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| Product: Titanium PowerBook G4 400 MHz |
Company: Apple Computer |
| Web: www.apple.com |
Phone: 877-546-1040 |
| Platform: MacOS |
SRP: US$2600
Street Price: $2300 |
Cred Rating: | Special Award:
Object Value |
My last Mac was one of the first generation Power PC clones and it ran for almost ten years before giving up the ghost. When it finally did die, I'd already made up my mind that my next Mac was going to be a PowerBook. I'd bought the last Mac for maximum expandability and had never used a single expansion slot. Truth is, unless you're doing heavy-duty video capture, power gaming or MIDI (none of which I do), you're not likely to need expansion slots. USB and FireWire do just fine these days.
The flaw in my little plan was that only desktop Apples were shipping with G4 processors, PowerBooks were still using the G3. Having been burned before by buying into trailing-edge technology, I decided to wait until the G4-equipped models came out. In the meantime, I went over to the "dark side" and did my graphics work on a Windows 2000 workstation.
A few months of waiting turned into a year, and then a few months more, but in the end, it was worth the wait. The Macintosh Titanium PowerBook G4 is sculpture that screams. I bought the 400MHz version with a 10GB hard drive. You won't find many discounts in terms of price, but I found a dealer willing to throw in 256MB of extra RAM, bringing my total to 394MB.
The first thing that strikes you about the TiBook is its titanium shell. It is absolutely gorgeous, giving the TiBook great aesthetic appeal while making it both lightweight and structurally rigid. Titanium, while a much sexier material than plastic, does have a few drawback. The finish on the machine is matte, but it can still get slippery under damp or sweaty hands. Titanium may be stronger than steel, but it's also softer, making it prone to scratches. In the months that I've had my Book, it's held up well, but I feel as though I have to be careful to keep it that way. Another quibble is the discreet magnetic catch that holds the PowerBook closed. The centrally-located latch does its job, but because of the thinness of the screen, the catch allows the screen to flex a bit. Dual latches in the corners would have been smarter and more secure. Another annoyance is a loose-fitting battery that can cause the TiBook to crash. Apple has apparently addressed this so it shouldn't be a problem for future buyers.
Astonishingly, there's no backup battery in the TiBook, so every time you do a hard reset, you have to change the date and time. This is no big deal, but it's one more step to perform after every crash (see loose battery issue above). Perhaps Apple figured we'd all be running OS X by now and we'd never be bothered by crashes again.
That's it for quibbling. Otherwise, the TiBook is, hands down, the best laptop I've ever experienced. I love it so much (and thanks to its 1" profile and 5.3 lb. weight), it goes everywhere I do at this point (which my Palm V is not too happy about).
The 15.2" TFT screen feels enormous, with an awesome 1152 x 768-pixel resolution. You can edit video on a screen of this quality, and many people do just that. In the back, under a sturdy door, are a full compliment of ports: 1 FireWire, 2 USB, 1 Ethernet (10/100BaseT), a 56K modem port, 4Mbps IrDA infrared, S-Video out and VGA out. I use them all on a regular basis. Battery life comes in at around four hours of regular usage. I get through a busy nine hour day with two batts (I bought an extra) and leave my AC adapter at home.
There's a slot-loading DVD-ROM drive that comes standard. I love watching DVDs on my Mac! I can watch them anywhere I damn well please. Life is good. The TiBook is the laptop I've always wanted. Thin, lightweight, sexy, powerful and a Macintosh. I'm trying hard to be objective but the urge to gush is there every time I pull it out of my bag. Three months of ownership has done nothing to dampen my enthusiasm. It is the best US$2500 I've ever spent.
- Eric Diamond [8/8/01]
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