Apple PowerBook Laptop 15" M9422LL/A (1.50-GHz PowerPC G4, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive)

Amazon Customer Reviews

(5 out of 5)

Like driving BMW

Like it or not, I've used Windows/PC for the past 12 years. Macintosh occasionally appealed to me, but I didn't get it partly because it's expensive, partly because of compatibility. At work and at home, I owned: Dell Inspiron, Thinkpad, Dell/HP Desktops, running Windows 98/2000/XP. Also I tinkered with Sun workstations running UNIX (I'm an EE guy and have a respect for UNIX).
After 12 years of Microsoft (and blue screens), I made a bold switch to Apple Powerbook 15" with 1.5GHz/512RAM/80Gb, and I'm so happy with this system that even 5 stars are not high enough.

- The sleek aluminum chassis and the wide screen generate Wow! effect.
- This 15" machine is lighter than my old Dell laptop.
- It's very quiet during operation, but the bottom side may occasionally become hot.
- The keyboard has a good depth and touch, and the backlit keyboard is simply cool.
- Using the built-in microphone, you can play the bundled 3-D chess game via OS X's voice-recognition. Isn't that futuristic?

About software compatibility (from EE guy's viewpoint):
- MS Office 2004 for Mac became my favorite patch of programs. Even better than the XP version - a very important factor in my decision to switch.
- Math tools, especially Mathematica 5 and Matlab, run well on Mac.
- Favorite design tools, Adobe Photoshop and Carrara 3, work well. After all, Mac was built for them.

- There are tons of open source programs you can use: GIMP, A/G BLAST, ...
- Some layout and CAD tools are not compatible. I have to use old PC. For those number-crunching jobs, however, I don't use laptop anyhow.

As much as I enjoy steering this elegant silver machine, I love to navigate through the Mac OS X. As Sun's Bill Joy said during an interview, "Mac OS X is rock solid". I like the idea of using UNIX commands on my Mac, although I can do everything with the user-friendly Mac interface.

Yes, Powerbook is more expensive compared with Dell and other PCs, but you get what you pay for: top-quality components, futuristic functionality, eye-catching design, and the enormous joy of owning a rock-solid elegant machine (like BMW!). You'll definitely like this one!

(4 out of 5)

This is THE Laptop

I've had this computer for almost three months now. I upgraded to the 128MB videocard and 1GB ram. I also installed Abobe Creative Suite CS, Office 2004 for Mac, Virtual PC 6 with Win2000 and Red Hat Linux, and Macromedia Stdio 2004. I also have lots of IBM-made Windows XP Pro laptops and workstations. Windows XP drives me nuts most of the times. As an Italian, I do appreciate beauty and aesthetics, and I certainly agree with Steve Jobs when he says about Microsoft, "They have no taste." When you compare the elegance of MacOS with WinXP, it's like comparing a Michelangelo painting with a six-year old kid's drawing. And I won't even mention the beauty of the machine itself or even the attention to details in the packaging of the unit.
The OS is rock-solid. I may have Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver, iPhoto open at the same time, and the OS hums through all that like a Lexus at 65mph on the I5. This my not be the fastest PC out there, but it certainly does not feel any slower than my 3.0GHz, 1GB, 80GB, 7200rpm IBM intellistation. It is surely more stable though (and quieter too). The thing is, this machine, unlike a Windows box, does not require a Norton or McAfee Internet security suite to bog down your system resurces. To give you an example, my virtualPC win2000 was fine until I installed McAfee Internet security suite, which slowed it down a bit (well, maybe five bits). It is actually amusing to use virtual Win2000 on top of MacOS. When you see the sloppines of Windows-based programs, unwanted balloon tips popping up all the time bragging about the new exciting features of the OS or warning you about a new virus and so forth, it is a pleasure to go back to Mac OS and just do whatever you need to do with ease. The Apple Mail program has a better spam filter than Outlook on my IBM. The machine goes to sleep in one second and wakes up from sleep in two seconds, and even when on, it's whisper quiet. When the processor is working at full blast, you can hear the noise, but it's still much quieter than my IBM Boeing-747-take-off kind of noise. Safari is fast and reliable, iLife is a pleasure to use, when inserting a previously seen - but unfinished - DVD into the slot, the DVD player asks you whether you want to start watching the movie from the beginning or from where you left off. Isn't that what every DVD player on the planet should do? Yet, not only do Windows-based DVD player not do that, they either have some of the ugliest interfaces in the software world (WinDVD) or install a lot of crapware on your system that makes ad windows pop up all the time (real player). Mac OS never crashed in three months of intensive use, nor did the applications, with the exception of Word 2004 (it does it all the time when selecting Italian as the language in the TOOLS menu... maybe Bill Gates does not like Italy) and iPhoto once.
Switching from Windows to Mac was a walk in the park, I think I took 10 minutes to figure out the big picture, and one day to master it at an intermediate level. if you are a developer, you'll love the xCode and python programs too. They come free with the machine.
The machine is not perfect, though; hence only four stars. Text looks crisper to me in Win XP than it does in Mac OS, even though Microsoft drives me nuts with its persistence in using small size fonts in this day and age. Sure, I know i can select extra large fonts in Display Panel, and I can change font size within specific applications, but it's still a pain in the rear and time consuming. Fonts on the Mac are already of the perfect size (Apple, unlike MS, seems to grasp the concept that we are not using 640x480 screens anymore) and a pleasure to read, even though they could be a bit crisper (that could be a subjective thing, though. Some people swear by the smoothness of Mac fonts...). BTW, you will have to know how to set up the Clear Font option in Win XP because it's not active by default, which makes text in Win XP horrible. Again, what is Microsoft thinking? Sloppy people. The second complaint about this powerbook is relative to the lid hatch that lets the lid pop open sometimes. I know there's a DIY way of fixing it. I just didn't go the Apple discussion board yet, to read how to implement it. overall, unless you are into gaming, you should definetly ditch Windows in favor of Mac OS. It will be like leaving the Venetian casino in Vegas and going to Piazza San Marco in Venice. When you see the real thing, you will be asking yourself, "Why was I at the Venetian in the first place?"

(5 out of 5)

My Switching Experience

About 5 months ago my own Dell laptop up and died (thank goodness for that) so I finally had an excuse to buy a new computer. I had been seriously looking at the Mac for about a year, and now I had an excuse to get one. I bought the 15" Powerbook G4, and honestly, I don't think I'll ever be going back.

Perhaps the best place to start would be in terms of security. Macs are inherently more secure than Windows machines. You could say this is because no one uses the Mac, so all the hackers and script kiddies don't bother with them, or just because the Mac is better. It doesn't matter, because either way the statement is still true. Since I got a Mac, I completely forgot about viruses, worms, trojans, et al. I can check my email in peace, without worrying about the consequences. I don't have to put out extra money to pay for anti-virus software (even though I did at first, just to be safe. I've since found it to be unnecessary.) I don't need to worry about emailing a killer virus to my entire address book and then having my credit card info mailed off to the Russian Mob. Or whatever. It's just safer over here.

Ease of use is the next big area. Once you get to know the Mac (took me about one afternoon before I could comfortably move around it) you find that everything is so much easier. The statement "Everything just works" is so true, although for a non-user, it is sort of hard to explain. I guess a good example of this would be my printer. For my Dell laptop, if I ever had to reinstall the drivers for the printer, I'd have to go to HP's website, download a 50MB file, then go through the whole installation process (which seemed to screw up half the time anyway) before I could print anything. With the Mac, I just had to plug the printer in, and OS X immediately recognized it and set it up for me. To add to the impressiveness of this, all the necessary utilities and controls were there, just as if I had gone to HP's website and downloaded that stupid 50MB file.

If you're planning on getting the Powerbook specifically, I'll give you some of the advantages of the mobile Mac over one of the various Windows bricks you could get. At only an inch thick and 5.7 pounds, it is incredibly light compared to a Windows laptop of similar screen size and processing power. I'm a high school student right now, so carrying around a laptop in addition to the regular books and such can get make things pretty cumbersome. With the Dell laptop, it was like throwing a brick into my backpack. With the Powerbook, it's definitely still there, but it also definitely weighs a lot less. The battery life on the Mac is also quite good, with 3 hours being about the average, and 4 hours if you really know how to conserve battery (dim the screen, shut off Airport and Bluetooth, mute the sound.) You should almost always have enough battery to watch a full length DVD. I don't know if this concerns you, but wireless range with Macs also seems to be considerably better. I have a wireless network at my home and at school, and the Powerbook gets a much better reception all around than the Dell Inspiron ever did.

Lastly, there's the coolness factor. I've never met anyone who didn't stop to stare at a Powerbook, just to absorb the whole sight in. It's a design marvel of sorts, there really isn't much to complain about. Aluminum is a very nice touch as well. The backlit keyboard rocks if you do anything in the dark.

(5 out of 5)

Quite simply, the best in the world.

Don't be afraid of taking the step and getting an Apple notebook. The other ones aren't worth it. I've had a Dell and a Toshiba, and both have failed me. I don't even want to mention my grandma's HP. Powerbook is quite simply the best. Its design blows the mind, with no little doors or anything that could get caught on something. The Apple Experience starts when you open the box. Its incredible. Apple is the BMW of computers. Its beatiful. When you finish calibrating the battery the way they say, you're ready to have fun. The apple logo lights up in back. You don't notice it, you're having so much fun. A plenthora of the latest ports (Apple didn't bother with the old ports nobody will use), you can hook up your USB 2 and Firewire devices. Inside Apple has given you the best software. Dell will load your laptop up with cheesy shareware software, where you have to buy it after 15 days. Apple gives you the finest--included. iLife 04 with iTunes (manage music), iPhoto (manage photos), iMovie (edit movies), iDVD (make DVDs), and GarageBand (MAKE/edit music) blows away any software from the Windows world. OmniGraffle is a really cool drawing program, and GraphicConverter is a great graphics program. Mail, iCal, Address Book, Safari, and the other built-in apple programs are very nice. Safari is better than Internet Explorer for browsing, and Mail is far nicer than Outlook Express.
Worried about not having enough software for Mac? Forget it. There's piles of high quality stuff for Mac. There is literally nothing you can do on a PC that you can't do on a Mac, often far better. Even with games, where the Mac is slightly lacking, you can get Command and Conquer, Warcraft 3, Myst, Age of Empires, and many more popular titles.

Mac OSX was rated the best operating system according to PC World magazine, and its not hard to see why. I was smitten. You will be smitten too.

Mac simply don't get viruses, spyware, and randomly crash right when you're writing the most important report of your career. This is probably one of the biggest pluses. No more blue screen of death.

The built in wireless was a great plus. When I plugged in the mac, it found our wireless network instantly. Did you know, we had not been able to figure out how to do file sharing with our PCs. We plug in the mac, and it found our other PCs right then and there. I was file sharing in minutes!

The backlit keyboard is sooo cool. Its automatic, and it is just stunning.

Watching DVDs is great. The battery actually lasts long enough to finish the movie, and the controls aren't fussy and impossibly tricky. There's no CD tray. Its a slot-loading drive (see picture in product description)

Overall, you can really tell someone was thinking when they made this computer. What a winner!

I don't want to sound like a salesperson, so there are some cons:
-Won't run your windows software. You will have to look around for some replacements. Most of the commonly used stuff is built right in, so you can read (and create) PDFs, manage your digital stuff, get mail, surf the web, read Word documents, and much much more. You may have to find some more specialized programs for Excel and Powerpoint files, Graphics editing, etc...
-ummm.....
-The mouse has just one button
-umm.....
-Mac OSX takes a little getting used to, but then you'll figure it out after a day or two

You will be sorry if you choose to buy a Wintel (Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway, Sony, etc...)notebook. When you spend the first 10 hours after you buy your computer on tech support, you will remember this review. You have been warned.

(3 out of 5)

Disappointed

The presentation of this unit when it arrived was very impressive. The packaging, the body, the little details that Apple has thought of were very nice. However, I had wanted this machine mainly to do some digital photography work and had been attracted by the included software (e.g. iPhoto). iPhoto does not compare to My Pictures. It is cumbersome, difficult to file pictures in a useful way and tedious to use. It might be useful to show pictures to your family in a relatively unorganized fashion, but with all of the other excellent slide show software out there that do a good job, you would think that Apple would get the hint. And finally, when I loaded over 20GB worth of photos into Pictures, iPhoto went into some kind of spin where it never stopped trying to load the photos. I was finally able to stop it when I dumped the photos.

I had this unit for two weeks and while I had it it froze up on me twice. I decided that this was not something that I needed to have especially since for me this was a switch from Windows XP on an Acer which has worked very well. Thus, I decided to retun the unit and am now waiting for Amazon to return my money.