So the new high-resolution Powerbooks come out just 32 days after I bought a 15" Powerbook at work. Aaaargh. What to do, what to do? Simple, find some other closet Mac-lover in the office that needs a laptop and slyly suggest that it would be OK if they used a Powerbook instead of the usual Dell. Bingo, time to upgrade. Discussion after the break....
So how is the new 15" Powerbook? In most respects, same as the old
Powerbook. I went for the 7200 RPM drive, which (subjectively at least)
does make things a bit zippier. The biggest difference was the screen,
though. I had been using the original Powerbook with an old (really
really old) Dell 20" CRT. Unfortunately, the Powerbook, for whatever
reason, did not drive the monitor as well as my older 12" Powerbook
with VGA out. No doubt the conversion from DVI to VGA has something to
do with it, but the CRT was just too dim. It was killing my eyes. But
the 15" screen simply wasn't big enough. Enter the Hi-Res 15" Powerbook.
The new screen is, like its predecessor's, gorgeous. The same brightness, etc.. The extra screen real estate, even though everything is smaller, is just enough to allow me to dump the CRT. I was running the CRT at 1600x1200, which is a lot more vertical room, and that's really what I need when working on the computer. Web pages and Word docs are not that wide, but they are long. However, the CRT was so soft, I usually had to view Word docs at 150-200%. The Powerbook's screen, on the other hand, is so bright and crisp that I can read much smaller text without eye strain. I view Word docs at 125-150%, and keep the fonts relatively small for Web pages. So I'm not giving up that much, if any, vertical real estate.
Overall I'm really happy with the new 'Book. The extended battery life seems significant, but I didn't get that much time to use the older 15" so can't say for sure what that difference really is in the long run. The trackpad button is a bit stiff, at least for now. The biggest complaint I have is that the ports are on both sides. I have Ethernet and Firewire 800 sticking out one side and Power, USB, and speakers sticking out the other. Since I use the Powerbook as my only computer at work, it is usually plugged into all these things, and it's certainly not as elegant as it might be. I still can't fathom why Apple insists on making the Powerbooks so dock-unfriendly. I can understand them not making their own docks, but why not at least make it possible for third parties to make a port replicator?
Business users are far more likely to be able to justify a Powerbook than a PowerMac at work, so I doubt that making docks and port replicators available is going to cut into PowerMac sales (especially given the performance difference). It might, however, make it possible for more people to use that Powerbook full time at work and get off the PC. Ah well, who knows what goes in those minds in Cupertino...
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