[G4] 12" PowerBook G4

[Hal]

I have both a 600mHz iBook and a new 12" PBG4 (1gHz, combo drive). I 
find the build quality on the PBG4 to be excellent, at least as good as 
the 800mHz TiBook that it replaced. It doesn't get very hot (much less 
than the 867mHz 12" PBG4, I tried one of those too). That said, I've 
never had any problems with my 12" iBook at all.

The "video hack" to get external monitor support beyond mirroring on 
the iBook works on most 700-900mHz G3 iBooks. I don't know if it works 
on the new G4s.

I'm very happy with my PBG4, and I plan to keep it for a quite a while. 
When my original warranty gets close to expiring, I'll likely get 
AppleCare. You can't be too careful. Feel free to ask any other 
questions, and I'll do my best to help.

-Hal

On Jan 4, 2004, at 10:00 AM, Joe Sporleder wrote:

> Anyone on this list have a 12" PowerBook G4? How has it been in the 
> areas of reliability, heat not causing problems, quality control, etc? 
> I have a iBook G3 900mhz that has to be sent in again (2nd time, and 
> the one year warranty isn't over with yet! At least I've got extended 
> AppleCare and I've been getting lots of practice learning to backup 
> with Carbon Copy Cloner). The iBook apparently has some quality 
> control issues with the logic board, pinched wires and hard drives. I 
> was considering the PowerBook G4 12" model at the time I bought the 
> iBook, but then it was a bit out of my price range. I am considering 
> switching to a PowerBook G4. I know the iBook is now comes with G4's, 
> but it is too early to tell how they'll do in the "quality control" 
> department...if they'll fair better, or worse than their 900mhz G3 
> counterparts, especially since the G4 is a "hotter" chip. The extended 
> video desktop of the PowerBook is a nice feature that I'd like to 
> have...I hear that the iBook can be "hacked" to gain this feature, but 
> no thanks...Apple wouldn't appreciate that and would probably kill my 
> AppleCare agreement.