# powerbook G5..?  too late..!



## fernando.alonso (Jun 27, 2004)

Hey guys, I posted this some time ago

_I really wonder if there's any rumors about the up-coming (hope at least soon!!!) powerbook G5.
...and what is it going to be made out of? platinum this time? 
_ 

To my big disapointment, I just find out that Acer-Ferrari have already on the market the fastest notebook ever, with it 64bit microprocessor... Ferrari 3200 Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 2800+ and the beautiful Ferrari-RED case.

What a pity Apple didn't figure out this one...


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## Zammy-Sam (Jun 27, 2004)

Why is it disappointing Acer released a mobile 64bit processor? There are athlon 64 laptops out for some time, but why do you compare it to apple? Apple could have squeezed the G5 into the powerbook increasing the thickness, adding noisy and big cooling fans and decreasing the battery life to 2h. I don't want to have such a powerbook and I believe the Acer is such kind of premature birth. No thanks! Apple, take your time and give us a good book!


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## Chazam (Jun 27, 2004)

Zammy-Sam said:
			
		

> Why is it disappointing Acer released a mobile 64bit processor? There are athlon 64 laptops out for some time, but why do you compare it to apple? Apple could have squeezed the G5 into the powerbook increasing the thickness, adding noisy and big cooling fans and decreasing the battery life to 2h. I don't want to have such a powerbook and I believe the Acer is such kind of premature birth. No thanks! Apple, take your time and give us a good book!


Exactly!  
There are thermal issues and power consumption issues for apple and IBM to contend with before they go sticking G5's in powerbooks. Apple will deliver as soon as they can!
I'd rather have a complete and efficient laptop than a rushed product!


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## Ripcord (Jun 27, 2004)

Is the G5 really any more power hungry or hot than an Athlon 64?  (I have no idea).

If it's not, then how could it be perceived as anything OTHER than foot-dragging or an inability to engineer, if other vendors have been producing laptops that have solved the heat dissipation/power issue for quite some time?


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## kendall (Jun 27, 2004)

Ripcord said:
			
		

> Is the G5 really any more power hungry or hot than an Athlon 64?  (I have no idea).
> 
> If it's not, then how could it be perceived as anything OTHER than foot-dragging or an inability to engineer, if other vendors have been producing laptops that have solved the heat dissipation/power issue for quite some time?



i havent seen the ferrari laptop but im going to take a wild guess and say that its probably 10lbs, 2 in thick, and gets about 1.5 hours on a single charge.

this is exactly why apple doesnt release a 64-bit laptop today.  sure they could do it, but i think you and i would be much happier waiting a bit so they can do it right.


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## dreamscape (Jul 2, 2004)

kendall said:
			
		

> i havent seen the ferrari laptop but im going to take a wild guess and say that its probably 10lbs, 2 in thick, and gets about 1.5 hours on a single charge.



yeah that was a wild guess.  It actually weighs 3.014kg (6.64 lbs.) and is 3.1cm (1.2 in) thick.


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## Zammy-Sam (Jul 2, 2004)

The point was: >1.1'' and >2.6kg


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## Randman (Jul 2, 2004)

I'm sure lots of professionals are going to opt for a red notebook *sarcasm button engaged*.
  Better to be best than first.


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## gerbick (Jul 2, 2004)

dude, the red makes it look faster.  it really does.


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## diablojota (Jul 2, 2004)

I was at a meeting with all these executives of the equivalent of fortune 500 companies, but in Europe, and I counted like 5 of those Acer Ferrari notebooks.  I asked one guy about it, and he said he got it to match his Ferarri F40...


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## Zammy-Sam (Jul 2, 2004)

And does he have an alubook that matches to his silver SL65 AMG?


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## hulkaros (Jul 2, 2004)

Acer's Ferrari 3200 laptop looks cheap but it ain't (especially for a Wintel/Amd laptop)... Looks big and it is... Surely, it IS fast... It runs Windows XP (no OS X there )... And as for battery longevity and thermal info, data is too hard to find 

Ferrari my behind 

PS. For those who care about that Ferrari, here is the link:
http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/fr3200.htm


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## Zammy-Sam (Jul 2, 2004)

just an ordinary windoze laptop with a red cover to me.

(hulk, I hope greece will make it on sunday. Otto Rehhagel is a great coach)


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## diablojota (Jul 2, 2004)

Go Greece!


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## j2603 (Jul 2, 2004)

Power
90-watt AC adapter

Eight-cell lithium ion battery: up to 3.0 hours life depending on configuration and usage
<--- you know what that means - you get on average of 2 hours or even less. wow.


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## kendall (Jul 2, 2004)

powerbooks say 5 hours, will any luck i get around 3.5 (if i dim the screen to practically black, throttle the cpu down and just check email i can get around 4.5).  pc notebooks are even worse however.

ive had a 2 p3 dell notebooks.  both claimed 3 hours yet got about 1.5 no matter what i did.  the new centrinos have pretty good memory management but i dont know about the amd 64.

battery life is one of the main reasons ill never buy another pc notebook.  ibooks and powerbooks really shine in that department.


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## mdnky (Jul 3, 2004)

Agent at the main office bought an eMachines AMD-64 laptop, thought he was all cool and stuff with his monster of a machine.  That is until it died on him less than 1.5 hours later...dead battery.  Sad part is all he did was surf the net for a little while and some light typing...and 30 mins of that was in sleep mode.

No...Apple has chosen wisely to hold off on the G5 PBs.  They've been the best of the bunch in the past few years in terms of actual portability, particularly battery life.  They'd have to throttle the G5 way down to get it near G4 consumption levels, which would destroy any advantage of having a G5 in there in the first place.  Supposedly IBM has a solution in the works for that issue, but it'll be 2005 before we see that.

People I work with are astounded by the battery life I get out of this iBook...it's easily 3x the amount every other person does.  I'm the only one capable of leaving the power cord home, which is really nice.  I unplugged this morning (9am) and put her to sleep.  2 hours later I opened it for 20 minutes to sync files from the server.  Put her back to sleep.  Used it for about an hour after lunch on the net...put it back to sleep.  Left it in sleep until I got home around 2am, opened her up and it's only down to 85% on the charge.  The least amount of time I've seen so far was during constant PS/DW/FW work on a client website...that was 3.5 hours.

Sure the G5 might be 3x faster than the G3 I have, but if the battery lasts 1/4 as long then it's a worse case scenario isn't it?


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## fernando.alonso (Jul 3, 2004)

I completely agree. Portability/freedom are the main reasons for a Laptop/Notebook computer. I do also have an iBook, and if a G5 computer will mean 1/4 of the performing time of the one I do have now... forget it!

I'm glad I wasn't seduced by the red shining covers...

Perhaps Apple should thing of making a deal with, instead of a car-factory, and aeroplane-factory, rockets might be even better, and what about NASA..?


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## hulkaros (Jul 4, 2004)

Nasa people already bought loads of Mac computers  Especially PowerBooks


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