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Apple Powerbook Laptop Review
Author: Daniel Topler
Date Posted: October 27th, 2003
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Bottom Line:
SLCentral took a look inside the Apple Powerbook 12" laptop, the smallest Apple to date. Our editor was impressed, this fast little machine performs well when the heat is on but what about the side effects? Read on to find out in our official review.......
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The Operating System
Being a Windows user all my life, it took a great deal of work to get used to OS X. After being acquainted with it for the past month, I can't understand why I never got a Mac. The OS is easy to use, responsive, well-designed, and stable. In fact, just yesterday I was setting up my Lexmark Z23 printer with my Powerbook. I plugged the USB port into my PB and nothing happened. I got a little confused, so I went into the "System Properties." I selected Printers and Faxes, and to my surprise, my printer was listed there already. It was set up in literally less then 20 seconds. Windows XP doesn't even have built-in support for my printer.
I have had OS X lock up on me twice over the month period I've been using my Mac. Twice. If that's not impressive, I don't know what is.
I got Panther the day it came out, and it's really a good upgrade. Being a new Mac user, I was very skeptical about having to buy an entirely new OS version every year, shelling out $129 annually. I learned two things. First, I can get it for just $69 via the Apple Education Store. And second, the money is worth it.
Panther not only added a few great features (they claim 150, but I only use about 5 of them), but it really speeds up the system. I used to get 73 on XBench with Jaguar. Now, I am getting 84. Thats an 11 point improvement, 13.1%! It may not sound like a lot, but in day-to-day performance, it is really noticeable.
Besides the performance, the added features are great, namely, Expose. With Expose, pressing the F9 key resizes all the programs open to fit on your screen. Click on a program, and it will maximize. F10 will do the same for just the windows in the selected program (for example, if you have five different IE windows open, it will resize just those IE windows). Pressing F11 will bring you directly to the desktop.
The Finder is also new (the Finder is much like My Computer in Windows). The layout is different, and has shortcuts to most-used places.
There are really too many improvements to mention with Panther. If you are interested, check out http://www.apple.com/panther.
Warranty
Mac Warranty is ridiculous. 90 days phone support, one year parts. It should be at least one year parts and phone support. I would really recommend buying "AppleCare," the extended warranty with your Mac. You may think "yeah yeah, who needs that," but you really might. There's nothing worse then being stuck with a broken laptop. For $250, AppleCare gives you three years parts and technical support, much better then the standard.
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