Apple Powerbook G4

Recently introduced along with its updated G5 desktops, Apple's new Powerbooks offer more for the mobile Mac user. This top-of-the-line model boasts a sexy 17in widescreen and a 1.5GHz PowerPC G4 processor, roughly equivalent to the latest Pentium 4 and Athlon chips.

Our review machine came fitted with 2GB of Ram and a Radeon 9700 graphics chip supported by 128MB of dedicated memory, as used in Acer's Ferrari 3200. This ensured excellent performance but pushed the price up by over £800; standard models come with a more-than-adequate 512MB of main memory and 64MB of video Ram.

Along with OSX, Apple bundles its iLife suite, which includes iMovie for working with digital video, iPhoto for picture editing and Garageband for music creation.

Connectivity is also well catered for with 802.11g Wifi, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB2 ports, Firewire 400 and 800 ports, a PC Card slot, S-video and DVI outputs and a 56K modem. Given this, it's impressive that the whole lot fits into a case just 1in thick, complete with an 80GB hard disk and DVD writer.

Battery life is good, giving around four hours of light use (office tasks, for instance) on a full charge. The 1,440 x 900 display is sharp with excellent contrast. The widescreen format also means that there is plenty of room below the keyboard to rest your hands while typing.

Of course, a notebook of this size is hardly the most portable of computers. It's great for working, presentations, watching films or just showing off, but for most of us the equally capable, smaller, and much cheaper 12in or 15in screen models make more sense.

Contact: Apple 0800 039 1010
www.apple.com/uk

Specifications:

• Mac OSX Panther
• 1.5GHz PowerPC G4
• 2GB DDR333 Ram
• 80GB Ultra ATA100 hard disk
• Superdrive (DVD-R and CD-RW)
• 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics
• 17in 1,440 x 900 widescreen
• 3.1kg
• 390.2 x 250.9 x 20.6mm (w x d x h)
• 1yr warranty