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

As other reviewers have stated, the hardware itself is great. The computer is visually stunning. And the OS is rock-solid and user-friendly.

Some people have complained about the size for traveling. It's about as small as a 17" computer could be -- but if you are sitting in coach and the person in front of you reclines their seat, it's hard to use. (Get the 12" if you think this might be a problem for you.)

Finally, a word on Apple service. I had some problems with this computer and needed to send it back to Apple several times -- which is a bad thing. On the other hand, I finally reached Roberto, a Powerbook specialist in AppleCare, who was understanding and expedited my repair -- which is a good thing. 4-stars -- would have been 5-stars except for the hardware problems.

I dont have a Powerbook 17 (yet), so I am not going to make any statemnts abouit it. Nevertheless I feel like saying the following:

after reading some of the reviews here, I noticed that people often make the mistake of comparing Powerbooks to PCs. This is wrong guys! Please compare Powerbook with Wintel Notebooks only. And then youll probably see that PB definitely is a strong performer. Otherwise you may also start to compare Centrino Notebooks with dual G5s..

thanks

The Powerbook 17" is reasonably fast. I suggest however to get it with at least 1GB since any Apple computers work defnitively better with a good amount of ram (half Giga is really the minimum). With 2GB (as I got) you will be quite satisfied since that will avoid the use of virtual memory (that can be painfully slow). Also, with 256MB of ram the video card performs quite well (despite I did not tested the computer with hard demanding video software). Comparred to my old PB, the ventilation is quite silent and efficient. Overall I am quite satisfied, still there are some negative points.

1. There in only one button mouse. Apple instists in this idea that is even more ununderstandable since many of its programs (like Safari) actually support a 3 buttons mouse.

2. The screen is ***far*** to be perfect. There is a strong pink backgroud that makes thet display unusable for photo editing. Mac OS is also provided with a very poor color calibration system. I impreved a bit the result by using a color scheme for a 3rd party monitor, but still the pink background is not completely erased.

3. I had some problems with the USB port and finally I had to erase my ipod. I am not sure if that is a problem of the powerbook or of the ipod. With the firewire (which i reserved for other devices) the ipod worked without problems. I suspect (despite I am not sure) that there is some bug in Mac OS since I had other problems with other devices under USB on both this and other Macs.

4. The use of an external monitor is still quite primitive.
a) You can not move the dock on the external monitor
(unless you do not want to use only the external one).
b) You can not have the menubar on both monitors at the same time.
c) The X11 client will open every window always on the main monitor.
d) The procedure to use the external monitor keeping close the powerbook
is quite boring.

These days the new version (1.6GB) appeared. Its specifications look very similar (still lacking a G5). I suspect that it owns the same screen of mine. This can be a serious problem under certain circumstances. So maybe you could be better serverd by a 12" (easier to be carry) and a good external monitor.

Sure Mac's aren't the fastest computers in the world, but for most people 1.5GHz G4 is fine. And with the nice big screen this one is very cute. I also like the fact that the MacOS is made for people like me who are clueless about computers. My only complaint is that Apple products seem to break down a little more than I would like. I guess that's the price of staying in fashion!