How does the new 1.33GHz iBook compare to the 12" PowerBook?

Last week Apple quietly upgraded the existing 12” iBook from 1.2GHz to 1.33 GHz while keeping the price the same. While on the surface this looks like a minor upgrade, like the PowerBooks back in late January, this is actually a significant feature boost that makes the iBook a far better value than it already was, and makes the $500 pricier 12”PowerBook far more difficult to justify.

A quick comparison between the 12” iBook and 12” PowerBook shows the differences to be very slight, with the iBook, as usual, offering the same processor speed as the previous-generation PowerBook. Now 1.33GHz doesn’t sound as impressive as 1.5GHz in the PowerBook, but honestly 167MHz is such a minor boost that most users won’t even notice. Likewise, the 133MHz system bus, slower than the PowerBook’s 167MHz bus by a whopping 34MHz, is not a big enough difference for anyone to really notice in day-to-day use. With the latest revision, the iBook actually betters the PowerBook in memory, with a full 512MB soldered onto the board where the PowerBook only has 256MB, with its additional 256MB occupying the single slot. From the factory both machines have the same 512MB, but on the PowerBook you must throw away the 256MB module in the slot to upgrade, and it maxes out at 1.25BG, compared to a full 1.5GB for the iBook. Again, not THAT big a deal and easily dismissible due to the iBook simply being newer.

So if the speed is about the same, with the slight reduction possibly made up for in the increased memory capacity, how does the PowerBook justify its 50% price premium? Said another way, how can Apple sell a machine that essentially matches the PowerBook for 2/3 the price? That is where things get difficult and is also where the new iBook becomes a much better value than the now 7-month-old PowerBook.

Until last week, buying a PowerBook meant that in adition to the insignificant speed boost (back then iBooks were 1.2GHz), you also got a fancy 2-finger scrolling trackpad, high-speed BlueTooth 2.0, Airport Extreme, a hard drive motion sensor that parks the heads in a fall, and a slot-loading combo drive. Over time, iBooks have incorporated more and more PowerBook features, and with this revision, the iBook now matches the PowerBook in every feature except video.

Video is the key. The iBook uses an ATI Radeon 9550 video card with 32MB VRAM compared to the NVidia GForce 5200FX with 64MB VRAM in the PowerBook. I honestly wouldn’t call either card better than the other, as the ATI is based on the excellent 9600, an outstanding gaming card on the PC platform, whereas the GForce FX is about equal overall, though slightly less popular. The ATI card may be slightly better than the NVidia for games, though the 32MB of VRAM is pushing the minimums these days, with many games demanding 64MB. I’ll call it a toss-up, better hardware on the iBook’s video though crippled by insufficient video memory for the latest, highest-end games,

Where the PowerBook video really shines is in business and art, rather than games. The iBook lacks the PowerBook’s DVI video output and monitor spanning, with only composite (conventional analog) video output and video mirroring capability. What this means is that where the PowerBook can display different things on its built-in LCD and an external monitor, including a high-end digital video interface (DVI) monitor, the IBook can only connect to conventional analog displays (DVI requires an expensive adapter) and can only show the same image on the built-in and external monitor. Put another way, with the PowerBook you can work on a photo in PhotoShop on your high-end digital monitor, but put all of your toolbars, or perhaps another open application on your built-in display.

For the iBook’s target market, students, this is not a big deal. For the PowerBook’s business user core market it also really doesn’t matter much, as the graphics pros who use this capability will likely buy the larger 15” or 17” PowerBook for their even better video capabilities.

What it really comes down to with the new iBook compared to the existing PowerBook is look and feel. Both machines use the exact same 12” display, which many people really like, while others only like to complain about it. Personally, I find it to be excellent as laptop displays go, and have owned two examples, both on 12” PowerBooks. Both the iBook and PowerBook are small and light, with the PowerBook trying to justify its higher price with smaller dimensions, lighter weight, and sexy aluminum case materials compared to the plainer-looking though stronger white polycarbonate case of the iBook. Yes, the PowerBook is visibly smaller and 0.3 lbs lighter, but whether the small differences in weight and size are worth $500 depends entirely on how little you value your money.

Other differences are more subtle. The iBook’s keyboard is a lot better than the ones on the old G3 iBooks, but still doesn’t come close to the outstanding keyboard on the PowerBook. The iBook keyboard isn’t bad at all, with nice key feel and a fairly rigid frame, but next to the PowerBook it feels flexible (in a bad way) and cheap. Is the PowerBook keyboard worth an extra $500? No, but it is just about the best laptop keyboard on the market today, the equal of IBM’s ThinkPad keyboard, widely acknowledge as the best in the business for over ten years running.

The iBook still has the same two small speakers above the keyboard that its always had. The PowerBook hides its speakers on the back, reflecting the sound off the open display while adding a third, midrange driver for fuller bass response. No, it doesn’t replace external powered speakers, but where the iBook has typical low-quality laptop sound out of the built-in speakers, the PowerBook sounds good enough to watch a movie or listen to music, at least in a smaller, quiet room without resorting to headphones. Again, while the PowerBook sounds a lot better, it doesn’t sound $500 better.

Other differences are relatively minor. The PowerBook comes standard with a larger 60GB hard drive, though it is a faster 5400 RPM drive. The iBook’s 40GB 4200 RPM drive can be upgraded to 60GB for not very much money, or like on the PowerBook with an 80 or 100GB drive, though to my knowledge all iBook drives are the slower 4200RPM models. This is a noticeable difference, though only really significant if you do a lot of production work involving disk access, like video or photo editing.

One important area where the iBook trumps the PowerBook is in battery life. The 12” PowerBook is rated at 5 hours and gives a realistic 3 hrs of battery life in high-intensity use (watching a DVD movie with the screen at half brightness. The iBook is rated at 6 hours and in high intensity use can run up to 3:45. Thats a significant boost in runtime, and that alone is worth the extra weight of the iBook.

So in the end it is a matter of simply mathmatics. $500 is the difference in price, but the PowerBook really doesn’t offer $500 worth of upgrades. Yes, the PowerBook is a nicer computer. Its smaller, lighter, a bit faster and has a much nicer keyboard and better video capabilities, the problem is that those enhancements just aren’t worth the difference in price.

I bought my 12” PowerBook right after it was introduced on February 2, and I’ve enjoyed it a lot over the last 6 months, but were I shopping today, the iBook would clearly represent the better vallue. Of course, while the iBook represents a better value, the PowerBook does have a lot more of that highly subjective quality known as panache.

The iBook, despite its amazing value, still lacks the style of the PowerBook. The iBook was one of the sleekest laptops on the market when it was first introduced as a 500MHz G3, but that was five-years-ago. Today, it is showing its age. What was once positively tiny for a 12” laptop, is not almost as large as some 14” screen models. The PowerBook itself is three-years-old now, but it still somehow presents a cutting-edge appearance that in no way shows its age.

In the end, I still love my PowerBook. Its keyboard continues to delight every time I type on it, and I just love its sleek and stylish looks. For students or anyone else who is remotely budget conscious, hwoever, it would be stupid to spend the extra $500 on the PowerBook today unless you really need its enhanced video features. Other than the video, the current iBook really is so good as to make the PowerBook a frivolous luxury item.

My recommendation? Buy an iBook. With Apple’s impending switch to Intel processors in a year or two, they are putting as much value as possible into the existing Power PC models, and this iBook is perhaps the best value package that Apple has ever offered.