New PowerBooks Announced - no G5
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 31, 2005 10:44 AM EST- Posted in
- Anand
It looks like Apple has updated their PowerBook line and there's no mention of a mobile G5. Regardless, from a performance standpoint the improvements are pretty decent - the slowest processor offered is a 1.5GHz G4, the same CPU I used in my PowerBook review; replacing the 1.5GHz G4 on the higher end models is a 1.67GHz G4.
All of the PowerBooks now come with 512MB of memory standard - so their out of box performance should be much more acceptable than before. Apple has also dropped the price on their PowerBooks, with the 12" starting at $1499, the 15" starting at $1999 and the 17" starting at $2699. With a student/teacher discount that kicks the prices down to $1399, $1799 and $2399 respectively.
Available as an option (and standard on the 17" PB) is a 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700. The added video memory is useful for Exposé but what's even more interesting is the fact that the 128MB model has a dual-link DVI output, meaning it can drive the new 30" Cinema Display.
The new PowerBooks also add a 8X SuperDrive (DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+R/DVD+RW/CD-RW burner) and Bluetooth 2.0 support. Other features include a new trackpad that has built-in scrolling support as well as Apple's "Sudden Motion Sensor" which will automatically park the hard disk's heads in the event of a fall (IBM introduced a similar technology a year or so ago).
The performance of the new PowerBooks should be much improved over the older ones thanks to more memory, faster processors as well as their new 5400RPM hard drives. I'd guess that the sweet spot for the new PowerBooks would be the default 1.5GHz/512MB configuration. Remember that the 1.67GHz models offer only an 11% increase in clock speed and in a best case scenario you'll get 50% scaling, meaning a 5 - 6% increase in performance due to the CPU. More than anything the new PowerBook line offers an improvement in value over the previous generation which was in need of an update.
Hopefully the fact that all of the new PowerBooks come with 512MB standard means that the next revisions of all of Apple's computers will use at least 512MB of memory. The problem is that I don't see the iMac, Power Mac or mini getting updated at least until Tiger's release (and even then, not all at the same time).
It looks like the new PowerBooks are ready to go as Apple lists ship dates of between 1 and 3 days for all of the models.
All of the PowerBooks now come with 512MB of memory standard - so their out of box performance should be much more acceptable than before. Apple has also dropped the price on their PowerBooks, with the 12" starting at $1499, the 15" starting at $1999 and the 17" starting at $2699. With a student/teacher discount that kicks the prices down to $1399, $1799 and $2399 respectively.
Available as an option (and standard on the 17" PB) is a 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700. The added video memory is useful for Exposé but what's even more interesting is the fact that the 128MB model has a dual-link DVI output, meaning it can drive the new 30" Cinema Display.
The new PowerBooks also add a 8X SuperDrive (DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+R/DVD+RW/CD-RW burner) and Bluetooth 2.0 support. Other features include a new trackpad that has built-in scrolling support as well as Apple's "Sudden Motion Sensor" which will automatically park the hard disk's heads in the event of a fall (IBM introduced a similar technology a year or so ago).
The performance of the new PowerBooks should be much improved over the older ones thanks to more memory, faster processors as well as their new 5400RPM hard drives. I'd guess that the sweet spot for the new PowerBooks would be the default 1.5GHz/512MB configuration. Remember that the 1.67GHz models offer only an 11% increase in clock speed and in a best case scenario you'll get 50% scaling, meaning a 5 - 6% increase in performance due to the CPU. More than anything the new PowerBook line offers an improvement in value over the previous generation which was in need of an update.
Hopefully the fact that all of the new PowerBooks come with 512MB standard means that the next revisions of all of Apple's computers will use at least 512MB of memory. The problem is that I don't see the iMac, Power Mac or mini getting updated at least until Tiger's release (and even then, not all at the same time).
It looks like the new PowerBooks are ready to go as Apple lists ship dates of between 1 and 3 days for all of the models.
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Starius - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Well, I guess that isnt the most up to date list anymore either, but you get the idea.Starius - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
#18Lots of games come out for Macs these days. You can see a list of upcoming releases here, to see what I mean:
http://www.insidemacgames.com/previews/
visual - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
i wonder... why does a mac need radeon9700? its not like there are any games for it, are there?with the rumors(or now facts) that a lot of next-gen consoles will use powerpc compatible cpus, one could hope that it'll be easy enough for developers to port their console games to mac. if that happens, macs will finally have everything one could want from his computer... maybe i should go buy one now.
#13, uhm, we talk about how Bill Gates is gay here too ;) actually i dont see how a mac user could know even half the truth :p
Michael2k - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
#16: Why would it reduce battery life? It's just using the GPU instead of the CPU to do the same things.It might be possible to consider that Tiger reduces battery life because it does more stuff, graphically, and then it's just a question of whether the CPU or the GPU is more efficient.
Nick L - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Thanks #9. Any ideas on what path for Core Image Tiger will use for powerbooks (using GPU to render the interface would reduce battery life I think)?crtfanboy - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
#11... no, no I can'tat least not without anand's help
Mephisto - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
#13 "The guys on this site, and the people that post to these forums, seem more mature"That's something I've noticed on Mac and cross platform sites:
Macintouch
AnandTech
SlashDot
ArsTechnica
There is no question the fora are more mature... but it's unavoidable that the odd fanboi (#10) will post.
Scottie - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
Still waiting for the Powerbook G5. Though, I am very tempted to get a 12" now for school work. I hate taking notes!As I side note, I love this site! As an Apple fan (but also as a guy that likes to build stuff himself, ala PC) I find that I get the most unbiased opinions here than anywhere else on the net. I get tired of Mac only sites that spend more time talking about how Bill Gates is gay, and PC only sites that balk at Mac Culture rather than accept it.
The guys on this site, and the people that post to these forums, seem more mature than any where else on the net (well, for geeks that is).
gnumantsc - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
If Anand goes to the Mac side of things then I guess I'll have to pump out hardware reviews....(No I don't write for Anandtech I do have my own site and not hardware either but would love a hardware site) But you guys would hate me because I am not a fanatic of overdoing benchmarks to see that the new product is 1-3% faster/slower in all benchmarks.I wonder if Anand would try out linux distros for Mac :D I mean who would want to ruin their pretty Mac OS X for Linux? I know when I was using a Mac I wouldn't think of doing such a thing, yes I know OS X is based on FreeBSD as well.
melgross - Tuesday, February 1, 2005 - link
#10, you can't cook?