[h00ligan]

I am sitting here working on the windows laptop my company bought me. And it outshines my powerbook in so many ways. The OS is the only thng keeping me on a mac.
I'm sorry to say it, but this laptop kicks butt...aside from being a bit heavy ~6 lbs
Having the screen res is great.. the wireless is so much faster/stronger.. the build is substantially less delicate. IMHO the only thing IBM needs to start doing is is shipping with a dvd+-r/rw
and this is only an r40.. my bosses t41p would probably replace my powerbopok in a heartbeat.. if i could recover value from my pb, which i can't.. The pentium m processor is MUCH faster.. power saves better.. battery life is fantastic..it's FAST FAST FAST. my tibook ghz seems so slow after using this.
Anyway, it's just so frustrating that speed wise the mac is so far behind , at least on portables.
I don't buy that a ghz tibook comes even close to this 1.5 pentium m.
That said, I love OS X, and it's reliability.. battery life is a real downer on the powerbooks tho... sitting here, typing, wifi, screen on full, getting 4.5 hrs out of this r40.. the t41p gave me about 7.
Anyway, just posting some thoughts as I work with macs, windows, linux.. multiple hardware configs.. I have to say, IBM really ahsthe laptop thing down. and as much as i hate to say it.. apple could take some pointers..namely, GIVE ME MY SCREEN RES

[Nobody]

I really hate the LOOK of the non Mac Laptops. I know that doesn't account for much, but they look so flimsy and feel so brittle. That and their size. They are so much larger than the Mac's.
But thats just me.

[h00ligan]

well the look thing is totally subjective, but as far as toughnes.. the ibm reps stand on thinkpads during demos.. and the size and weight.. handle a t41p 4.5 lbs and spank fast with great screen res.
the new t41p has an accelerometer in the machine and if it senses sudden movement it locks the hdd so the disk can't be dropped while reading/writing..
now THAT's thinkin.
btw, i am in no way a pc zealot.. just frustrated by mac laptops.. fwiw i am sitting here typing this on my tibook now.

[Patch525]

See I've heard just the opposite, that the Pentium M is actually a pretty slow processor. Once again it all comes down to what programs you are going to be running. I run photoshop, word, explorer, aim and they all work very fast. For me its all about how everything comes together so well on a mac. I the flawlessness of iTunes and the Ipod. For simple photo stuff, iPhoto is great and so on. I know pcs stability has improved in recent years, but in all honesty I've never run into a PC that didn't have some problems. From the Dell at home, to the PCs at the two colleges I've attended, mac just does all these simple things so much better.

[stroudtx]

Both Mac's and PCs are way faster then the average Joe needs to web surf, burn CDs, play games, etc. The OS and applications are what draw me to my Macs. I have a PC also and it serves it purpose. Safari is a very fast and reliable web browser and I just love the spam e-mail filter in Apple's mail program. It saves me so much time (60+ day) and it rarely makes an error. We use iTunes a lot and take the ipod on the road. I know we could do a lot of this on a PC, but how many different applications would we have to buy, learn, and hope they all work together.
I'm staying with Mac - besides I don't care much for Microsoft these days.

[gforce1]

Totally concur with the lack of design on the Thinkpads but form, fit & function for this laptop are simply second to none for a business user. As well, the Apple G4 PB design, mac OS & multimedia capabilities are simple and very user friendly and once again second to none.
Someone out there needs to cross-polinate these two platforms for their best-in-class features and functionality and bring to-market a first-rate laptop,,... I hope that Apple is listening and/or reading and has realized this as well and gets their new revision laptops to market first. There is a rumor circulating that IBM is revamping their Thinkpads in Q104. One such rumor is that the new Thinkpads will have a DVD burner and the other is suggesting that it could also support a firewire port which the existing Thinkpads do not have,,... that would make the new Thinkpads one tough competitor in the pc market; however they do have one major downfall they are very expensive.
As for the design element, there are other pc-vendors such as Sony, Fujitsu, Winbook and Gateway that offer an interesting design alternative to the Apple G4 Powerbooks,,... the only "shortcoming" is that they all support Windows XP. Nonetheless, the battery and wireless networking are better than the Apple Powerbooks.
This has been a dilemna for me in making a new laptop choice for my business; deciding between the Thinkpad and the Apple 15" PB. In short, my heart is with Apple but my intellect tells me go with the Thinkpads,,... and that's the irony.
If I were considering a laptop for home use my choice would be either one of the Apple G4 PB (if I needed some mobility) or better yet the dual processor G5; hands-down!
Cheers! /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[maflynn]

I have a P3 Giga hertz compaq laptop and my 15" 1.25 al is faster. I realize its new technology, the compaq is a year old and the pb is new. The battery life on both is about the same, maybe a slight edge towards the compaq. Apple isn't just about the hardware, its the merging of the two. My pb is plenty fast for what I need and its a whole lot more stable then the pc. Apple has a lot going for it in the powerbook line but there's definately room for improvment, such as battery life. It seems to me that that apple has been on the cutting edge of product design (aside from the slower cpus), i.e., 17inch pbs, the ibooks, lit keyboards, etc.
In the end its the whole package hardware and software that makes the experience superior.
Mike

[Nobody]

In all honsest the pentium M is the fastest processor Intel have produced, the 1.4ghz outperforms the 2.2ghz P4. The M is basically a P3 with a larger on board cache. That being said, you won't catch me using one as it would require using Windows, and I've had my fill of that rubbish. Fixing them daily for a living make you look for an alternative for personal use.

[Biggs311]

I second that. I'm typing this on a Dell Inspiron with a P4M processor. Its decent enough. I'm borrowing it from my office while my PowerBook gets its white spots repaired. And just a few days of using this after having my PB for a month I can't begin to tell you how much I miss the PB. I hate using Windows. Bad enough I do it at work, but at home its too much. I want my PB back!

[Nobody]

I have owned several types of PC laptops, the one IBM that I had was the best built of them all, and their depot service/repair service was fantastic. I sent it in for something purely cosmetic (a 1/4 inch hairline crack emanating from one of the LED activity lights to the edge of the laptop) and they took care of it. If the same thing happened to my iBook, I doubt Apple would do the same.

[JohnnyA]

My son says he just got a good deal on a Toshiba 17" Multimedia laptop with DVD that writes. So far, he loves it. We'll see.... /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[h00ligan]

actually, all the new thinkpads have a firewire port..
at least the x31, t40, r40, t41p do.. that i have worked on.
just an fyi

[h00ligan]

also i would like to commend the maturity demonstrated in this thread.
there have been a lot of good points.. today i wanted to vid conf with my mom, and i couldn't get it to work.. oc to pc.. that said.. until aim gets a vid chat client that is crossplatform or msn goes vid conf on the mac.. i won't be buying a cam for my mac.
I really can't agree enough with the poster who said someone needs to crossbreed them. I would love to have the features of my mac on the hardware of my thinkpad.
Additionally ibm support is SPECTACULAR another area apple coudl stand to take a serious lesson.
Also the other above posster was right, a pentiium m processor at 1.5 is faster then a 2.6 ghz p4.. it is really nice to see.
In many ways i wish apple would ahve switched to x86 hardware. from a price perspective and the fact that more speed breakthroughs are happening on that side. Apple does innovate, however it is also important to not that they take innovational credit where it is not due.

[CrecenS]

Try some RAM in your PB.