Great! I’ve mentioned this before, but I genuinely see the portable G4 Macs fully operational for another 10 years at least. This absolutely supersedes the limit of what we would all typically consider as the functional working lifespan of a computer system.
The build quality of the Aluminum PowerBooks, in all 3 sizes, have been, without compromise, the best quality Apple products ever built.
Externally, many of these machines on the 2nd hand market may have taken a beating, but most are still fully operational and the internal components have been almost unbreakable.
Even in a tight design like the PB 12” it is rare for logic boards and GPUs to overheat and fail anywhere near the rate of failure in the iBooks, MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
The iBook G4s are also an elegant and externally durable design, but with many internal components built on the cheap, I don’t think they will stand the test of time in the same league as the PowerBook G4.
Also, although the Titanium is a thing of beauty, it unfortunately is a fragile device, with paint stripping at the lightest sneeze, hinges snapping and frames cracking during regular use. These just won’t survive as working portable Macs like their younger Aluminum siblings.
As you can tell, I’m a big fan of the AlBooks. My collection started with a single 15” model purchased new in 2004 and has recently, within the past year or so, grown to include;
PB 12” 1.0Ghz, 512MB, 80GB HDD
PB 12” 1.33Ghz, 1.25GB, 60GB HDD
PB 12” 1.5Ghz, 1.25GB, 64GB mSATA SSD
PB 15” 1.0Ghz, 768MB, 60GB HDD
PB 15” 1.5Ghz, 2GB, 60GB SSD
PB 15” 1.67Ghz SLSD, 2GB, 80GB HDD
2x PB 15” 1.67Ghz DLSD, 2GB, 80GB HDD
PB 17” 1.67Ghz SLSD, 2GB, 64GB mSATA SSD
