The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg wrote an article (“Latest Apple Laptop Offers Travelers a New Look, Feel“) for the Personal Technology section that is complimentary towards Mercury, calling it “a nice combination of style and power.”
Mr. Jobs unveiled the new laptop with his trademark razzle-dazzle at the MacWorld trade show earlier this month. The audience, starved for a redesigned PowerBook since a much bulkier model made its debut in 1998, went nuts. I was present at the debut, but you can’t judge a computer from a day at a trade show. So I got my hands on a PowerBook and have been testing it for a week.
I’ve compared the PowerBook G4 with a well-designed Windows laptop of similar size and capacity, IBM’s ThinkPad T. Both weigh 5.3 pounds, about 50% heavier than the ultralight class of laptops, but at least a pound lighter than most other laptops that include a built-in DVD or CD drive and a full complement of built-in ports.
My verdict is that the PowerBook G4 is a first-rate laptop at a fair price that will delight its users, despite a few flaws. It compares very favorably to the ThinkPad T.
