I got my powerbook 17 inch!!!

[solrac]

Wow, this computer actually is very very good.

1) Performance -
The 1 Ghz G4 and 32 MB video card fix all performance problems I've ever had on OS X. Windows resize smoothly (mostly), scrolling is smooth, applications open fast all the time, everything is just fine.

2) Screen size
At first, I thought the screen was ridiculously wide and not tall enough. But then you end up realizing that it's just tall enough and the extra wideness is good. Lots of space for toolbars, 2 pages of documents, etc. etc. For desktop wallpaper junkies, you will have to get a 1600x1200 (standard large size) of your wallpaper and trim it down to 1440x900 to fit properly, but no big deal.

3) Surprises
The airport card (built in) gets great signal! I found out my neighbor has a mac and a wireless connection across the street from me, and I still get 3 bars signal strength! (Out of 4 bars.) Now I can leech off their internet connection for free from the comfort of my own home! Starbucks now has access points and those work great too.

The CD-R/DVD-R drive is awesome! I'm just talking about inserting a disk. I started pushing in the disk and the familiar slow grabbing action did not occur. I was thinking, what the hell? Nothing's happening! And I kept pushing the disc in and then all of a sudden SNAP!!!! In the blink of an eye the drive sucked in the disk like lightning! That was so cool...

2 usb ports (one on either side of the laptop) is great.

4) Minor disappointment
The lighted keyboard concept is so cool... there's even two new function keys on the keyboard... one to lighten and one to darken the keyboard. You can see the keyboard get lighter as you hold down F10! But then you lose the whole effect. You see, the keyboard only lights up when it's dark. If it's not dark enough, you won't see the cool keys effect. So I tried turning off all the lights at night time. The keyboard lit up a bit, but.... ackkk... the very light from the laptop screen was almost enough to keep the keyboard from lighting! I turned up the keyboard lighting to max and it's still not very noticeable. When I closed all open windows and made my desktop background BLACK, then the lighted keys looked really cool. But realistically, at night, you'll be looking at stuff with a white background much of the time which creates too much light to allow the keyboard effect to look supercool.

FINAL VERDICT:
AWESOME COMPUTER!
Big, spacious screen real estate
Very portable and lightweight still!

CONS
Too expensive
But... all Apple's stuff is too expensive, and I am lucky that I can afford this awesome laptop.

pics soon...

[solrac]

pics

[solrac]

Keyboard edit:
I change my verdict on the keyboard... i tried using it in a pitch black room.

While the light from the screen still washes out the keyboard effect, the lighting actually DOES make the keyboard easier to use in the dark. If you use it in complete darkness the keys are invisible to see. But if you turn up the keyboard lighting, the screen may wash it out (especially if you have mostly white on the screen), but you can still tell what keys are what... so it is actually useful and super cool.

If you want to ever show it OFF though, make sure you have a DARK or BLACK desktop background and turn up the key lighting all the way and be in a pitch black room!

[Zammy-Sam]

You sure you have just 32mb of video-ram?

[solrac]

oops hehe
GeForce 4 MX with 64 MB

RULES!!

[binaryDigit]

Just saw my first 17" a couple of weeks ago, man that sucker is huuuuge. I'd be interested in hearing how it is to lug around. What type of bag do you have for it? I'd imagine it would be unwieldy on an airplane. Watching dvd's must rock though. Any heat issues?

[anerki]

Do you have any pictures of your keyboard lighting? I would love to see that in a realistic photo.

On a different note, is there anyway to install that on a 15", I'm willing to go through the trouble of installing tiny little LEDs under all the keys

Grtz,
.anerki

[solrac]

Amazingly... NO HEAT ISSUES!

Also, the laptop is no bigger than the 15" except that it's longer. It's very easy to carry around and you just need any old bag that would fit it. I'm sure apple has a leather laptop bag for it.

I have pics of the keyboard lit but its really hard to take those because of the low light conditions... i'll try uploading later...

but those keys rock, in pitch black with the display at low brightness!