Mossberg calls 12-inch PowerBook ‘one sweet little laptop’

“Apple Computer announced last week two new models in its PowerBook laptop line. The one that drew the most attention was the industry’s first laptop with a gargantuan 17-inch screen. But the company also announced its smallest laptop ever: a petite PowerBook with a 12-inch screen and a mass-market base price of $1,799… The 12-inch PowerBook is one sweet little laptop. Sheathed in an aluminum case, it has the feel of a finely made camera. And it’s the smallest notebook I’ve tested that sports a full range of features, including one I’ve never seen on a compact laptop. Yet it’s significantly less expensive than some comparable Windows laptops. This PowerBook is slightly smaller than Apple’s low-end laptop, the iBook, but is powered by the more potent G4 processor that drives the larger PowerBooks. Apple has omitted a few standard PowerBook features — including a special memory cache that speeds things up — to protect sales of the older PowerBooks. But in my tests, the little PowerBook felt speedy and sure on every task I threw at it,” writes Walt Mossberg for the Wall Street Journal. Full story here.