M ainstream New York newspaper Newsday has published a review of the 12" PowerBook that is nothing short of glowing. Reviewer Stephen Williams uses some of the most positive words to describe Appleis smallest PowerBook G4 we have recently encountered. From the intro to the review:
When money is no object, buy the Apple.
Take the new miniature G4 PowerBook ... for $1,799. Looks to die for. Sleek aluminum casing. Powerful chip. nVidia graphics to drive a screen thatis delicious to look at. Ports everywhere. Iid sleep with one under my pillow if it was a little bit softer.
You could say that the newer-than-new 12-inch PowerBook has plenty of competition at that price ... or you could say it has none.
For nearly two grand, thereis scads of (Windows-based) options on the selling floor, some with faster processors, or larger color displays, or more memory or a bigger hard drive, or all of those specs. A few of those machines - Iim thinking of Sonyis lightweight Vaio micro notebooks and similar offerings from Sharp and Toshiba - are as elegant as the PowerBook too.
These competitive factors, however, arenit relevant when weire dealing with PowerBooks; Appleis notebooks have transcended the idea of Computer as Utility - even though they are indeed useful - and ascended to the plateau of Computer as Icon. And at that level, there is no competition.
You can read the full review at the Newsday.com Web site.