The Powerbook's elegant form hides a very fast and powerful machine. The 12-inch G4 runs Photoshop like a dervish and comes bundled with Apple's exceptional suite of iLife software. For power-users with little space to spare, laptops don't come sleeker than this
Previewed by Chris Stevens
It's hard to believe that such a small laptop is capable of running software like Final Cut Pro and editing massive digital photos -- but it is. Given that this 12-inch wonder can easily edit digital video, we expected it to blaze through software like Photoshop -- and it did. If you’re looking for a laptop to professionally edit video, this is the smallest portable cutting room in the world. The 12-inch PowerBook runs an IBM PowerPC G4 at 1.5GHz and includes Firewire, DVI, Airport and an optional DVD writer. Apple has really packed it in.
For word processing or digital photography, there's plenty to recommend here. Apple's real selling point is the quality of its software and the 12-inch PowerBook is well stocked. Bundled with iLife 2005, the 12-inch is ready to handle digital photographs, movies and music out of the box. For musicians there's also Garageband included in the iLife collection. This is the younger sibling to Logic Audio -- one of the industry's most respected professional music-editing tools. It's worth noting that while some PC laptops appear marginally cheaper than the PowerBook, it's been our experience that the high-end software Apple bundles with its machines often makes them the better buy.
Apple has perfected the out-of-the-box experience. Our review model connected to the Internet a few minutes after we'd taken it out of the polystyrene. This is the perfect machine for anyone who wants things to just work without tinkering. From start to finish we were given the impression of an extremely polished and well-constructed machine.
Upside
The 12-inch PowerBook is small. Really small. If there's a better specced laptop of this size, we've yet to see it. There's something special about being able to edit a digital movie of last night's party and burn it to DVD on the bus. For portable power a 1.5GHz G4, while not as swift as a G5, is still extremely capable of handling most of the tasks you'll throw at it.
One of the more interesting hardware features is the on-board gyroscope which detects motion and protects the hard disk if the computer drops off the edge of your desk. The motion sensor will lock the hard drive heads before the PowerBook hits the floor. This prevents the heads from skittering across the drive like a record player needle scratching across vinyl. This sensor is so accurate that it can tell exactly how your Mac is orientated in space. Some enterprising programmers have hacked this sensor so that games like Marble Madness can be controlled by tilting your PowerBook. The Sudden Motion Sensor will protect sensitive data even if you drop your PowerBook out of a window -- you'd shudder to think about it though. We didn't have the heart to drop our review model, but judging from reports on Internet newsgroups, the sensor seems to be very effective at preserving data.
The base model comes with a combination CD-RW/DVD drive which will burn CDs, but not DVDs. Alternatively, you can install the optional 8x SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW) for an extra £150, which will play or burn CDs and DVDs. There's also on-board FireWire 400 and USB 2.0. This is more than sufficient for using most external drives and for miniDV video capture. It won’t, however, be capable of full-frame HD video capture, although this is asking a lot from a laptop anyway. If you need to capture high-definition footage or your storage devices are Firewire 800, you should consider the 15-inch or 17-inch PowerBooks which are equipped with faster ports. Laptops have never been the ideal HD video editing powerhouses, so Firewire 400 should be adequate for most users.
Downside
The mini-DVI port on the 12-inch PowerBook will output to a monitor, plasma or projector. But if you’re a power-user with a lust for screen space, it's worth noting that the 12-inch PowerBook won’t be able to drive the massive 30-inch Apple Cinema Display. If you need to drive a mammoth display, the 17-inch PowerBook -- incredibly -- is capable of natively supporting the 30-inch Apple LCD. With 128MB of graphics memory and dual-link DVI, the 17-inch trumps the 12-inch for display options, but it is significantly bigger than the nimble 12-inch.
Disappointingly, the 12-inch PowerBook runs a standard 10/100BASE-T Fast Ethernet while its overlords, the 15-inch and 17-inch models, come with Gigabit Ethernet. Again, Apple has sacrificed some speed for portability with the 12-inch, but then few office networks are currently running Gigabit Ethernet and, for internet access at least, you’re extremely unlikely to find the bottleneck lies with your Ethernet. Even a fast broadband connection won’t be able to logjam a 10/100BASE-T Ethernet connection.
OutlookIf you're not a power user, the small size and well-established usability of Apple's PowerBooks make the 12-inch a great desktop replacement at home or university. Students might also want to take a look at Apple's iBook range, which use slightly lower-powered processors but are a more affordable option for less demanding work.
Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Tom Espiner
Visit reviews.cnet.co.uk for in-depth reviews of many more products
