Hands On the PowerBook G4 Titanium

Bill Jensen wrote me that our local Micro Center had a demo model the new G4 'Book (Ti) so I headed over there early Sunday afternoon. Big mistake! I now have a serious case of screen envy. The Ti's screen is a full inch wider than our PowerBook G3 (2000) but it looks much bigger because of the very thin cover border. I don't envy the 15" screens on PCs because they have a lower aspect ratio, making them taller as well as wider which makes the PC notebook huge over all. The Ti has a higher aspect ratio so the screen height is the same as the previous G3's.

The Ti has less depth (front to back), about an inch, than the G3's so it's not as tall overall as the G3's when open. That will help some on airplanes but it is still not short enough to open with a reclined coach seat in front like our 2" shorter PowerBook 2400c. It is perceptibly lighter than our lightest of G3's and the 1-inch thickness is impressive. The Ti is solid when picking it up by the front edge while open in contrast to our G3. Closed, the Ti is a very solid package.

The top cover, bottom cover and face surrounding the keyboard are made from titanium, a silver-gray metal. The edges, however, are a cream-colored carbon fiber which some have panned from an aesthic perspective. I think the edges would look better if they matched the white Apple logo or were a shade-off titanium gray or even black like the keyboard. The audio jack is handily on the left rather than the back with the other ports. The rear port cover is paper-thin titanium. There are fan grills on both left and right side edges and in the center in the back. The bottom-center-rear area of the Ti's case was pretty warm with its 400 MHz G4 running off the AC adapter but it felt no warmer than our 400 MHz PowerBook G3 gets, i.e. too warm to use comfortably on one's lap for long. However, our G3 runs much cooler off the battery and I suspect the same is true for the Ti.

The keyboard felt more solid that the one on our G3. In fact, it is the best portable keyboard that I have hunt'n pecked on. The Ti's extra overall width is not really that apparent although the speakers fit easily alongside the keyboard instead of between the keyboard and the screen. The only other aesthetic issue to me is the shiny silver metal power button which I think would look better in titanium or even black plastic like the keyboard's.

The slot-loading CD is really cool in a PowerBook. Its slot is on the front edge rather than the side which will spark some debate. I like it on the front and I am pleased to see it replace the flimsy tray that comes on all other portables. The Ti holds only one battery at a time. We have 2 batteries for our G3 but they've never been used in the 'Book at the same time and only once sequentially when used on a daytime flight from Europe. The battery looked like it would easily slip out after sliding a small switch. I wanted to open up the Ti by removing the keyboard and taking out the battery but there were too many others waiting for their own hands-on experience and I had already hogged too much time. I'll return some other time to more completely check it out.

The bottom line? The Ti is outstanding. We'd certainly get one now ourselves, minor aesthetics and flexibilty losses aside, if we didn't already have a 6-month old PowerBook G3. However, mostly because of the screen, we look to replace our G3 with a Ti at the Ti's next speed bump. We do little on our PowerBook that would truly exercize the G4's altivec engine but that will change when Mac OS X comes out next month.