G4 Tv

There's a reason you see so many actors using Macs on TV shows and in movies—Apple has the coolness factor covered. And for students, that counts for a lot. The Apple PowerBook G4 (12-inch) doesn't disappoint, with its elegant, anodized aluminum case, sharp 12.1-inch LCD, and light weight: At 4.6 pounds, it's the lightest in our roundup.

The PowerBook's layout is simple and intuitive. Everything you need is located on the left side of the notebook: two USB 1.1 slots, one FireWire port, a modem, a wired Ethernet port, and line-in and headphone jacks. A port accepts adapters for composite video, S-Video, and VGA out. The right side has a slick slot-loading DVD/CD-RW drive. The PowerBook also has a built-in Bluetooth 1.1 adapter, as well as the Apple AirPort 802.11g adapter. Besides the Apple, only the Dell notebook has 802.11g capability here.

On our DVD playback battery rundown test, the PowerBook clocked 2:15, a respectable result. The unit, however, didn't fare as well against the IBM ThinkPad R40 on our Photoshop tests.

Apple's superb iLife suite includes the powerful iTunes software, as well as iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD—all very good multimedia applications.

The 12-inch PowerBook G4 is a feature-packed notebook that you can easily tote around campus, but there are a few trade-offs to its portability: Typing a 20-page term paper on the 12.1-inch screen may get tiresome. If screen real estate is a priority, look to the 15-inch PowerBook G4.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.

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