Apple PowerBook Laptop 17" M9689LL/A (1.67 GHz PowerPC G4, 512 MB RAM, 100 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive)

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 15.4 x 10.2 x 1.1 inches ; 8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 12.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0006HU494
• Item model number: M9689LL/A
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,294 in Computer & Accessories (See Bestsellers in Computer & Accessories)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 28, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Miraculously engineered, the ultralight 17-inch PowerBook G4 is a mere 1-inch thin and only 6.9 pounds, making it one of the planet's thinnest, lightest, 17-inch notebooks.

The first thing you'll notice is the megawide display -- the largest ever in a notebook. This PowerBook's stunning display gives you the same viewing area as a 19-inch CRT monitor. And as for the amount of information you can see on the screen at one time, the 17-inch PowerBook supports a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels -- an eye-popping 1.3 million pixels appearing on the screen simultaneously, with room aplenty for your menus, toolbars and palettes. Thanks to its built-in, dual-link DVI support and 128 MB of graphics memory, you even have the option of connecting your PowerBook to Apple's breathtaking flat-panel displays, including the massive 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display. Featuring a powerful 1.67 GHz PowerPC G4 processor, a standard 5400-rpm 100 GB hard drive, an 8x SuperDrive, up to 2 GB of DDR RAM and AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR built right in, the top gun of notebook computers has it all.

	As Smart as It Looks You'll love the high-resolution 17-inch active-matrix display with brilliant 1440 x 900 pixel resolution. And you'll marvel at the way this supersharp display fits into such a remarkably small frame: just 15.4 inches wide, 10.2 inches deep, 1.0 inches thin and a mere 6.9 pounds. Housed in a lightweight and durable aluminum alloy enclosure, the 17-inch PowerBook G4 is resistant to stains and scratches. Flat-out, drop-dead gorgeous, this revolutionary notebook is perfectly smooth on all surfaces, with no doors, protruding latches, levers or external buttons to accidentally press or break, and no sharp edges to catch on your clothing. Built for Speed The 1.67 GHz processor gives a tremendous performance boost with an advanced cache memory architecture that provides ultrafast dedicated memory with massively enhanced throughput. The 17-inch PowerBook G4 comes with 512MB of DDR SDRAM -- expandable to 2 GB of RAM -- allowing you to run several RAM-hungry applications simultaneously, or to store an entire graphics project in main memory for fast image manipulations. Exremely Fast Wireless Bluetooth. Wi-Fi. Ethernet. Modem. When it comes to communication, the PowerBook G4 covers all the bases, offering state-of-the-art solutions right out of the box, including built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, built-in AirPort Extreme, built-in high-speed Ethernet and a built-in modem. Built in to the PowerBook G4, AirPort Extreme delivers state-of-the-art wireless performance, employing the 802.11g wireless standard. Now you never have to worry about compromised data rates: AirPort Extreme gives you blazing connectivity speeds up to 54 megabits per second(1). And with 802.11g and 802.11b interoperability, AirPort Extreme allows you to connect at the majority of wireless hotspots. Feel the Burn of 8x SuperDrive Your PowerBook G4 with SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW) comes loaded with iDVD software. Use it to burn DVDs that can be played in most consumer DVD players. Or use iTunes to burn your own CDs, or the Disc Burner feature in Mac OS X to burn data CDs and DVDs. The 8x SuperDrive reads DVD titles and burns DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs.
Powerbook model M9689LL/A features a 17-inch TFT widescreen display.
Powerbook models M9676LL/A and M9677LL/A feature a 15.2" TFT widescreen display.
Powerbook models M9690LL/A and M9691LL/A feature a 12.1" TFT display.

Sizzling Graphics Processor The 17-inch PowerBook G4 models come standard with the ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics processor featuring 128 MB of DDR SDRAM. Featuring a number of cutting-edge graphics technologies, including programmable pixel and vertex shading for lighting, the Mobility Radeon 9700 dramatically enhances all aspects of your visual experience in every application. Fast FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 The PowerBook G4 features FireWire, for connecting external hard drives and DV cameras, and USB, for connecting graphics tablets, digital cameras, printers and scanners. With more than 30 times the bandwidth of the popular USB 1.0 peripheral standard, FireWire 400 has become the gold standard for high-speed data transfer. And Apple ups the ante, effectively doubling data throughput, with FireWire 800. The new 15-inch PowerBook G4 has two FireWire ports -- one for the hundreds of FireWire 400 peripherals already available and the other for the coming generation of FireWire 800 peripherals. In addition, the PowerBook G4 offers the fastest connection to USB peripherals with two 480 Mbps USB 2.0 ports.

Built-in Bluetooth 2.0 Three times faster than Bluetooth 1.x, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (enhanced data rate) is now built into every new PowerBook model. Like AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth connects wirelessly to digital devices, including Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, handhelds and peripherals. What's more, you can even choose to enjoy a cable-free desktop with Apple's Bluetooth-enabled wireless keyboard and mouse. Operating within a 30-foot range, Bluetooth enables wireless data transfers between a rapidly growing list of Bluetooth-savvy peripherals. Using iSync, for example, you can use Bluetooth to synchronize your personal information between your PowerBook, your mobile phone and your Palm OS-based handheld. And your new PowerBook can use your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone to take advantage of GPRS or 1xRTT connectivity, so you can check your email from just about anywhere -- a life saver for those occasions when an 802.11 wireless hot spot isn't available.

Product Description

Take a high-performance PowerPC G4 processor, add a wide-screen display, and enclose it all in a lightweight titanium case. Apple has just created the PowerBook G4 - and redefined portable computing. If you need the utmost power for creative design, education, or business, the PowerBook G4 is ready to provide it wherever you go. Making a notebook computer the slimmest and lightest in its category shouldn't have to mean making compromises in performance and functionality. What makes a supercomputer "super" is its ability to execute at least one billion floating-point operations per second. It's a staggering measure of speed known as a "gigaflop". In addition, the PowerPC G4 can perform four (in some cases eight) 32-bit floating-point calculations in a single cycle - two to four times faster than traditional processors. The PowerPC G4 with Velocity Engine works with the PowerPC architecture to accelerate the data-intensive processing required by next-generation video, voice and graphics applications.Among the G4 key features is a vector permute function capable of rearranging data in the registers - a priceless benefit when converting data from one format to another (often necessary with voice, video and graphics applications, which typically need to save data in a number of different formats). These vector-processing acceleration advantages give the G4 microprocessor a significant edge when it comes to fast visualization of large data sets and intensive math for real-time simulations, making the PowerPC G4 perfect for everything from digital video, graphics and 3D games to astronomy, the biosciences and predictive modeling.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best value, May 4, 2005

By	Robert Kim "pontosete" (Torrance, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There are, quite literally, thousands of notebooks in the market today, ranging from $500 to $3000+ in price. If you're looking through the reviews of the magnificent $2700 17-inch Powerbook, you might be wondering if the price, the upfront cost of a Macintosh, is justifiable given that one can easily purchase 5 of the $500 notebooks. I looked around myself, but it came down to these:

1. The big screen. Most 17-inch Windows notebooks try to be media centers, and they weigh a ton. This Powerbook is barely more than an inch thick.

2. Size. I don't have big hands, but I do like a comfortable writing space. The keyboard has a nice tactile feel, it's backlit in dim lighting conditions.

3. Quietness. There is hardly a sound from the computer, and unless I'm doing processor-intensive work (like watching Quicktime HD sample movies), the fan is never on. It lets me focus on my work, rather than get distracted and annoyed at the grinding noise from the fan and hard drive.

4. Ease of use. All the necessary plugs (USB, firewire, etc) are present. More importantly, OS X (I'm using 10.4) with the included iLife '05 productivity software is easy to learn, and based on my experience from Windows PCs, makes me more productive quickly.

5. Software. The OS and the bundled software (I mentioned them above) don't intrude, requiring constant attention and drivers to install when I plug in a camera for the first time. They get out of my way, and they let me produce results. It took me 30 mins to import photos, edit them, and make a DVD catalog (browseable in Safari) AND make a quicktime movie of a slideshow. I was never able to do this on my old Windows PC (3.4GHz P4).

6. Value. Macs have generally higher resale value than other PCs. It's one company, versus hundreds of companies making, generally, the same computer, and so they gravitate towards pricing as the differentiator. I sold my 6-month-old 14-inch iBook G4 at 80% of the original price I paid. That's hard to do with any other PC or notebook.

And we come to price. At $2700, it is expensive, there is no getting around it. But when I compared to a comparable Dell 17-inch notebook (very nice, I must add), and added hardware and software features, resale value, plus considering ease of use and increased productivity, the $2700 in price is a bargain. Consider with a grain of salt, make your own comparisons and judgements.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Portability not such an issue, February 19, 2005

By	J. Rust "design student" (Cincinnati, OH, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First of all, let me state that while I have used this machine, I am the current owner of an older model - the first generation 17" with a 1GHz processor and a 60GB hard drive.

One of the biggest questions I always hear is "Isn't that too big to carry around?" My answer is no. I carry it for a 20 minute walk to my college campus daily and have no problems with it. I keep it in a Brenthaven bag specifically designed for it, and while it is a little unwieldy, it took me very little time to get used to it. The weight is definitely not an issue. For anyone thinking about getting this, I would weigh any bag that you carry with you on a day to day basis - seven pounds really isn't so much to deal with.

I use my Powerbook as my primary machine. At any given time, I am usually running Adobe Photoshop and/or Illustrator, Macromedia Flash, as well as a few native applications (Mail and iCal are always open, usually iTunes as well). The programs that come with the computer are well integrated into the operating system. I use mine for about 15 hours a day, and I put it to sleep rather than shutting it down. Even with all of the work that I do on it, a year and a half after purchasing my model it still stays on for two to three weeks with no need to shut it down.

The backlit keyboard is a feature that I never thought I would need, but now that I have it I'm not sure how I ever lived without it. Light sensors automatically adjust your screen brightness and keyboard lighting, although these can be adjusted manually. It makes working a breeze. Even though I don't look at the keyboard very much when I'm typing, it's nice to be able to see when I need to use keys I don't access very often (function keys, etc.). Since the keyboard lighting controls take up extra function keys, the "one-key" Expose features in OSX require one more step with pressing function before hitting F9-F11, but if it poses a real problem you can always set screen corners or change the hot key.

My biggest issue with this computer is the battery life. With the brightness turned all the way down (which can make the screen very difficult to see depending on your lighting conditions) and AirPort turned off, it can get around 3.5-4 hours of battery life. If you need full brightness and a wireless internet connection, you're realistically looking at about 2-2.5 hours of battery life.

Overall, I am a large supporter of this computer. I would recommend it to anyone that has a need for a Macintosh with maximum screen size and portability.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best PowerBook Yet, February 10, 2005

By	Ben Smukler (Visalia, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Apple's latest update to their aluminum PowerBook series warrants a close look by current PowerBook users and anyone on the fence. The 17" screen is stunning, even keeping in mind that other makers have copied the idea (Apple's overall presentation simply outclasses the copycats' efforts), and the design and construction are first class.
I purchased the new 17" PowerBook to replace the previous 15" model. The increase in processor speed is noticeable, and I love the new trackpad which incorporates vertical and horizontal scrolling simply by touching the pad with two fingers instead of one. It is immediately easy to use--no extra buttons to manipulate or odd procedures to learn. The screen seems brighter than the previous one, and the new keyboard backlighting is beautiful.
I also like the fact that, besides increasing the base amount of memory, Apple now ships the machines with one memory slot open. That is, a standard 512MB machine has one 512MB strip on board, with one slot open. I simply took the "extra" 512MB strip out of my previous machine and put it in the new one, giving me a full 1GB of memory (upgradable to 2GB for those planning missions beyond the galaxy or whatever).
Buyers of the new 17" PowerBook should also check out the Apple/Brenthaven shoulder bag and backpack. I opted for the backpack this time. It is beautifully crafted; easily worth the slight additional cost over the standard fare, especially since the computer sleeve is made specifically for this computer.
In sum, this is not an "intermediate" tweak; it is a serious upgrade of an already-great product.