Do mac laptops get better battery life?

[Fox5]

Just wondering if there's a legitimate reason to go for a mac laptop over a PC. If it's lighter, cooler, or has longer battery life that would be good. Also note if it's a G4 or G5 notebook.

 

[AsianriceX]

Just FYI, Apple doesn't make G5 ibooks or powerbooks.

I was thinking about getting a powerbook myself because I've been exposed to OS X more through my job...but I can't justify the purchase

 

[Commodus]

It's only really the iBooks that get truly great battery performance; 4.5 to 5 hours of battery life in normal use is fairly realistic with them. Current-generation PowerBooks tend to get something closer to 3-3.5 hours in the same usage patterns.

Performance-wise, the only thing that Mac laptops can really claim over Windows boxes - for now - is that they all have dedicated video chipsets. A lot of 12" laptop makers force you to use shared-memory graphics systems (Intel Extreme Graphics is the most notorious example), You not only have to give up some of your system RAM for the graphics to work in the first place, you lose any hope of decent 3D performance.

There's also no G5 laptop - yet. Rumour has it that we'll see one at either the WWDC conference (early June) or Apple Expo Paris (mid-September), but what specs it'll have or how well it'll work out in real life are still up in the air.

Where Mac laptops do well is in design and feature set. As far as design, they take into account lots of little things: all the rounded, smooth edges and corners mean that they don't catch on your carrying case or jab into your legs when sitting on your lap. Slot-load optical drives mean that you don't have to worry about the tray mechanism breaking or getting stuck. That sort of thing.

Features are where they really justify themselves. For example, all Mac laptops have an instant sleep/wake feature through opening and closing the lid. You rarely have to shut off the laptop completely; you just close the lid when you're done, and open the lid when you're ready to begin again. Apple also has a good Bluetooth implementation as standard on all PowerBooks, there's a dynamic backlit keyboard on the 15" and 17" PowerBooks, and they're one of the few companies to offer DVI-out video (on the PowerBooks).

Lastly, I'd note that the 17" PowerBook is the thinnest and lightest 17" laptop out there, period. It's the only 17" laptop I'd consider if I actually needed to travel frequently. Most any other is too big and/or too heavy to make it worthwhile.

 

[DarkAmeba]

In my opinion, OSX itself justifies the purchase of a mac laptop. I recently switched to mac, and I have absolutely fallen in love with OSX. Makes it hard to go back to my XP desktop.

 

[crabbyman]

Now if they only made a completely upgradeable Mac cheaper I would be in heaven... I have an iBook..but wish I could upgrade some of it. I know no laptops are made to be upgraded really... I guess I am just used to windows world where something upsets you..you just replace it..haha.

I love OS X...

 

[whorush]

OSX rocks. its super secure and has lots of apps.

 

[hopejr]

Fox5: Apple notebooks aren't the coolest (temperature wise) notebooks on the market, but they're also not the hottest. Battery-wise, they are similar to current centrino-based notebooks. All of them come with wireless too. As DarkAmeba said, OS X is justification enough, as is all the bundled software. I think the iBook G4 is an absolute bargain. An equivalent PC notebook as the 12" iBook G4 would be a 12" Sony Viao (I have a friend with one, and the specs are almost identical, except for bundled software - which was less - and processor), and the 12" Viao costs almost 2.5 - 3 times as much.

AsianriceX: I had the same ideas as you but eventually gave in and bought my iBook. I never regretted it, and it was well worth the money.

 

[calyco]

My sister just picked up the 12" ibook, too lazy to go find the specs atm but it feels heavier than my 14" Thinkpad.

 

[Fox5]

The iBooks on apple's site start at $999, I've seen centrino laptops for cheaper than that.
I dunno, I'll have to go to a store and play around with some and see what I like.

 

[calyco]

Theres a $100 rebate on Amazon that brings the price down to $899.

 

[RichieZ]

Originally posted by: hopejr
Fox5: Apple notebooks aren't the coolest (temperature wise) notebooks on the market, but they're also not the hottest. Battery-wise, they are similar to current centrino-based notebooks. All of them come with wireless too. As DarkAmeba said, OS X is justification enough, as is all the bundled software. I think the iBook G4 is an absolute bargain. An equivalent PC notebook as the 12" iBook G4 would be a 12" Sony Viao (I have a friend with one, and the specs are almost identical, except for bundled software - which was less - and processor), and the 12" Viao costs almost 2.5 - 3 times as much.

AsianriceX: I had the same ideas as you but eventually gave in and bought my iBook. I never regretted it, and it was well worth the money.

yes but his viao doesn't weight 4.9lbs, its so heavy i'm thinking about upgrading to the 15" pwoerbook which is only like 5.7lbs

 

[hopejr]

I don't really have an issue with the weight of my iBook, because my last notebook weighed more like a desktop replacement.

 

[halfadder]

$899 for an iBook, which has dedicated GPU and dedicated gfx ram, plus comes with a decent software bundle, is a pretty good value.

Apple's notebooks have pretty good battery life overall, but I have used some big PC notebooks that had huge batteries and lasted longer. But considering their thin size, the iBook and PowerBooks run pretty darn well off battery. The Freescale PowerPC 7445 and 7447a "G4" (based on the 7450 "G4+") used in the current Apple notebooks is very energy efficient, but that's not where most of the power is consumed. The hard drive, GPU (MR9200, MR9700, or GF5200Go), Intrepid IO/Memory controller chip, and LCD backlight is where most of the power goes and heat comes from.

 

[Wuzup101]

The powerbooks do have some very nice features: back lit keyboard on the 15" and 17", slim rounded design, very very nice keyboard, wake from sleep far better than any windows laptop, get fair battery life - but not great, have dedicated gpu's, plenty of connectivity w/ firewire 400, 800 on the larger 2 models, usb 2, dvi, gigabit ethernet, etc... but by far the biggest feature is OSX itself and the nice software bundle that comes w/ the powerbook/ibook. IMHO OSX is leaps and bounds ahead of XP, and yes I do have to use XP on occasion (until the beginning of this school year it's all I used).

 

[halfadder]

Originally posted by: Wuzup101
The powerbooks do have some very nice features: back lit keyboard on the 15" and 17", slim rounded design, very very nice keyboard, wake from sleep far better than any windows laptop, get fair battery life - but not great, have dedicated gpu's, plenty of connectivity w/ firewire 400, 800 on the larger 2 models, usb 2, dvi, gigabit ethernet, etc... but by far the biggest feature is OSX itself and the nice software bundle that comes w/ the powerbook/ibook. IMHO OSX is leaps and bounds ahead of XP, and yes I do have to use XP on occasion (until the beginning of this school year it's all I used).

I have 4 desktop PCs and my PowerBook. I think XP is still a pretty nice OS, especially after installing some accessories and cygwin. But I agree on all the rest of your points. PowerBooks are a bit more expensive PC notebooks with similar specs, but you get a lot for your money. And change is good!