When will the 15 catch up to the 12/17?

[Soma_Addict]

Re: Re: buyer hesitation

Originally posted by NicoMan

Maybe it is that you are so used to the feel of your own TiBook that it makes the AlBook feel very weird.

i thought of that but i do not think that is it. my gf has an ibook that i as much as i use my tibook. the material used doesnt really feel like metal, it is more slippery, like the ibook, but it is a dull metal coloring. it just feels wierd. sorry to pull this on you cause it is a reply cheap reply but...you have to feel it and see it in person in order to understand.

is there anyone else who has handled one of these things? i would like to hear from other people and what they think of the new powerbooks based on first hand experience.

 

[Soma_Addict]

Originally posted by NicoMan

Maybe it is that you are so used to the feel of your own TiBook that it makes the AlBook feel very weird.

i thought of that but i do not think that is it. my gf has an ibook that i as much as i use my tibook. the material used doesnt really feel like metal, it is more slippery, like the ibook, but it is a dull metal coloring. it just feels wierd. sorry to pull this on you cause it is a reply cheap reply but...you have to feel it and see it in person in order to understand.

is there anyone else who has handled one of these things? i would like to hear from other people and what they think of the new powerbooks based on first hand experience.

 

[Wyrm]

Enclosure material

Not owning a TiBook (only a PISMO!), I was unaware of the fact there is paint on it? I thought the whole reason for using Titanium was the fact that the material didn't have to be painted (like an American Airlines plane or something). Aluminium on the other hand is even stranger when you consider that Aluminum and Water (sweaty palms) will naturally form a Aluminum ion solution... with a positive voltage. Aluminium, although light, is also incredibly brittle. Now it is an aluminium alloy, so I'm not sure how this changes things, but hearing that it looks like plastic is not re-assuring. The titanium enclosure is very classy - and fixing the airport range seemed to be more of putting the antenna in the lid rather than in the base than a choice of materials.

Anyone have any clues as to why they changed the material?

-----------------------------
Wyrm

 

[TheMightyG]

I have a TiBook....it is painted: white on the sides and a silver color on the top, bottom, back and palmrest. How do I know? Scratch city on both.

I think the change from Ti to Al had something to do with the poor Airport reception with titanium.

 

[kmac]

It's rather sad that after the initial excitement over the 12" powerbook, it's rather low on the spec as many of you have mentioned above. The 17" is excellent but it's a little too big for my need.

So I guess that leaves me with the 15", hopefully it would be updated with the excellent features of the 17", but let's say 'if' it gets updated in a couple of months, it will probably not be in stock for additional month or so, that will mean April or May at the earliest.

I really can't wait that long. Do you guys think if I go ahead with the current 867 and sell it later when the new one is available, will I take a big hit? But honestly though, I don't mind if I lose half the cost, but more than that is just too much.

What do you guys think? Thanks for any input.


PS. By the way, I'm using Safari and it rocks big time.

 

[D*I*S_Frontman]

It will be interesting to find out just how durable and scratch resistant the new AlBooks will be. If they prove to be tough, you can bet the 15.2" model will get the same treatment.

I really hope they got it right this time. Apple has a reputation of late for creating the aesthetically gorgeous system with that one fatal cosmetic flaw that ruins it. Ti paint blistering/scratching, hairline cracks in the otherwise stunning Cube casing, etc. I hope Apple has REALLY done their homework this time. When you sell a $3,000 US computer to someone and market it as an expression of artful design, you'd better make sure it doesn't crap out three months down the road or ship with flaws.

Some people have more corrosive skin/sweat than others. I am a guitarist whose fingers can eat through strings like crazy. I worked with a guy at a music store who was even worse--if he demoed the same instrument more than 10 times the strings were noticably tarnished. Others can keep the same strings for months or years and they show almost no wear. I bet if I owned an AlBook there would be tarnished stains where my palms rest within a year.

But this is an alloy. Maybe they have created a very ph-resistant blend in addition to making it tough without being too brittle. And actually, if some tarnishing occurred where I hold it on the outside or type with it when open, I wouldn't be completely devastated--it would just show how many hours I had spent on the thing, like breaking in the sweet spot of a baseball glove...

 

[Sun Baked]

Anodized Aluminum - Aluminum is anodized for corrosion resistance, abrasion resistance and esthetic reasons. Electricity and chemicals are used jointly to produce a hard, transparent surface that is integral with base aluminum. The result is a surface that is hard (comparable to a sapphire), transparent (similar to glass), and non-flaking, with a wide variety of colors and finishes.

The strength of the anodized finish is resultant primarily from the type of pre-treatment, the coating thickness, and the type of anodizing. Hard coat anodizing (Type III), for example, is about 33% thicker than conventional anodizing, giving it greater resistance against corrosion and abrasion. Sulfuric, or conventional, anodizing (Type II) adds corrosion and abrasion resistance and dielectric strength to aluminum. Chromic anodizing (Type I) is primarily for corrosion resistance.

Anodized aluminum, like most metals, can be scratched or gouged. Damaging the surface of anodized metals in this way will remove the anodized coating in that spot.

 

[NicoMan]

So Sunbaked, which alloy is used on the new AlBooks? Any idea ?

NicoMan

 

[eallison]

Aluminum Alloy

Steve said in the Keynote that they tested a bunch of stuff, and found that a high-performance aircraft Aluminum is the best material. If that's indeed true, the alloy will be a 7000 series aluminum, but as someone above said, the key is that it's anodized. It's much harder to scratch off an anodized surface than paint - that's why it's used in many cases.

I too played with both computers at Macworld yesterday, and I had a far different impression. I thought the fit and finish was amazing. The surfaces feel different than normal because they are metal, but the whole thing is put together very well - tight seams, etc...

Another thing to note - the 12" pb supports monitor spanning. And as far as the no L3 cash goes - remember when the MDD powermacs came out, and the old dual 1GHz (QS) was benched as about the same speed as the new dual 1GHz? The key was that the L3 on the new one was reduced, but the addition of the faster bus, DDR, and the new mb architecture made up for that. I suspect that for the same reason, the performance of the 12" pb will be similar to the 15" 867. But just a guess.

 

[eallison]

Whoops...

forgot something...

in the new powerbooks, when you press on the back of the screen, it does not show up on the front as the "rainbow" effect on the LCD. So it's much more rigid.

Also, as far as the alloy goes, I'm fairly sure that it will be 7075 aluminum, the typical "aircraft aluminum" alloy. Specifically, the alloy has zinc and copper in it, but is not used widely because 7075 is hard to get, and almost impossible to weld. Fitting with this theory, it anodizes really well though.

For a really basic overview of aluminum alloys, see this link.

 

[DrGonzo]

Like some of you have already been saying, I too am waiting for a 15" UPDATED powerbook, i see no reason for them to leave out this 'mid' ground market so hopefully in the next few (sooner than later hopefully) we'll see an updated version.

 

[cubist]

Glad to hear that the Al is more rigid than the Ti. That had me worried. My TiBook feels very fragile, and also like it's flexing all the time, that's disturbing.

kmac, I doubt you'll lose more than 50% unless you wait two years or more. Laptops keep their value longer than desktops. The 867 is $2299. If you want to sell it in 6 months for $1150, call me!

Personally, I'm awestruck over the 17". It is just plain enormous. I can't decide if I think it's terrific or just too big.

BTW, SJ never said that the 12" was made of aluminum like the big one... he never said what it was made of. Maybe it IS a painted iBook.

 

[Flowbee]

Originally posted by cubist


BTW, SJ never said that the 12" was made of aluminum like the big one... he never said what it was made of. Maybe it IS a painted iBook.

Perhaps you were joking, but for the doubters...

From the Apple website:
" You’ll love the high-resolution 12.1-inch TFT XGA active-matrix display with brilliant 1024-by-768-pixel resolution. And you’ll marvel at the way we’ve fitted this supersharp display into such a remarkably small frame — just 10.9 inches wide, 8.6 inches deep, 1.18 inches thin and weighing a mere 4.6 pounds. Housed in a lightweight and durable aluminum alloy enclosure, the PowerBook G4 is resistant to stains and scratches. It’s also perfectly smooth on all surfaces, with no doors, protruding latches or levers to break, no external buttons to accidentally press, and no sharp edges to catch on your clothing."

I was at Macworld yesterday and played with the new books as well. Yes, the new 12" resembles the iBook, but I'm not sure how anybody who's handled one could come away thinking it was a painted iBook. I especially appreciated the new keyboard on this machine. It's very solid and easy to type on. Much more similar to a desktop keyboard feel than Apple's previous notebooks. I forgot to check to see if the keys would leave marks on the screen when closed... maybe I'll go back today.