I got my powerbook 17 inch!!!

solrac

solrac

Mac Ninja
Wow, this computer actually is very very good.

1) Performance -
The 1 Ghz G4 and 32 MB video card fix all performance problems I've ever had on OS X. Windows resize smoothly (mostly), scrolling is smooth, applications open fast all the time, everything is just fine.

2) Screen size
At first, I thought the screen was ridiculously wide and not tall enough. But then you end up realizing that it's just tall enough and the extra wideness is good. Lots of space for toolbars, 2 pages of documents, etc. etc. For desktop wallpaper junkies, you will have to get a 1600x1200 (standard large size) of your wallpaper and trim it down to 1440x900 to fit properly, but no big deal.

3) Surprises
The airport card (built in) gets great signal! I found out my neighbor has a mac and a wireless connection across the street from me, and I still get 3 bars signal strength! (Out of 4 bars.) Now I can leech off their internet connection for free from the comfort of my own home! Starbucks now has access points and those work great too.

The CD-R/DVD-R drive is awesome! I'm just talking about inserting a disk. I started pushing in the disk and the familiar slow grabbing action did not occur. I was thinking, what the hell? Nothing's happening! And I kept pushing the disc in and then all of a sudden SNAP!!!! In the blink of an eye the drive sucked in the disk like lightning! That was so cool...

2 usb ports (one on either side of the laptop) is great.

4) Minor disappointment
The lighted keyboard concept is so cool... there's even two new function keys on the keyboard... one to lighten and one to darken the keyboard. You can see the keyboard get lighter as you hold down F10! But then you lose the whole effect. You see, the keyboard only lights up when it's dark. If it's not dark enough, you won't see the cool keys effect. So I tried turning off all the lights at night time. The keyboard lit up a bit, but.... ackkk... the very light from the laptop screen was almost enough to keep the keyboard from lighting! I turned up the keyboard lighting to max and it's still not very noticeable. When I closed all open windows and made my desktop background BLACK, then the lighted keys looked really cool. But realistically, at night, you'll be looking at stuff with a white background much of the time which creates too much light to allow the keyboard effect to look supercool.

FINAL VERDICT:
AWESOME COMPUTER!
Big, spacious screen real estate
Very portable and lightweight still!

CONS
Too expensive
But... all Apple's stuff is too expensive, and I am lucky that I can afford this awesome laptop.

pics soon...
 
Keyboard edit:
I change my verdict on the keyboard... i tried using it in a pitch black room.

While the light from the screen still washes out the keyboard effect, the lighting actually DOES make the keyboard easier to use in the dark. If you use it in complete darkness the keys are invisible to see. But if you turn up the keyboard lighting, the screen may wash it out (especially if you have mostly white on the screen), but you can still tell what keys are what... so it is actually useful and super cool.

If you want to ever show it OFF though, make sure you have a DARK or BLACK desktop background and turn up the key lighting all the way and be in a pitch black room!
 
Just saw my first 17" a couple of weeks ago, man that sucker is huuuuge. I'd be interested in hearing how it is to lug around. What type of bag do you have for it? I'd imagine it would be unwieldy on an airplane. Watching dvd's must rock though. Any heat issues?
 
Do you have any pictures of your keyboard lighting? I would love to see that in a realistic photo.

On a different note, is there anyway to install that on a 15", I'm willing to go through the trouble of installing tiny little LEDs under all the keys ;)

Grtz,
.anerki
 
Amazingly... NO HEAT ISSUES!

Also, the laptop is no bigger than the 15" except that it's longer. It's very easy to carry around and you just need any old bag that would fit it. I'm sure apple has a leather laptop bag for it.

I have pics of the keyboard lit but its really hard to take those because of the low light conditions... i'll try uploading later...

but those keys rock, in pitch black with the display at low brightness!
 
It's not a geforce4 mx chip you got! The geforce4 go! chips are much more powerful than the mx chips but less powerful than the ti ones! You should be even more proud on it! ;)
 
I was wondering how the laptop feels, when you have the screen opened and lift it by catching it around the slot-in area with one hand. Does it feel a bit unsteady? I ask since this is the way I mostly pick the laptop when it's opened and my tibook doesn't give me the feeling it doesn't do any harm to the case...
 
Grabbing the laptop with one hand while its open, from the front of it, with my grip around the slot loading DVD-R/CD-R drive, it feels very sturdy lifting it up. Cool!

I had no idea the Geforce 4 MX Go card was more powerful than the regular Geforce 4 MX. I thought laptop stuff was always less powerful than desktop stuff.... crazy!!! Where is there a spec sheet on this???
 
Your powerbook doesn't have the geforce4 mx chip. It's a completly different one. Actually it came from the ti-chips and got adjusted to the low-voltage needs. I don't know about all details. You might want to check www.nvidia.com
The point is: You got more power in that Baby than you are aware of it! ;)
 
Btw, check out the ut2003 thread in Macos-Games. We are trying to compare some benchmarks and I would be very glad to see, how the go! cards perform.
 
Originally posted by Zammy-Sam
Your powerbook doesn't have the geforce4 mx chip. It's a completly different one. Actually it came from the ti-chips and got adjusted to the low-voltage needs. I don't know about all details. You might want to check www.nvidia.com
The point is: You got more power in that Baby than you are aware of it! ;)
Click to expand...

actually, the geforce4 440 go is based off of the geforce4 MX core.

it's not anymore powerful than the desktop MX cards.
 
Hmmmmm...
Beside the point that I am quite sure the 440go! is not based on the mx chip, what do you think about this:
the ATI 9000 64mb mobility is faster than a geforce4 mx 64mb desktop. I am going to search for those benchmarks...
But for now, let's accept this! ;)
And on the other hand, there had been discussions in this forum about the differences between 440 go and ati 9000 and as I recall, they are quite similar in their performance. Now, if the 440go! is supposed to be the "mobility version" of the geforce4 mx, where did the performance increase come from?
 
Wow, it says the chip is coming from the mx. I am surprised.
As far I know, the mx chips really sucks at 32bit colour depth. My ati9000 mobility handels really great and I doubt it's much faster than the 440 go.
Anyway, sorry for the wrong info. Now I am even more surprised why apple moved from ati to nvidia...
 
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