Apple 15-inch PowerBook G4

How to Think Different

The 15-inch PowerBook G4 comes almost all set up right out of the box. Push the power button, and you'll get a short series of setup screens mostly designed to configure your Internet connection and email account, and register your purchase. That's about it. If you later decide you want to change any of this information, you can just run the Setup application over again.

OS X v10.3 (Panther) is pre-installed, with support for the Classic (OS 9) environment. As with other new Macs these days, however, you cannot boot the PowerBook in OS 9. You'll need to update your software if you are still using a lot of OS 9 applications.

Unlike the iMacs and iBooks, the PowerBook line does not come with AppleWorks, so you'll want to install your choice of word processor, spreadsheet, and other office-type programs. What it does come with is the entire iLife suite (iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand), plus Mail, Safari (browser), iCal, and iSync.

This suite of "digital hub" programs is the best in the business, and if you have an iPod, digital camera, and/or DV camcorder, you'll soon be in digital heaven. The iLife apps are uniformly intuitive and simple to use (Apple doesn't bother with a manual, and it's not needed), yet fairly powerful.

Mousing Around

After you've performed the basic setup, and if you are new to OS X, take some time to explore the file structure (Finder), Dock options, and System Preferences. System Preferences is where you'll find all the various options that personalize your new Mac, such as desktop backgrounds, file sharing setup, keyboard and mouse controls, network options, and much more.

Wi-Fi aficionados will want to connect with the built-in AirPort Extreme card in short order, which you can do by pulling down the little radio-wave icon at the right of the menubar. Other Internet configuration tasks can be performed with the Network System Preference pane.

There's not room here to go into the many other features of OS X, but its stability (which means crashing an application doesn't crash the whole computer), UNIX core (which makes the whole system very extensible), and revamped interface are all vast improvements over OS 9.

Under the Hood

Design-wise, the 15-inch aluminum PowerBook G4 is simply the best Mac laptop I've ever used, and I've used or reviewed virtually every model since the first Mac Portable. The backlit keyboard and trackpad are great, and the screen seems much brighter than earlier models. DVDs look wonderful on the wide screen, and the speakers put out robust sound (although I'd opt for quality noise-canceling headphones for serious iTunes listening or video-watching).

Pressed to quibble, I'd point out the somewhat finicky latch, and very slight size increase over the Titanium model. After all, laptops are supposed to get thinner and lighter! But Apple has packed so many new features into this desktop-equivalent portable, that it's hard to complain. And while the latch may fail to catch occasionally on the first try, it's 90 percent better than on the original aluminum PowerBook, which had a serious latch defect.

Another feature I like is having a USB port on both sides of the machine, which makes it much easier to deal with my ever-increasing hoard of USB devices. But probably the most notable visual difference between the aluminum PowerBook G4 and my old Titanium is the lack of scratched and chipped paint. The matte aluminum case, with its protective plastic edging, simply rocks!