Business Week Heaps Praise On The New PowerBook G4

by , 2:00 PM EST, February 27th, 2001

Business Week has published a review of the PowerBook G4 that is chock full o' praise. The author, Stephen H. Wildstrom, is the same Business Week reviewer who slammed the Cube after its release, but he comes out swinging for Apple's new laptop. Some selected quotes:

At up to $3,500, the Titanium is, like other Apple products, pricey, but this one gives good value. Apple has once again launched a powerful innovation--and could literally reshape the laptop. The Titanium is visually stunning, despite being a basic rectangular box. The difficulty of fabricating the metal ruled out the swoopy curves that have been the hallmark of recent PowerBooks.

Wide-screen laptops have flopped before, but this one makes sense. It's almost like working with two monitors, as is commonly done in studios. The Titanium's dimensions pay dividends for business fliers, too, since it's easier to open on a laptop tray when the seat in front has reclined.

Mr. Wildstrom also addresses the processor issue in a very fair and objective manner:

Apple's claim that the PowerPC G4 processor in the top model makes the PowerBook more than 30% faster than the fastest Windows laptop is based on some highly selective tests, but the speed is easily a match for anything Intel can offer.

Even his complaints are tinged with praise:

The Titanium is not without flaws. To save a few precious millimeters, Apple used a slot-loading DVD drive of the sort used in car CD players. Thus, you don't get the option of a CD recorder that a modular design would give. In addition, there's no way to eject a disk manually if the drive fails. The G4 processor puts out a lot of heat, and the bottom of the case can get quite hot. The keyboard panel could also stand some stiffening--it tends to flex a bit, especially when keys in the middle are struck. But these are quibbles.

Read the full review for more information. We left out a lot of information in our quotes, so definitely check it out.

The Mac Observer Spin:

We often talk about the value of main stream press for Apple, and this is another case of excellent exposure for the company. It's one thing for Mac Web sites to sing the praises of the TiBook or heap criticism on the FlowerPower iMac, but the audience reached among the non-Mac using population that constitutes the vast majority of computer buyers (however inexplicable that may be) is much larger for Apple from publications like Business Week, USA Today, Time, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Business Week may not be in the same league as the last two publications mentioned, but they do have a broad readership. The bottom line is that this review will mean more sales for the PowerBook G4 to more people. Hooray.

We were also delighted to see such fair and knowledgeable coverage of the G4 processor included in the review. Apple does use selective tests to tout the G4's processing power, and this is something we wish could be remedied by our dear friends at Motorola, but the PowerBook G4 can easily match the performance for almost every activity for which people use laptops of just about every Wintel laptop on the planet. It's refreshing to not have to Spin about how annoying it is that this or that writer doesn't understand technology. :-)

Business Week PowerBook G4 Review