The new higher-res 15 and 17-inch PowerBooks
By Ryan Block 
posted Oct 19th 2005 1:10PM
posted Oct 19th 2005 1:10PM
Apple announced two spec bumps to their G4 PowerBooks at the PhotoPlus Expo 2005 today. Expect the new machines to have higher resolution displays; the 15-inch will hit 1440 x 960 (up from 1280 x 854), and the 17-inch will bound all the way up to 1680 x 1050 (up from 1440 x 900). Both laptops' displays will actually have 46% increased brightness, while supposedly managing a 22% increase in battery life. They'll also feature standard SuperDrives, built-in Cinema HD support, and are available now with a new pricing scheme: the 12-inch will go for $1,499, the 15-inch for $1,999, and the 17-inch for $2,499. Increments of $500 bones—easy enough, eh?
i was hoping for a 12" powerbook with gigabit and a DL burner :(
argh.. my 4 month old PB is outdated... oh well, im still happy with it :)
Hmmm... both are very wonderful. I will wait to obtain some money to buy it. :P
definitely a stop-gap update. meh
I was going to get a 12" powerbook today after an expected upgrade, after seeing that nothing was done it means that I'm not buying anything. WTG Apple.
Wow...this is excellent, the price for the 15 inch is just $1799 with educational discount. Now I can actually think of buying one.
My worst disappointment with the new Powerbooks is that Apple didn't update the trackpad with two buttons, like they did with the Mighty Mouse.
The new resolutions are still weak. Even the 15" Acer Travelmate from last year has 1680 x 1050 resolution... Way to almost catch up...
In a nutshell, the 12" and 15" had their previous "high-end" models moved down to the old "low-end" price point. The 15" also had a display bump (more pixels than the old 17") and gained the 128MB VRAM BTO option. The 17" gained the high-res screen.
15" is definitely the winner here. I don't see much of a future for the 12" based on the lack of development and the wide gulf between it and the rest of the Powerbooks. A shame, as I always wanted the architectural features of the 15" in a 12" package, and was willing to pay for it. Apple stubbornly views it as a "cheap Powerbook". The market views the result as an "expensive iBook".
mmm, black powerbook:
http://images.apple.com/powerbook/images/wirelesstop20050920.jpg
or at least that's what one might look like...
I've been considering a new laptop to hold me over until the Intel ones come out next year (my current laptop is dead). Maybe I'll get an iBook instead and save my money.
it looks like the new powerbooks are using the 7448 chip since the ram is now pc4200, not ps2700. i guess the slight FSB bump will make them marginally faster. too bad they're still running the radeon9700s though.
"The new resolutions are still weak. Even the 15" Acer Travelmate from last year has 1680 x 1050 resolution... Way to almost catch up..."
And have you actually tried to USE a 15" laptop with that sort of resolution?
There is a point where extra res on an LCD running a major mass-market OS becomes not just overkill, but actually a detriment to useability. It's one thing if you're talking some sort of medical or CAD specialized application, but running a general-purpose OS that's not tuned for extremely high screen density leads to all sorts of problems. The biggest one is obviously going to be font size.
Windows has a "large font" capability but turn it on and you'll see all sorts of weirdness (I'm not sure if the Mac has something similar, but we're talking about this Acer machine now). A lot of apps don't respect that setting at all and some of those that do, do it really poorly. Even Windows itself screws it up sometimes, doing things like overlapping text over title bars. There's also the simple issue that even fairly large images on a small, ultra high-res screen are going to appear very small - smaller than would be useful. (Web site graphics in particular.) Image editing can actually be more difficult on such a high-definition screen because you can't get down to the pixel level without zooming (you just can't see it otherwise, and serious photographers need to be able to see those pixels).
It's hard to explain to people what an issue this can be until they see it. It really does mess up almost everything. You can never get your fonts looking right. Some of them are way too small to even read, others will be HUGE and also very ugly, overlapping all sorts of stuff and not shaped or kerned properly, and there is no combination of settings you can use to fix things. (Other than unchecking the "use large fonts" box - but then *all* your fonts will be too small.)
I'm not arguing that lower screen density is better. I'm saying there has to be a balance between screen size and resolution. I think we can all agree that a 5" screen with a 1920x1080 resolution would be ridiculous - you'd never be able to see anything. (That "powered by blogsmith" graphic to the right side of the comments here, for example, would be about 1 millimeter in size.) A 15" screen with 1680x1050 is still too small for all but the youngest, least tired eyes.
My own 15.4" laptop is 1280x800 and I bought that on purpose. The next step up in res at that time was 1680x1050, which I went and tried out and it was just not useable. 1440x960 would probably still be reasonable, though. Normally on my laptop I don't see the pixels unless I want to, which is how it should be for anyone doing creative work. But you still need to be able to see those pixels without putting the screen right up to your face.
At work I have a 1920x1080 26" Cinema Display HD (typing on that right now), which is sweet. I am certainly not against high resolutions. But you need to match the best resolution to the screen size you're using. As you ramp up resolution, you need to ramp up screen size to keep the density reasonable. 1440x960 is probably about the highest I'd want to go on a 15" screen.
I too was awaiting news of an upgrade to the 12" PB ... oh well. I'd rather have the most expensive iBook than the least expensive PB.
I've been considering a new laptop to hold me over until the Intel ones come out next year (my current laptop is dead). Maybe I'll get an iBook instead and save my money.
15" powerbook also get digital in/out audio
that was only on the 17" model before
1920x1200 on my 15.4 dell (wide) is great.
you can always tweak the font sizes and icon in windows if you have poor vision.
>
I wonder if there will be another power savings boost in terms of battery life when the PowerBooks move to the successors of the PentiumM in 2006/2007.
This is not a troll but a real pondering.
iirc OS X is not totally retarded and actually listens to your displays DPI settings. Meaning that it doesn't anhilate all the text.
No integrated iSight?
No Mighty Mouse double button functionality?
No secret Intel Books prototype mailed to my house?
No 3200 X 2400 resolution screens on the 12"?
Apple sucks.
Seriously though, I know they need to say in the news... but I cant wait for the Intel books. That might be my first Mac.
So when are we going to see G5 Powerbooks and iBooks? 2006? 2-Thousand and Never?
Why no G5 power books?
#18 is right. I also have a 15" dell 8500 at 1920x1200 and its an amazing screen. And its 3 years old!!! But yeh in Windows you can up the DPI from 96 to 120 so everything is bigger but still sharp and looks amazing. Increasing the DPI is something you can't do on OS X though! So for now OS X is stuck at 96 and low res screens :-(
Grrr...Apple, get it together. You can't keep shafting the PowerBook! Everyone knows the PowerBooks is grossly underpowered (especially next to it's desktop counterparts). Apple is doing AMAZING things this year, I can't figure out why they gave such a meaningless update to an anchor product. I work at a reseller and PowerBooks are collecting dust, a lot of dust. Who wants to pay an extra 400 (after update) for only a few extra features than an iBook? I hope the Intel PowerBooks prove worth while (and to include a 12" model with better displays!). I really don’t mind paying a premium as long as it is a premium product!
My guess is that when (finally) an intel powerbook is released it will be a very big step up. It needs to be, currently the whole portable range is being held up by the powerbooks and the lack of a faster processor that doesnt give you 3rd degree burns if you put the thing on your lap.
I hope the powerbook will be the first machine to use an intel chip, its the model that needs it the most.
Personally, I'm planning to get a new PowerBook within the next 6 months, and hoping to get one of the last of the pre-Intel models. I've got a first-gen 12" AlBook now, so going to a new 15" with a higher density screen would rock.
I'm confused about the people holding out for the first of the Intel models though: When was the last time it was a good idea to get the first revision of *anything*? (And I'm including my little AlBook in this, too) I'd be wiling to bet that there'll be plenty of bugs to work out for at least a year or two after the transition, meanwhile the last of the G4 powerbooks are the most mature.
Why no G5 power books? because its more wide...
Mmmm.... widescreen wallpapers
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/