 MB more RAM tomorrow but it runs suprisingly well with only 256. I'll get 7200rpm 100GB HD in 9 months or whenever they release them. I must also mention that I'll soon get an external DVDRW drive , since these days every kid has them...

It is *completely* silent, and sometimes fan turns on when I run processor intensive apps but even then its so silent that you can't even notice.

It gets really hot... its a little hard to use keyboard on these hot summer days, but I guess it will be useful when it gets colder.

All in all, very nice machine, runs Flash/Photoshop very well, games are smooth... just beautiful. I love it so much.

 

[phonic pol]

Just thought I'd add that I'm getting about 3 hours 20 minutes battery time. What sort of times are you guys experiencing?

 

[Scorched X]

Oh, one other thing that I should mention here -- This powerbook (and others like it) WILL NOT BOOT from retail Panther CDs. I was very worried when it wouldn't, but a quick google shows this is normal -- you have to use the 10.3.4 DVD that came with the powerbook, or (in the future) something newer. Just thought I'd spare you guys the OMG NO factor when you tried it!

I'm a little confused about this. How will Tiger have to be installed when it's released?

 

[Studio Dweller]

I too have enjoyed my first week of using my new PowerBook 15" 1.33 Ghz. I've been a Mac user since the Mac Plus which was followed by a IIci, PowerMac 8100, beige G3 266 and a G4 800, but until now, I've never had a laptop. All I can say is I should've bought one a long time ago.

I couldn't believe it when the FedEx guy showed up on Friday the 25th when the tracking info that same morning said it would arrive on Monday the 28th. I ordered it online from the Apple Store and I did not pay for overnight shipping, but somehow it made to my door from China in a single day despite the tracking info also stating that it was picked up after their cutoff time. Mail-order items NEVER arrive early for me.

I have my G4 desktop in a finished room in the basement so I've always ended up spending a lot of time down there. One of the main incentives in getting the laptop was setting up a wireless network so I wouldn't always have to go to the basement and at the same time, see a bit more of my girlfriend. I also picked up an AirPort Extreme base station which has been great (I'm writing this from the comfort of my bedroom).

That's enough back story so on to the computer itself. I ordered the PB with the following options:
80GB/5400 RPM HD
Backlit keyboard
768MB RAM (512 from Crucial)

I think Anticipat3 has covered everything really well in his review, but I will add the following. Although the PB generally runs without getting excessively hot, I do find that when doing processor-intensive operations, it can get quite hot and I find that I need to put something under the PB to insulate it from my lap. I would hardly say this is a big deal, but the thing can get toasty.

My wireless reception has for the most part, been good. I'm able to get at least 2 and usually 3 segments on the signal strength indicator from anywhere in the house and even in the back yard.

I too love the backlit keyboard and have also found that I have not needed to manually adjust the screen brightness. It just always seems to be right.

The only thing I need to get used to is the keyboard. Not having had a laptop before, I'm very much accustomed to a desktop keyboard and find myself hitting the 'Caps Lock' key with my left pinky when I intend to hit the 'A' key. Horrors.

As I also intend to by a G5 2.5DP very soon, I didn't want to spend the extra money on the faster 1.5GHz PB. I'm happy with the speed of the 1.33GHz and I'm glad to see that others here are too. I really couldn't be happier with this machine and can never see being without a laptop in the future as it has definitely been a quality of life improvement for me in not having to be a cellar dweller nearly as much. Now if I could just get my girlfriend to ditch her PC...

 

[unregbaron]

New 15" Powerbook - One Night's Impressions

Well yesterday evening after a fair amount of time (like 2 months+) thinking it over (see prev posts) I took the plunge and decided to get the standard superdrive selling for £1749 at John Lewis.

I had been thinking about paying an extra £100 to get the 5400rpm drive and upgrading to 128mb vram but in the end the free 2year parts and labour guarantee at John Lewis won through.

I'm coming from a G3 400mhz pismo so in the end I thought the £100 would be better spent at some point in the near future on either more ram, wireless airport/itunes thing, bluetooth mouse, new bag - you get the idea.

I half regret posting this cause I know everyone will scream 'shoulda got the upgrade!' but I've made my decision.

By the way - re Illuminated Keyboard - I had seen a post saying the light from the screen reflects onto the keys making the keyboard light useless: this hasn't been the case with me. Last night playing a Call of Duty demo level (looked so great!) there was no reflection at all and interestingly the kboard light is white - (i had seen an apple promo quicktime thing with a guy in a recording studio being shown a new pb and it going blue)

... ....so amazing to have some apps opening in one bounce...

 

[yinyang]

... ....so amazing to have some apps opening in one bounce...

i've had my powerbook for a week now, and i think that is refreshing change seeing most of the apps just bounce once but then it has twice the speed and ram of my still beuatiful lcd imac.

so far the fan has only come on once, when the temp went passed 60C, though i'm still not sure why it did - i don't recall anything serious going on at the time. but otherwise even when it's around the high 50's it isn't too bad to touch!

i'm now waiting eagerly for the express so that i can rid myself of this 20m ethernet cable between here and the dsl modem.

only one gripe-ish observation... does everybody's powerbook close snugly - when i shut it there is a bit of a gap between the two halves and it 'rocks' a bit ie it's not like it isn't able to close properly, but that maybe if i tightened the hinged at the back it might close properly. other than that i am so pleased with this now i'm just waiting for the bt keyboard, mouse and iCurve to be delivered!

 

[phonic pol]

I have my G4 desktop in a finished room in the basement so I've always ended up spending a lot of time down there. One of the main incentives in getting the laptop was setting up a wireless network so I wouldn't always have to go to the basement and at the same time, see a bit more of my girlfriend.

Ditto the cellar girlfriend thing!!!

 

[unregbaron]

only one gripe-ish observation... does everybody's powerbook close snugly - when i shut it there is a bit of a gap between the two halves and it 'rocks' a bit ie it's not like it isn't able to close properly, but that maybe if i tightened the hinged at the back it might close properly. other than that i am so pleased with this now i'm just waiting for the bt keyboard, mouse and iCurve to be delivered!

good news - it's part of the design to have the gap - we all have it - it's to stop kboard getting in contact with the screen....

 

[yinyang]

good news - it's part of the design to have the gap - we all have it - it's to stop kboard getting in contact with the screen....

ccol - so i don't have to by that notebook screensavr from radtech

thanks for that!

 

[zachhale]

Very Informative Thread

I just graduated from High School and I'm looking into a laptop for college this fall at the University of Washington. I have always been a PC guy and even used to despise apples, but I got an iPod and since then I have been obsessed with iTunes and the interface and the simplicity and wonder of the powerbook and OS X.

I am very glad all of you have posted these impressions because it makes my decisions a lot easier.

If money is not an issue, I will most likely get the 15" w/ the 1.5ghz processor w/ the default 512ram. If it is an issue, I'll get the 1.33ghz and buy the extra ram like others have and I'll upgrade the HD to something larger and faster.

I really need the 80gb hard drive.... so that's a definite consideration.

 

[liketom]

After reading this thread i have canceled my order for the 12' powerbook 1.33 and opted for the 15" . to be fair i have not actualy seen a 15" up close only the 12" thats why i opted for the 12" but..... reading what people have experienced here i hot footed it down to the ONLY place that shows mac's in my town! pcworld of all places have these in stock but of course not a sales guy in sight cos it's a apple lol and i don't think them monkeys could tell me much anyway ..imagine
me is looking at mac " can i help you sir? " ,
" yes i want this apple powerbook please! " ,
monkey says -" apple ??? whats one of them , the local market sells fruit sir ? "
i say - " o sod off you PC Junkie and swipe this for me , dont worry there will be some nuts and banana's in it for you ! "
- monkey strolls off sctraching his arse with my flexable friend in the other hand on the way to the till .

Anyway after looking at one in the flesh i was gob smacked at the sheer beauty of it 15" of pure screen it was like falling in love all over again .

anyway thanks for advice people

tom

 

[phonic pol]

- monkey strolls off sctraching his arse with my flexable friend in the other hand on the way to the till .

Anyway after looking at one in the flesh i was gob smacked at the sheer beauty of it 15" of pure screen it was like falling in love all over again .

anyway thanks for advice people

tom

Ha ha, Nice move Tom!

 

[PeterD42]

1.33 vs 1.5

Hi, I am also thinking of getting the 15"PB
But unless I have doen my sums wrong, here in OZ it is only $120 more to get the 1.5 compared to the 1.33 with superdrive & 5400rpm HDD & backlit kb with 256 memory. So by the time I upgrade the memory they would be about the same.
So i think I will opt for the 1.5 unless convinced otherwise ( or look at my sumes again )

 

[phonic pol]

Hi, I am also thinking of getting the 15"PB
But unless I have doen my sums wrong, here in OZ it is only $120 more to get the 1.5 compared to the 1.33 with superdrive & 5400rpm HDD & backlit kb with 256 memory. So by the time I upgrade the memory they would be about the same.
So i think I will opt for the 1.5 unless convinced otherwise ( or look at my sumes again )

If there is that little difference in it I'd go for the 1.5 too. The pricing structure must be different in Oz. In the UK you can't get less than 512mb memory on the 1.5 machine which bumps up the price and the 1.5 also comes with a 4200rpm drive so has to be upgraded to 5400rpm just like the 1.33 machine. This has the effect of keeping the price between the two models quite far apart.

I also went for the non superdrive option which brings the price down further. I figured that the combo drive burns CD's faster than the super drive burns CD's and this is mainly what I use it for. I also figure on getting an external firewire DVD burner which will be faster than the super drive. Seems to me this is the best route to go unless you really need to burn DVD's on the go.

 

[Akira]

My motivation to buy a 1,33GHz Powerbook was this:
- the speed difference between them isn't that big
- you'll have to pay extra for 1 512MB SO-DIMM, because leaving it to 2x 256MB RAM is money down the drain, a 1,33GHz comes with 1x 256MB...
- the price difference is bigger than the performance difference

however, I did go for the superdrive, faster HD, and backlit keyboard, because those things are stuff you'll smack yourself in the head for if you didn't get them and see people who do have those cool options...

If you keep thinking, it's only $xx more expensive if I'll take this at every option, you'll end up buying a $3000 machine...

(not that that's wrong if you'll have the money to spend )

 

[phonic pol]

Nobody else seems to have brought up the combo versus superdrive advantage.

I really beleive that the best option is to get the combo because it's faster at burning CD's. Also get an external DVD burner which is again faster than the superdrive at burnign DVD's. This way you get the best of both worlds!

 

[kuyu]

Phonic's right. while a superdrive would be great for keeping the HD empty, an external 120 GB HD costs less. Also, blu-ray/blue laser DVD's are coming in the next year/year-and-a-half. I'd rather have an external one of those.

The superdrive would also be nice for home movies, etc. But, most of us really don't have a need for it. Marketing is using the whole 'machisimo' thing against us here.

Still unsure about the superdrive??? Try this. Name 10 times/ways you are going to use the superdrive (DVD burning) in the next year. If you can do it, go for the superdrive. If you can't, send me $200 and I'll vouch for your powerbook being bad@$$.

 

[Akira]

Marketing is using the whole 'machisimo' thing against us here.

I, for one, see my Powerbook as an extention to my manlyhood , therefor it has a superdrive, just because it's cool

This goes the other way round as well: if your Powerbook doesn't include a superdrive, you're not that cool

 

[Anticipat3]

Glad this thread has helped out a few more people .

The 1.5 was significantly more expensive in the US; especially since I didn't want the backlit KB or the superdrive. IMO, it's a little silly to buy a superdrive in a laptop right now when dual layer drives are already hitting the market. I also didn't want to shell out the cash that Apple wants for a memory upgrade from one stick of 256 to one stick of 512 -- I will replace the 256 stick with a gig chip once they're cheap, and i need an upgrade.

 

[Cordless_Drill]

Name 10 times/ways you are going to use the superdrive (DVD burning) in the next year. If you can do it, go for the superdrive. If you can't, send me $200 and I'll vouch for your powerbook being bad@$$.

Right on! I've burned a DVD maybe three times in a year. Two iTunes backups and an iPhoto backup that used like 3% of the DVD. Could have used a CD just as easily.

Very overrated piece of equipment IF you're not really into the whole video thing. I bought an expensive Sony videocamera and everything -- but it's too laborious and tricky to import, splice, etc. I just take pictures now!

Machismo: It can wrangle every man.

 

[Raiden]

I just bought a 1.5 gig 15 inch PB w/ superdrive, 512 ram, etc.

You guys are mostly right about the difference between the 1.33 and 1.5 being somewhat minimal for the huge price increase. The big differences are more out of box ram, bigger HD, backlit keyboard standard, and superdrive.

My justification? This computer will need to last me for 4 years of college, and a .17 percent increase in performance wont seem like much now, but in 4 years when everyone is running 5 ghz G6s, every little bit of performance/specs will be helpful.

Eh, whatever. I got a 90 dollar printer for free (itll be on ebay soon...) and a 15 gig ipod for 70 dollars (ditto on ebay), and the 200-300 I make off those, combined with the EDU prices I already got for the PB, will get close to closing the gap in the difference of prices.

 

[Anticipat3]

Yeah, I'm a little torked off that they just did that Cram + Jam thing now... I missed it by a couple weeks :-/.

On that note, anybody want a 10GB 3G iPod? I'm thinking of getting a 40 or a 60...

 

[caseyD]

I just got my 15' powerbook yesterday. Its 1.5ghz 128mb vid 1 gb and and runs a little hot when I get it wide open, doing several thing at once. nothing too bad. I must say that I did opt for the 4200 rpm drive for no other reason than the price was only 45 bucks more for the 5200, so i figured there was little real performance difference. Once 7200 rpm drives become practical (or even exist at 2.5 for the pb) I'll consider upgrading. But for now, I'm fine with what I've got.

 

[smurphur]

How many DVDs from a superdrive would it take to backup 120gb of stuff? I am considering getting the superdrive in my soon to be powerbook, but after reading this I am not sure I would use it all that much. My only real motivation for getting it would be to backup all my photos, mp3s and movies that I have ripped to my harddrive currently. After I did that I doubt I would use it anymore.

Thanks,

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

How many DVDs from a superdrive would it take to backup 120gb of stuff? I am considering getting the superdrive in my soon to be powerbook, but after reading this I am not sure I would use it all that much. My only real motivation for getting it would be to backup all my photos, mp3s and movies that I have ripped to my harddrive currently. After I did that I doubt I would use it anymore.

Thanks,

You are looking at about 30 DVD's.

Never thought that I would use the DVD-R much, but I have found that I use it a lot for backup. With discs going for less that $1 when on sale, it is a cheap and easy method for me.