Apple Powerbook or wait for Intel Centrino lineup

[illmustard]

I'm in the market for a new slim laptop. I've had my eye on the 15" Powerbook G4, but heard of the talks of the new Intel Centrino lineup of laptops that will hit the market in a few months. How will these laptops compare to the Powerbooks? (in thickness and weight i mean) I'm not too concerned about GHz, since the new Intel Centrino laptops will perform in lines of a PIII. I'm more concerned about the weight and thickness factors. Any suggestions will be appreciated.


btw, to all you mac haters, yeah they are expensive, but they are still bada$$!

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: illmustard
I'm in the market for a new slim laptop. I've had my eye on the 15" Powerbook G4, but heard of the talks of the new Intel Centrino lineup of laptops that will hit the market in a few months. How will these laptops compare to the Powerbooks? (in thickness and weight i mean) I'm not too concerned about GHz, since the new Intel Centrino laptops will perform in lines of a PIII. I'm more concerned about the weight and thickness factors. Any suggestions will be appreciated.


btw, to all you mac haters, yeah they are expensive, but they are still bada$$!

I have not idea 'bout the Centrino, but the 15" PB is probably gonna get a face lift soon so it matches the 12" and the 17" PBs.


Lethal

 

[illmustard]

another reason to buy a powerbook

 

[MedicBob]

Powerbook, they look dead sessy.

 

[Wingznut]

From what I understand... The Centrino's will be more powerful than a P3, have a substantially longer battery life than any notebook out there now, and have the potential for being the thinnest/lightest notebooks. Of course that depends on the particular OEM.

"Wait for Centrino" gets my vote.

 

[illmustard]

Originally posted by: Wingznut
From what I understand... The Centrino's will be more powerful than a P3, have a substantially longer battery life than any notebook out there now, and have the potential for being the thinnest/lightest notebooks. Of course that depends on the particular OEM.

"Wait for Centrino" gets my vote.

thanks for the info!

 

[dannybin1742]

i too read an article on the centrino series, its supposed to extend battery life alot, instead of getting 3-4 hours, estimates are like 6-8 i think, not to mension it will be in the thinnest laptops you can buy, which is somthing apple will not be able to do, although why have done a pretty good job on the powerbook

 

[OldSpooky]

Wait for Centrino if you can hold out for a couple weeks (3-4 is my best guess).

 

[CrazyHelloDeli]

Centrino is the name of Intels Banias CPU+ Mobile 855 Chipset+Integrated Intel Wireless. Those three things allow OEM's to use the "Centrino" code name. Take away one and you no longer get the "Centrino" codename. Everyone else has the right idea though, about extended battery life and increased performance. A Banias CPU at 1.6GHZ outperforms the fastest Mobile P4 intel has available. The reason I know this is because I work for a comany that has access to Intel confidential 2003 Roadmap, and was able to run my own benchmarks on a test sample

 

[CZroe]

Wait for Centrino. No matter how sexy they look, there are more reasons than price to avoid a Mac... Primarilly their usefulness.

 

[BMW330ci]

I have an Apple Powerbook 1Ghz and not only am I happy with the weight, size and design, I love OS X! Oh and not to mention the stunning widescreen display.
I read that Samsung is in the works of mass producing 15.4" LCD screens that will perhaps go to Acer in Dell in the near future. Look for PC makers that will have similiar laptop designs (widescreen format at least) as Apple's powerbooks

If you want an Apple Powerbook titanium, you can find some good deals right now for the 1Ghz model with free 512MB SDRAM and or free Apple Airport station. Check out POWERBOOK CENTRAL Don't forget that Apple will eventually release the new aluminum 15.4" Powerbook with the same features as the 17" Powerbook (backlit keyboard, bluetooth, etc) if you want to wait a few months?

 

[Eug]

I would wait.

Not for the Centrino, but for the PowerBook 15.4" Aluminum with 802.11g.

 

[Mani]

Wait for Centrino. I can tell you that there are PC laptops coming out that will rival the PB's "cool" factor for a far better price.

 

[Ioman]

Originally posted by: illmustard
I'm in the market for a new slim laptop. I've had my eye on the 15" Powerbook G4, but heard of the talks of the new Intel Centrino lineup of laptops that will hit the market in a few months. How will these laptops compare to the Powerbooks? (in thickness and weight i mean) I'm not too concerned about GHz, since the new Intel Centrino laptops will perform in lines of a PIII. I'm more concerned about the weight and thickness factors. Any suggestions will be appreciated.


btw, to all you mac haters, yeah they are expensive, but they are still bada$$!

I was in the same shoes you are in. I deicided to go with the VPR Matrix 200A5
VPR Matrix website it runs Windows XP but is almost as slim as the G4 Powerbook. It has 512mb of memory upgradeable to 1Gb, a 40Gb hard drive, P4 2.0GHz CPU, 15.2" widescreen monitor (just as sharp as the Apple too), built in 802.11b Wireless networking, USB 2.0, Firewire, slot loading DVD/CDRW drive etc... if you are really interested in checking out this laptop go to the Designtechnica forums and check out what people think.

 

[Ioman]

Originally posted by: Ioman

Originally posted by: illmustard
I'm in the market for a new slim laptop. I've had my eye on the 15" Powerbook G4, but heard of the talks of the new Intel Centrino lineup of laptops that will hit the market in a few months. How will these laptops compare to the Powerbooks? (in thickness and weight i mean) I'm not too concerned about GHz, since the new Intel Centrino laptops will perform in lines of a PIII. I'm more concerned about the weight and thickness factors. Any suggestions will be appreciated.


btw, to all you mac haters, yeah they are expensive, but they are still bada$$!

I was in the same shoes you are in. I deicided to go with the VPR Matrix 200A5
VPR Matrix website it runs Windows XP but is almost as slim as the G4 Powerbook. It has 512mb of memory upgradeable to 1Gb, a 40Gb hard drive, P4 2.0GHz CPU, 15.2" widescreen monitor (just as sharp as the Apple too), built in 802.11b Wireless networking, USB 2.0, Firewire, slot loading DVD/CDRW drive etc... if you are really interested in checking out this laptop go to the Designtechnica forums and check out what people think.

BTW, after rebates, this laptop is like $1800 which isn't bad at all.

 

[ai42]

I say wait but not for the reasons the other people are saying.

1. Centrino will be much much more than P3 performance, more like P3 performance at 1.6ghz which should be very comparable to the current mobile P4s.

2. Energy usage of Centrino is just unbeleivable check out the Anand Banais article max cpu usage uses around 7 watts of power. Which is wayy less than current mobile P4s (which is around 30 watts). It should give you very comparable battery life as the Apple notebooks.

3. Centrino will be made by large OEMs (ie Dell, Gateway, etc etc). I personally think that Apple Egineering department is one of the best on the planet, and their attention to detail is quite stunning. Their iBooks hold up to a beating very well whereas PC OEMs do not spend the kind of time and effort that Apple Engineers do. I think that IBM and Sony are the better designers of the PC world but still don't see any of them really comparing to Apple. The design dosen't matter so much for desktops but for notebooks is very important and can mean the differance between a broken screen or a cracked casing. I mean for petes sake the ibook's rubber feet on the bottom have a metal ring screwed down to keep it down, HP/Compaq/Dell etc all just use shotty glue which dosen't hold up very well.

4. I doubt you will find a 1 inch thin notebook with an optical drive even with a Centrino, but it may be possible.

In the end I say wait and see what these manfuactuers are going to release somebody may surprise us with something very cool. I mean the Powerbook will still be there in a month or two, and it's not likely you will save any money by buying now.

 

[Ioman]

I think this conversation is along the path of the infinite computer question. Should I buy now or wait 6 months for the next best thing. Now should be your time for looking. With a new platform coming out, prices on the current models should be dropping, so you should be able to find a hell of a deal. Is newer always better? Of course not. What would the advantage be of going with a Centrino laptop? May be a little faster and consume less power, but will the laptop have a different graphics card? No. Will it have a larger hard drive? Probably not. Other than the Centrino CPU, I do not think there would be any other hardware advances that you should be concerned about.

 

[CZroe]

I HATE that VPR Matrix machine. Face it, Porche can't design a laptop. Just because they picked high-quality speakers and a wide-screen doesn't mean it doesn't look a blocky ugly piece of '60's sci-fi junk. No, they didn't "design" the widescreen either. The touchpad is horrific. The buttons are unforgivably bad. The corners are dangerously box-like to the point of being sharp. The entire thing feels hollow and easily crushable.

1. Centrino will be much much more than P3 performance, more like P3 performance at 1.6ghz which should be very comparable to the current mobile P4s.

You should factor in DDR also. That's one of the main reasons the Athlon could compete for so long at identical clock speeds (The FSB was a serious PIII limitation).

 

[Ioman]

Originally posted by: CZroe
I HATE that VPR Matrix machine. Face it, Porche can't design a laptop. Just because they picked high-quality speakers and a wide-screen doesn't mean it doesn't look a blocky ugly piece of '60's sci-fi junk. No, they didn't "design" the widescreen either. The touchpad is horrific. The buttons are unforgivably bad. The corners are dangerously box-like to the point of being sharp. The entire thing feels hollow and easily crushable.

1. Centrino will be much much more than P3 performance, more like P3 performance at 1.6ghz which should be very comparable to the current mobile P4s.

You should factor in DDR also. That's one of the main reasons the Athlon could compete for so long at identical clock speeds (The FSB was a serious PIII limitation).

No offense, but you do not have a clue what you are saying about the VPR Matrix machine. Do a search on the net for reviews. It beat out the top of the line Dell and HP's when it was introduced. I agree that the aesthetics give way to a little bit of the functionality, but the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. Price for price, this cannot be beat.

 

[dannybin1742]

I think this conversation is along the path of the infinite computer question. Should I buy now or wait 6 months for the next best thing. Now should be your time for looking. With a new platform coming out, prices on the current models should be dropping, so you should be able to find a hell of a deal. Is newer always better? Of course not. What would the advantage be of going with a Centrino laptop? May be a little faster and consume less power, but will the laptop have a different graphics card? No. Will it have a larger hard drive? Probably not. Other than the Centrino CPU, I do not think there would be any other hardware advances that you should be concerned about.

first off yes, buy now or wait is always the question, but what large pc manufacturers will have to offer in the next two months will surpass anything apple will be able to offer in the next year, and i'm not talking performance, i'm talking about battery life and thin-ness of the notebook. maybe a little faster?, no moderately faster is probablymore accurate. the grfx card is up in the air, it can have a large hard drive, not to mension onboard wireless. cute designs will only take apple so far, and it doesn't look like motorola will be able to help much either

 

[Mani]

I use centrino notebooks on a regular basis (don't ask) and the battery life is definitely solid, but it's not the end-all, be-all like some people think. I see definitely better than the current situation, but they may be hard-pressed to hit Apple's 5 hours on a single battery consistently, particularly in high-end, large LCD notebooks. What we will see however is more leaner form factors, and definitely cooler industrial designs from PC OEMs that will challenge Apple's, and most definitely kill that of the current PC lineup.

 

[MadRat]

I have never worn out a 3 hour laptop battery. Maybe its just me, but anytime I'm sitting near a LAN its well within reach of the plugin.

 

[Ioman]

I was able to watch a full two-hour DVD movie with my VPR Matrix Laptop and the battery was still fine. This laptop has a P4 2GHz too, so I was pretty surprised the battery did as well as it did.

 

[dannybin1742]

yeah i have an older hp superslim with a p3 700, and with speed step turned off it still runs for about 3 hours, not idle, but actually doing stuff, even though the battery estimation in the tool bar says there is only 2 hours of battery life,but like others said when i actually use the battery, its on trips, and i'm watchin divx movies

 

[dannybin1742]

that vpr notebook look freakin sweet, pretty thin too