Official 12" Powerbook (1.33 Ghz) Review?

blackwind212

Those fortunate enough to own the new 1.33Ghz powerbook please post a review.



How is the new graphics card? (Halo running any better)



Display, is it still dim or is it noticabely brighter.



Does the computer run any cooler?



Has the battery life improved over the previous?



Thanks a bunch guys (yes I'm considering an upgrade)







12" Powerbook Rev. B (1Ghz)

Perfect condition, 768mb ram, airport card, 40gb, combo drive. cost me $1700

Selling for $1250



Contact me if you're interested.

shetline

I'm pleased with mine. I upgraded from the last model when I saw how much I could sell my old one for on eBay. It was a net cost of about $350 to upgrade for me.



The display is brighter with better contrast than my 1 GHz 12" PB. It's still not what I'd call "stunning", but a noticeable improvement. The biggest display improvement, however, was that my old PB had one bad pixel, and this one had none. (Bad pixels bug the hell out of me.)



I'm not a gamer, nor do I do anything else that really stresses the video card, so I can't really tell you anything about that.



I am surprised that with the faster processor, faster bus, and faster hard drive (I had the optional 80 GB in both, but this time around, that size drive is 5400 RPM instead of 4200) this PB actually seems to run cooler than the last. Battery life appears to be about the same, but I have yet to come close to running out the battery.



All in all, I'm quite pleased with my new toy.







BTW... I tried to simply clone my old drive onto my new computer, with both computers plugged into my G5 in FireWire target disk mode.



The first thing that I found out was that my Belkin PCI FireWire card -- which works fine for giving me an extra FireWire port for my iSight -- doesn't seem to be very reliable at all for hooking up a FireWire drive. I completely, forced-power-down-required, hung my G5 three times, each time about 10 minutes into the attempted disk copy, before I caught on to what might be wrong.



Finally, using only the built-in FireWire ports, I did a complete Carbon Copy Cloner copy of my original PB drive to the new computer, with no more apparent problems -- at least as far as my G5 was concerned. The end result was a new PB that didn't boot up properly, however -- I got as far as a slightly mangled gray Apple logo on boot-up, and then nothing. I guess the disk image from the old PB wasn't entirely compatible with the new PB.



After going back to the software restore discs, and moving documents and reinstalling apps the old fashioned way, everything was fine.

blackwind212

Thanks shetline.



*sorry about the the question mark, (I can't edit the title for some reason).

ipodandimac

Quote:

Originally posted by shetline

Battery life appears to be about the same, but I have yet to come close to running out the battery.

how many hours, and what apps do you typically run?

shetline

Quote:

Originally posted by ipodandimac

how many hours, and what apps do you typically run?

I think the longest I've go on battery power with this new PowerBook was about two hours, and supposedly had about an hour and a half left according to the battery meter.



I was web browsing, using Timbuktu a little to get to another computer, with Real Player running for part of that time in the background so I could listen to a radio station. I wasn't making any special effort to conserve battery life: I was running the display at full brightness, had Airport on all the time, kept the computer awake the whole time. About the only power-saving measure in effect was having the Energy Saver processor setting on Automatic rather than Highest.

bspears

Just got mine last night. Plain Jane 256mb 60gb HD. Set up went easy and fast. This thing is a hellava lot zippier than my DP450 desktop and just blows away my 12" iBook. The display looks great. NO dead pixels. The case is square and level. It does not rock on the table and the top closes easily.The latch mechanism is a great improvement over the iBook. I am not much of a gamer but I did install Unreal Tournament 2003 to test the video performance. I got to noodle around with it for about 15 minutes and it looks pretty good. One or two stutters but for the most part the movement and rendering was fluid and smooth. It does get a little warmer than my iBook did but not enough to be a problem. Overall I am very very happy with it and cannot wait to get Photoshop CS installed to really stress it. My best Apple purchase yet.



bob spears

dave k.

I am pissed off.



I just purchased a new 12" PB (Combo Drive) from the Apple store. I was planning to tell you that it is such great machine and that ...



But after only f*cking 4 hrs it is dead! I am pissed. I was installing Keynote. I walk away, came back screen was black. Nothing is turning this unit back on.

bspears

Addendum to previous post. I have installed both Halo and UT 2004 and I have upped the ram to 768mb. Both of these games play very well on this unit. Still no dead pixels. I am very happy with this powerbook.



bob spears

think

I got a 12" 1.33 PB for my first Apple purchase ever, and all I can say is wow! After my educational discount, this is the best bang-for-buck deal out there, not to mention the sexiest small laptop I've come across.



I got a base model 256mb/60gb model and recently upgraded the ram with a 512mb stick from Transcend, purchased at www.newegg.com. Even before the memory upgrade, the computer was very quick to respond to any command.



As a hardcore PC user, I must say that OS X's UI is candy to use. The keyboard is a pleasure as well. The screen, while nothing to write home about, is more than sufficient. I've found battery life to be around 3.5-4 hours with MS Word, iTunes and Airport running with reduced processor performance and a dimmed screen at all times.



Another huge plus is that this computer runs in complete silence. The fan comes on only once in a great while, and only while running at full performance.



As for video performance, I do not yet own any games for my Mac, but I'm sure that will change soon enough .



All in all, this has been the most pleasurable computing experience I've had since building my first computer years ago. I haven't touched my Windows desktop in over a week, I use the PowerBook for all things not game related. A great buy!

knmphotography

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave K.

I am pissed off.



I just purchased a new 12" PB (Combo Drive) from the Apple store. I was planning to tell you that it is such great machine and that ...



But after only f*cking 4 hrs it is dead! I am pissed. I was installing Keynote. I walk away, came back screen was black. Nothing is turning this unit back on.

Dave,

The same thing happend to me. I bought my PB on April 24th. Yesterday I tried to turn it on and nothing!



I took it back to the Apple Store I bought it at and they exchanged it for me with no problem.



Kuddos to the Apple Store in Chandler AZ.



I hope you get your issue resolved as easy as I did.



Good Luck!



Mark

formerlurker

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave K.

I am pissed off.



I just purchased a new 12" PB (Combo Drive) from the Apple store. I was planning to tell you that it is such great machine and that ...



But after only f*cking 4 hrs it is dead! I am pissed. I was installing Keynote. I walk away, came back screen was black. Nothing is turning this unit back on.

Try resetting the PMU. Also, see if you can boot into Open Firmware, and if so, reset the NVRAM. See Genius Bar sticky if you need more info.



Good Luck. If it can't be revived, it will surely be replaced.

scott

Quote:

Originally posted by FormerLurker

Try resetting the PMU. Also, see if you can boot into Open Firmware, and if so, reset the NVRAM. See Genius Bar sticky if you need more info.



Good Luck. If it can't be revived, it will surely be replaced.

I wouldn't bother. If you get it working then it works and you have to keep it with a big question mark over it. If you take it back you get a new.

blackwind212

how does Halo/UT/NOLF2 play with the 64 mb card?





I love my computer, but I love playing games as well, the 32mb card on my current 12" (although incredible) does not play 3d games that well.



I would hate to sell my perfect computer, but I would rather just upgrade the vid card. I heard that there is no way to do it..but do apple people themselves do this kind of thing? (official Apple people)

bspears

I have both Halo and UT 2004. I was not much of a gamer before so I cannot give you a detailed comparison but I will tell you that to me they seem to play very well. The graphics are detailed and the movements smooth. My son the gamer says he likes the performance. I have upgraded the ram to 768.



bob

m01ety

I saw one of the new 12"ers at the CambridgeSide retail location. The screen is dramatically better.

dmband0026

Typing this on my new 12", and I'm in love.

The display is awesome. I'm running it at half brightness now because I don't need all of it. At 3/4 brightness it is easily as bright as my dad's Wintell laptop (15in).

It's a little warm now, but not uncomfortable. It's very quiet, no fan in all the hours I've been using it.

I got about 4 hours battery life total today, after the first charge, now I'm waiting for it to run all the way down.

Actually, the fan just kicked on for the first time, and since the airflow is out the back, mostly behind the display, you can barely hear it. Fan just turned off...if I wasn't listening, I would have really even know...if I was in a room with ambient noise.

For the size of the machine, the sound is awesome. It won't satisfy an audiophile, but what computer system will?

Airport reception isn't quite as strong as my old iBook, but it gets the job done in every room of my house, including outside on the patio and the front porch, so I'm happy.

The keyboard is crisp, feels great. Trackpad is solid, as is the button.

I got a bluetooth mouse with the machine, bluetooth worked flawlessly, and I'm extremely happy with the mouse. I can't say enough about how awesome wireless stuff is.

It's lighter than air, having a sub 5 pound notebook is amazing. I haven't burned anything yet, nor have I really taxed the machine, but I'll keep ya'll updated.

If you want my recommendation, I say go for it, get one of these things, load it up, and don't look back. It's an awesome deal for the machine you get.

You won't regret it for a second.

randycat99

Anybody notice this (or maybe this applies more to older iBooks)- the fan doesn't come on even when you are hitting the processor hard, but if you are working the OpenGL graphics pretty hard, then the fan comes on? Could it be the CPU heating can pretty much be handled via natural air circulation, but it is really the GPU that needs forced cooling?



I dunno really. I don't have any clear examples. All I've really observed is that I never once seen the fan come on for the screensavers where the CPU was peaking a lot, but as soon as I started messing around with the folding@home module that rotates a big protein strain on the screen, that's the first time I ever heard the fan (with a good amount of racket at that).