Home > Consumer Reviews > Apple PowerBook Laptop 17" M9462LL/A (1.50-GHz PowerPC G4, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive)

Hello everyone. I've owned my 17" 1.5 PB for about three months now. I use it both on the road, and as my main desktop computer. It is by far the most capable and useful computer I have ever owned.

I have used both Macs and PCs everyday for the past 2 years (I am a creative director, and use both machines depending upon the nature of the work). I am not Mac centric: PCs have many nice features, are generally faster than Macs, and the software is now pretty much up to parity.

With that being said, I still prefer the Mac OS to Windows. Everything works extremely well, the user experience is far more polished and user-centric, and it NEVER crashes. Never. My last laptop was a G3 and it was a stinker. I convinced myself that laptops were inherently less stable than their full-sized cousins. Nope. Not true. This machine is solid as they come.

Speaking of solid: the keyboard is easily the best I have ever used on a laptop. The action is tight and crisp, and the placement is comfortable. And, the fiber optic backlighting (when ambient lighting is down) has been a pleasure. No going back. I can sit in bed with the lights off and play poker, surf the web, or write with no problems.

The ports (of which there are many) are well placed, and seated extremely well (my old G3 shed ports like a molting emu). Since I come and go a lot, and don't have a docking station, the port integrity is REALLY important. So far, happy happy.

The display is sharp and bright, with a good viewing angle. Its 17", and runs at a max resolution of 1400x900. I am a graphic designer, and have been working on 300DPI images in Photoshop, and while I would be happier with a bigger screen, this 17" is more than adequate. At home I hook my PB up to a Dell 17" flat panel, and the graphics card (which I raised to 128 megs of video) has no problem running both the native display and the Dell. Tons of working room, and great refresh.

Battery life is ok. The big screen is a power hog. BUT, the batteries recharge very quickly. And the little AC adaptor is a gorgeous design, with a very very long cord. You might think about getting an extra: one for home and one for the travel bag.

The superdrive is fast and responsive. I don't know how Apple fit it in there, but its there, and I use it regularly, either burning archival CDs, DVDs, and getting music to the iPod.

I am trying to think of negatives. The 17" PB is a bit heavier, but then again, it's a bit bigger than any 15". So, weight to me is not a detriment. What's a couple of pounds anyway? The size is bigger, but hey, I wanted a 17" screen, so I am not really expecting to sit in coach class and be able to open a Mile High Cinema Experience. Its a 17" screen. So, no gripes there. I'll just have to start working on getting into First Class. :)

All in all, a great computer. The fact that you can carry it around, only triples its usefulness. Combine it with a wireless network, and whoa, you can a killer portable entertainment center: email, web surfing, movie watching, music listening, anywhere you want. This PB has surprised me again and again with its usefulness and versatility. Completely, utterly five stars worth of laptop.

I bought a PowerBook 12" 867MHz about nine months ago, had a brief fling with a Dell that my work issued me, and went back to the Mac. Then, in a fit of insanity, I clicked "buy" and now I am a very happy owner of the 17" 1.5GHz.

Positives:
- The screen is just massive, and you don't need to be a graphic artist or movie producer to use it; it works great for Excel, side-by-side document editing, or just keeping iChat and Sticky Notes in view while surfing the web
- It's pretty fast; I'm finally happy with the performance of Virtual PC 6.0 running Windows 2000 and Outlook XP; as a matter of fact I've duplicated my Windows work laptop in VPC and no longer have to carry two machines around
- Movies are incredible on the big screen, and the speakers have great stereo separation (to the point that sometimes working late at night, I think I hear someone in the room, and it turns out to be part of the song)
- It's quite thin, even compared to the 12", which is good on my wrists when typing

Negatives:
- Trying to get around the massive screen with the touchpad is a chore; get an external mouse ASAP
- Sitting in bed working on e-mail can be a bit difficult, because if you end up slanting the PowerBook upwards, the cover wants to close
- Even though this is one of the smallest 17" laptops out there, you just can't get away from the fact that it's a big monster of a machine when you spread out on a desk, airplane tray table, or other area

Wow. This is a stunning laptop. No other laptop on the market can match the Apple Powerbook. Yes, no other laptop SHOULD match the Apple Powerbook because you're paying nearly double the price for this one, but I assure you, you won't be disappointed with this power-house. I am a college graphic design student, and I was required to purchase this computer for my field of choice. I was sort of reluctant to have to ask my parents to purchase ANOTHER computer for me, but once I started researching the powerbook, I totally changed my mind immediately. I worked on Powerbooks inside my classes and began to fall in love. Stunning graphics, quiet as a mouse, and people will all be jealous of this little beauty. I suggest upgrading memory to 1 GB. It makes your computer run so much faster with multiple programs. You can burn a dvd and surf the interent while working on a document. It's really nice to be able to do all of that without your computer freezing on you. Go to the Apple website and research more about the Powerbooks, and if you choose this route for your laptop, you won't be disappointed!!!

I am a corporate designer. I had my choice of getting a G5 desktop or the 17" PowerBook. I struggled with the decision, primarily because I wanted those dual processors so badly. I went for the PowerBook because of the portability...and come on, it's GORGEOUS. I am absolutely thrilled I chose this laptop. It's fast, rarely crashes ( I think I restart maybe once a week) and is more than I expected or hoped for. I also maxed out the RAM at 2 gigs, which has helped tremendously.

I added a bluetooth keyboard and mouse (apple) and use my existing 20" flatscreen, with the laptop's screen acting as a palette monitor while I am in the office. I also added an iCurve stand ($40 Griffin) which keeps my PowerBook cool and brings it to eye level which has offered less neck strain.

My one gripe is that 80 gigs simply is NOT enough. I was spoiled with a 120 gig HD in my old G4 tower PLUS an extra 80 gig internal drive. With Creative Suite being such a huge scratch disk hog, I am constantly having to archive files to get them off my hard disk to make more space. If you are like me and have a large mp3 collection, you know how important a large HD is. Hopefully, Apple will add a larger capacity HD option to it's next offering.

I have never enjoyed a computer more. My experience has been nothing but positive. I am a graphic designer and I do a lot of photo editing, large layouts, video editing and the like (I've even discovered GarageBand which is a lot of fun) and the Powerbook has always been very fast and very reliable. I upgraded to 1GB of RAM and got the 128MB video card option which probably helped too. But the 1.5 G4 has been plenty of processor, the screen is big and beautiful, Airport Extreme is great. Configurations are a snap. I have almost completely replaced my desktop with it. My only concern (its not too much of a concern though) is that it starts to become too big for ultra portablity. If thats what you're looking for maybe go with the 15". I go the Apple Care Warranty for peace of mind but have not had to use. Great Computer.