Home Laptops Apple PowerBook G4 17-inch (Early 2003) Apple · PowerBook
PowerBook G4 17-inch (Early 2003) Released March 2003
The original 17-inch aluminium PowerBook, with a 1 GHz G4, backlit keyboard, FireWire 800 and built-in AirPort Extreme.
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Size 17″
Display –
Processor PowerPC G4 1 GHz (PowerBook 17-inch Early 2003)
Memory 512 MB – 1 GB
Weight 3.1 kg
Battery 4.5 h What reviewers say Reviewers praised the expansive display, sturdy aluminium enclosure and strong performance. Macworld valued the backlit keyboard, quiet operation and wireless range, but found it awkward in airline seating. Macs Only found clear gains over an older Titanium model while noting that the display hinge could move too freely.
From macworld.com and macsonly.com
Display
Screen size 17″
Resolution 1440 × 900
Touchscreen No
Display type 17-inch TFT widescreen; exact panel technology, brightness and built-in refresh unpublished.
Processor PowerPC G4 1 GHz (PowerBook 17-inch Early 2003)
CPU cores 1
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go (64 MB DDR)
Memory 512 MB or 1 GB
Storage 60 GB
CPU 1 GHz PowerPC G4 with Velocity Engine, 1 MB DDR SRAM L3 cache and 167 MHz system bus. Exact silicon supplier/SKU omitted.
GPU NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go, AGP 4 × with 64 MB DDR video memory.
Memory type 512 MB PC2700 DDR333 standard; two SO-DIMM slots and maker-supported maximum 1 GB. Unofficial 2 GB in EveryMac is excluded from configurations.
Storage type 60 GB 4200 rpm Ultra ATA/100 and slot-loading SuperDrive. Maker UK launch sheet specifies DVD-R 1 × write/8 × read, CD-R 8 × write, CD-RW 4 × write and CD 24 × read; later EveryMac 2 × DVD-R and Macworld 16 × CD-R figures differ, so launch maker specification retained. Battery and size
Battery life (maker's claim) Up to 4.5 hours
Battery capacity 55 Wh
Weight 3.1 kg
Thickness 26 mm
Width × depth 392 × 259 mm
Battery life detail 55 Wh lithium-ion, up to 4.5 hours maker claim. Published 3.1 kg includes battery and optical drive and varies by configuration/manufacturing process; closed metric dimensions 39.2 × 25.9 × 2.6 cm.
Materials Anodised aluminium enclosure Connections
Ports 2 × USB-A, Ethernet, headphone jack
Wi-Fi AirPort Extreme 802.11b/g
Bluetooth 1.1
Operating system macOS
Port detail Two 12 Mbps USB 1.1 ports, one FireWire 400 and one FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, 56K V.92 modem, Type I/II PC Card/CardBus, DVI, S-video, line input and headphone output. Support table mislabels FireWire MBps; UK sheet explicitly states Mbps.
External displays Dual display or mirroring up to 2048 × 1536 externally; DVI and included VGA/composite adapters.
Keyboard Full-size keyboard with fibre-optic backlighting and ambient light control; 79 ISO keys and embedded numeric keypad.
Speakers Two built-in stereo speakers
Microphones Internal omnidirectional microphone under left speaker grille
In the box 65 W power adapter, cord, modem cable, DVI-to-VGA and S-video-to-composite adapters. January announcement expected February; Macworld reported actual customer arrivals in March 2003. Month retained without inventing first delivery day. Configurations Processor Memory Storage Graphics PowerPC G4 1 GHz (PowerBook 17-inch Early 2003) 512 MB 60 GB NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go (64 MB DDR) PowerPC G4 1 GHz (PowerBook 17-inch Early 2003) 1 GB 60 GB NVIDIA GeForce4 440 Go (64 MB DDR)
Pros and cons Pros + Large widescreen display+ Backlit keyboard and ambient light sensors+ Gigabit Ethernet, DVI and FireWire 800Cons − Large footprint limits travel use− USB ports limited to 12 Mbps− Maker-supported memory limited to 1 GBNewer model: PowerBook G4 (17-inch, 1.33GHz) .
