The PowerBook is thinner than the other 17-inch wide-screen notebooks in this review, the HP Pavilion zd7000 and the Toshiba Satellite P25-S607. Built-in Bluetooth and 802.11g add to the myriad connection possibilities, which also include Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 (the first time we’ve seen this in an Apple notebook), and FireWire 400 and 800. The new FireWire 800 port uses a different plug and has a theoretical bandwidth of 800 Mbps, which allows faster data transfers.

MULTIMEDIA

Music:
Music sings from the built-in speakers, and iTunes is a solid program for ripping and storing your music. Like other Macs, the PowerBook makes a great base station for your iPod, if you are lucky enough to have one.

Photos:
As a mobile photo-editing station, the PowerBook can definitely work on the fly and is a decent performer compared with the Windows-based notebooks. The 17-inch 1,440-by-900 screen also gives you a bit more room to view large images.

Video:
The PowerBook remarkably has two flavors of FireWire (the 800 is perfect for video transfer), USB 2.0, and a wide screen, which gives you extra room for a toolbar. And as always, integration among members of the iLife suite (iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, and iTunes) is top-notch. Though the 80GB hard drive is the largest in this notebook roundup, it’s limited for video work, but that’s true of any mobile platform.

Gaming:
The ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 and wide, bright screen are good for playing 3-D games. Game title releases for the Mac OS platform still lag behind Windows versions.

Review By Reviews.Cnet

The 17-inch PowerBook features nearly the same system specs as the higher-end of the two 15.2-inch PowerBook configurations: a 1GHz PowerPC G4 processor, a 1MB L3 cache, 512MB SDRAM, and a 60GB, 4,200rpm hard drive (the 17-inch system features the faster Ultra ATA/100 drive interface; the 15.2-inch drive uses Ultra ATA/66). The 17-inch PowerBook also features a Nvidia GeForce4 440 Go graphics card with 64MB of DDR video memory.

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Review By Bizrate.Lycos

Take a high-performance PowerPC G4 processor, add a widescreen display and enclose it all in a lightweight aluminum alloy case. What you get is the cutting edge of portable PC technology, the new PowerBook G4 from Macintosh. This revolutionary notebook is configured with a 1GHz PowerPC G4 processor with the Velocity Engine vector processing unit, a 256KB on-chip L2 cache, a 1MB DDR SDRAM L3 cache for an extra performance boost, integrated floating-point unit, 512MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM (expandable to 1GB) and a 60GB Ultra ATA/100 hard drive. In addition to the 133MHz system bus, this PowerBook contains a slot-loading SuperDrive with CD-RW and DVD-R functions and DVD-Video playback. It records CD-Rs at 8X, rewrites CD-RWs at 4X, reads CDs at 24X and DVDs at 6X, and records DVDs at 2X (max. speeds).

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Review By Review.Zdnet

Apple packs in a ton of features–more than some desktop Macs, if you consider its PC Card expansion slot. A slot-loading optical drive faces the front, and ports line both sides. The two USB 2.0 ports are conveniently located one on each side. There are also two FireWire ports, one at 800Mbps and the other at 400Mbps, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. Apple has also added a 16-bit audio-in port, which was missing from the Titanium PowerBook. The new PowerBook gives you multiple options for external displays through its DVI and S-Video ports (one of each), which connect to digital displays and TVs. Each port comes with a converter cable: one for VGA monitors, and one for composite video.

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Review By Theregister

It’s the same slim design as before, encased in aluminium with the screen hinged inside the body, a design first used in the iBook four years ago. There are two USB 2.0 sockets on either side of the body, along with separate Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 ports, sound in and out, a DVI connector for outside display, Gigabit Ethernet, a PC Card slot and modem port. The hard drive comes in 80GB or 100GB sizes. All in a package weighing 2.5kg (5.6lb) whose price has dropped some since last year. The standard version comes with a slot-loading CD burner; an 8x DVD burner is optional.

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Review By Notebookreview

The Powerbook comes with a very nice array of ports which lie along the sides of the computer. On the left hand side there is a PC Card slot, a headphone jack, a line-in/microphone jack, a USB 2.0 port, a phone jack, and a DC Power connector. On the right side there is a DVI monitor output port (the computer comes with a DVI to VGA adapter), an S-video connector (the Powerbook comes with an S-Video to RCA adapter), a gigabit Ethernet jack, a Firewire 800 port, a Firewire 400 port, another USB 2.0 port, and a security slot. The port placement is, in my opinion, very effective. You can use the USB on the right hand side for a mouse (if you didn’t buy Bluetooth), and the left hand port for a hard drive printer that isn’t wirelessly connected.

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Review By Laptopmag

The two largest enhancements being touted by Apple are improved battery life and screen resolution. The notebook’s souped-up battery promises to give you up to 5.5 hours of use. When we tested the notebook’s life by running a DVD, the PowerBook stayed alive for just under three hours, which should give you more than enough time to watch almost any movie not directed by Peter Jackson. It also suggests you can get at least an hour more of endurance if all you’re doing is basic productivity chores.

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