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Product: Laptop computer

Developer: Apple Computer

System Specs: 12.1 inch TFT display with 1024x768 resolution, 1.5GHz PowerPC G4, 512MB RAM, 80GB 5400 RPM hard drive, slot-load 8x SuperDrive, 64MB Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200, full size keyboards, 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, USB 2.0 and FireWire 400

Retail Price: $1,499

Availability: Now

Product Page: store.apple.com

I got a Powerbook 17" a year ago because I wanted the most powerful laptop Apple made, and I lusted for the huge screen, along with the long list of features (Airport Extreme, Bluetooth, etc.), that it offered. But love the 17" as much as I do, it does have drawbacks: for one, at seven pounds, it's a freaking brick to carry around. And its large size also means a large footprint—awkward to use on airplanes and in other cramped quarters.

The 12" Powerbook delivers almost everything its big sister does in a compact, lighter package. True, it's missing some of the expandability of the 15 and 17: the 12 has neither a Firewire 800 port nor a PC Card slot. But it's unlikely you'll miss them; with integrated Airport Extreme, Bluetooth, two USB 2 ports, one Firewire 400, Ethernet and modem ports, you won't miss out on 99% of the peripherals out there. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever seen a Firewire 800 cable in my life. The 12 also ditches the S-Video and DVI out ports in favor of a mini-DV out port, but an adapter for full-size DVI video is included, with S-Video and Composite adapters sold separately.

The only truly noticeable thing you'll be sacrificing is the extra screen space, but the 12's is sharp and crystal clear enough that you won't mind. True, using multi-paletted applications like Photoshop or Director will be cramped, but with more common applications, like e-mail, word processing, iPhoto, etc. you won't notice at all.

The 12 boasts a "full size keyboard." That is, one that's as big as the keyboard on the other two Powerbooks. It lacks the illuminating feature, but is otherwise the same: snappy, responsive keys. You'll want to invest in a pair of good headphones, however. The 12's keyboard utilizes all the space on the top half, from side-to-side, meaning that there's no room for speaker outputs. The result: crummy sound. Not that anyone buys a laptop for its speakers, and the 12 makes up for this by providing both a mini-jack audio in and out for recording artists on the go, along with a serviceable internal mic.

Under the hood, the 12 packs some power, too: an 80 GB hard drive (standard) and a side-mounted 8x SuperDrive (16x for data CDs, 24x for audio). All this power comes at a price, however; the 12 can run very hot, especially if you run the Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200 full blast, like while playing a modern video game. Painfully hot, in fact, and the aluminum shell doesn't do much to dissipate the heat from being transferred to your legs, should you use it on your actual lap.

The battery estimate of "up to five hours" is wishful thinking. Yes, if you turn down all the power settings, along with turning off Bluetooth and Airport Extreme, you might eek out that much life on a single charge, but in actual normal use, four hours is more accurate. Doing something processor/video intensive, like playing a DVD, will knock it down even quicker.

The computer only comes in one processor speed: 1.5 GHz. Now, I've had several applications open on this system at once, playing songs in iTunes while downloading photos into iPhoto while resizing graphics in Photoshop Elements with little or no noticeable slowdown. However, it's no secret that the lack of a great increase in laptop processor speed was one of the main reasons why Apple is making the move from PowerPC to Intel chips. It was a year ago that I got a 1.5GHz 17" Powerbook.

What kind of processor jump will we see in the next generation, Intel-based Powerbooks? We won't know that until we have the two machines running side-by-side. But when will we see them? Nobody knows except Steve Jobs, and he hasn't answered the e-mail I sent him from my Hotmail account.

But this is a review of the machine we have now, and pardon me if I gush. I declared the 17" Powerbook to be my favorite Apple computer, ever, but now, after spending time with the 12", I'm having second thoughts. It is, for all practical and useful purposes, everything the 17" is, but it weighs a lot less and is easier to carry around.

It comes, of course, with OS X 10.4 and iLife '05. The only problem I've had on that front was when I tried to migrate from my Luxo iMac using the Transfer Assistant program. Everything worked fine, except for iTunes, which didn't work at all, crashing when opening, closing, trying to play music, trying to access the Music Store, crashing...well, crashing like a Windows app. After two days on the phone with Apple Tech Support, we tried everything we could think of and eventually decided to nuke it from orbit: erase everything on the Powerbook and do a manual transfer. It worked. So, somewhere on the iMac (which started, I think, at 10.1 and has had an Archive and Install of every OS since then) was some errant bit of code that iTunes 6 didn't like.

But, other than that oddity, the 12 has been a real treat. If you need a small, powerful laptop with a lot of (peripheral) expandability, and you need it right now and you don't need a ton of screen space, this is the computer for you.

Strengths: Small, powerful. Lots of expandability via ports.
Weaknesses: Aging processor. Heat problem on intense video operations.

Bill's been using Macs since the late 80s. When he's not making smartass remarks to amuse Kirk Hiner, he enjoys fighting for the user.