Detailed Product Description

Overview: Apple's latest PowerBook - called Titanium because of its metallic shell
- has received a big performance bump to make it blaze through the most demanding
digital imaging applications
Processing power: The new PowerBook looks exactly like the old one and weighs the
same at 2.45 kg. But under the hood, the machine has been entirely reworked. 

The new line-up comes with two processor choices: the 667 MHz or 800 MHz PowerPC
G4. The machine also uses a faster 133 MHz system bus, and a 1 MB Level 3 cache
to boost performance for data-intensive applications like Final Cut Pro and Photoshop.


When put through Photoshop Suite tests with a 50 MB file, it completed the tasks
nearly two times faster than the entry-level 800 MHz desktop PowerMac and a third
faster than the older 667 MHz PowerBook. Apple also claims that the PowerBook
outperforms a 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 notebook system by 33 per cent, on average. 

Display: The 15.2-inch screen packs in a resolution of 1,280 x 854 pixels. This is
23 per cent more desktop space than the earlier Titanium, and a whopping 39 per
cent more than most PC displays (at 1,024 x 768). This means a lot more space
to do and see your work. The screen is also brighter than before. 

But if that is not enough, the new PowerBook also supports Apple's new mega 23-inch
Cinema High Definition (HD) Display, which has a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200
(see story above). The Titanium hooks up to the Cinema HD Display via a DVI to ADC
Adapter that costs $260. 

Graphics display performance is also made razor sharp with ATI's Mobility Radeon
7500 chip with a whopping 32 MB DDR (double data rate) video RAM - twice what the
last Titanium sported. 

Networking: The Titanium comes with the industry's first Gigabit Ethernet card for
notebooks. Besides this, it has all the usual connections: 56 kbps internal modem,
two USB and one FireWire port, and wireless networking by way of an AirPort
card. This is optional in the entry-level 667 MHz machine and standard on the 800
MHz. 

One notable absence in the notebook is the infrared port. With GPRS (general packet
radio service) becoming more and more popular on mobile phones, this port would
have been a great way to connect the machine to a mobile phone for Internet access.


Overall: With the increased horsepower and screen resolution, connectivity to external
monitors, and high-speed networking capability, the new PowerBook is a super
high-end, low-weight notebook for demanding mobile executives or designers.