Home > Consumer Reviews > Apple PowerBook Laptop 12.1" TFT M8760LL/A (867-MHz PowerPC G4, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive)

I had high hopes for my new powerbook, i've been a longtime PC user and have always found them to be powerful and well priced. I decided to get the ew 12" powerbook because the 15" was too expensive and the ibook models were too slow. I have had several problems with my new powerbook. The case gets so hot that it burns you and the case has already started to warp in places, apple says this isn't covered by warranty. Even with the G4 this is a slow laptop compared to similarly priced windows models, there is half-second pause between when I click on an icon and when it responds, this gets to be very annoying. When watching dvd's if you adjust the volume or switch chapters the video driver can't keep up and there is another pause. I also just don't like OSX and if you want a simple word processing program you have to spend $... for office. That is crazy if you ask me. I'll be going back to PC's after my (expensive) mistake of trying apple. I guess now I know why only 3% of people buy apples, you have to really like them and stand by them. I just don't have the patience, and the new centrino based notebooks are way fast and cheaper than this. The good things about this computer is the iLife program that comes with iTunes and iMovie, etc. This works fine. I will be keeping my powerbook as a place to keep digital music and nothing else. By thge way this is with 640 mb ram, i guess OSX needs 1 gig or more. I recommend running OS9 on this machine so things will speed up. And the built-in microphone is completely worthless, everyone sounds like a screaming baby. And with iMovie, which is great just know the the time it takes to render something in a home movie can take up to five minutes to add a simple effect. It only takes 5 seconds on my gateway 700x. If you are thinking about getting this please go to a mac store and use one, they aren't as great as everyone makes them out to be. Expect zero resale value, as I'm certain the aluminum case will have melted away within one year. Sorry apple but this is no good.

I've been on Macs for the past 15 years. Bought a 15 inch Powerbook a couple months ago, and then, Kaput!
Have been dealing with the supremely imcompetent AppleCare people evere since. They '"understand my frustration" but are unable to tell me when it will be fixed. Since this happenned I've talked to two other people who've had nothing but trouble with the new Powerbook, both 12 and 15 inch. Very disappointing!

Have run Intel/PC's for years. Have many friends who continually told me that I was nuts to not to try an Apple. Bought the 12 inch G4 because felt was a beautifully designed small compact package even though had misgivings switching to Apple's operating system. Experiences are as follows.

1. Disappointed when got home and found was 400 firewire and not 800 as claimed on 17 incher.
2. USB 1 and not 2. You ask why USB 2 is important when you have firewire. Much more USB 2 devices(DVD+-RW's, extended storage devices, scanners, etc) then for firewire.
3. Screen resolution and off angle view was unacceptable, not near as nice as current 15 inch Powerbooks
4. All who say that Apple's operating system in cleaner, easier, more powerful, elegant then Windows has either not ever used Windows or a PC or are comparing to Windows 3.1 or 95. This would be like saying that PC's are better then Apples because PC's have color screens. Remember the early Macs with no color screen when PC's had them for several years already? Also Internet Explorer 5.2(Windows is at 6.0) and no support for Outlook Express. They are not easier, just different. If you would like a Saab as an automobile you will love a Mac.
5. Built in Airport Extreme was more limited in range then my Sony Laptop running 802.11.b. Tried Airport Extreme in both G and B modes on 2 different routers(SMC802/11.b and Linksys 802.11.g) and still limited compared to Sony's add on SMC card.

6.Software and Hardware pricing for Apple was more expensive by far for add on products as selections were limited so competition was not great for pricing.
7. Called Apple's tech support 4 times, spoke to 4 different tech's who knew less than me on Apples(and I had 2 weeks experience only) and all led me to a big waste of time. Support techs were very poor in their knowledge of my problem as described and Apple's in general.
8. Will be willing to look at the 15 inch if it comes or the 17 when it does. Meanwhile purchased a 2.8 gig processor Compaq with a 16 inch screen(SXGA), 60 gig of disk, 1/2 gig of ram, firewire, 4 USB 2.0 ports and built in 802.11b wireless. Performs very well but is much larger, 8 pounds verses 5 pounds.

Again liked Apple design but product still needs much improvement to make a PC guy willing to switch

If you use OS9 and you want to use your old files, this computer is not the computer for you. It will launch classic applications, but there are many issues with older fonts. Unlike other Apple Computers, you can't launch OS9 at start-up. It will only launch when necessary to run Classic applications. Apple is basically trying to force you to use their new 0S. I can't do this for at least another year. If you are already using 0SX with no problems, you will be ok...but this computer is very slow. It takes almost 10 minutes just to boot up. One more thing...this computer is made of metal. It gets so hot that it could actually burn you if you touch it after it has been on for several hours. Looks like now is the time to switch to Windows. I highly recommend the Sony Vaio laptop series.