Differences: MacBook & PowerBook
The PowerBook and MacBook are two of the Macintosh laptop computers produced by technology company Apple Inc. -- with notable differences. While the PowerBook symbolized the company's high-end portable lineup, the MacBook was its entry-level laptop. Moreover, the PowerBook is no longer in production: replaced by the MacBook's more advanced counterpart, the MacBook Pro. The MacBook, on the other hand, is still in production as of March 2011; it replaced the PowerBook's low-end iBook counterpart and is in its third generation of production along with its MacBook Pro sibling.
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Processor and Memory
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The MacBook was notable for Apple's transition to Intel processor-based computers, away from the PowerBook's PowerPC G4 processor, after which the computer was named (The PowerBook usually has the "G4" suffix). The MacBook's processor is from Intel Corporation's top-tier Core 2 Brand -- a P8600 with 2.4 GHz of processing speed. The PowerBook's G4 processor, by contrast, was much slower: 1.5 or 1.67 GHz. The MacBook comes preinstalled with 2 GB of system memory with 1,066 MHz of speed, using the third generation -- and as of March 2011, the latest -- synchronous dynamic random access memory architecture (DDR3 SDRAM). On the other hand, the second- and last-generational PowerBook only offered 333 MHz and 512 megabytes of RAM, using first-generational DDR SDRAM architecture.
Sizes, Screen Display and Video/Graphics
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The PowerBook offered three sizes of widescreen TFT display: a 12-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch. Moreover, its maximum resolution was 1,440 by 900 pixels. By comparison, the MacBook only comes in a 13-inch widescreen TFT LCD design, with up to 1,024 by 768 pixels in resolution. The MacBook, however, has a more advanced video/graphics card with the NVIDIA GeForce 320M, which takes up to 256 MB of the computer's RAM. The PowerBook contained the NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 or ATI Mobility Radeon 9700, neither of which used more than 128 MB of RAM.
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Disk Drives
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The MacBook comes with a 250-gigabyte hard disk drive, which spins at a rate of 5,400 revolutions per minute. That of the PowerBook also had the 5,400-rpm specification, although the data-storage choices consisted of 60 GB, 80 GB and 100 GB -- none of which surpass the MacBook. The PowerBook's optical drive was usually a CD-RW/DVD-ROM or 8x SuperDrive
CD-RW/DVD±RW combo, while the MacBook is only available with the latter. The main difference between the two optical drives is that the latter, unlike the former, has the additional ability of recording on DVDs rather than just playing them.
Connectivity
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The MacBook and PowerBook have Bluetooth and Apple-designated AirPort wireless connectivity, 56-kilobit-per-second model and Ethernet. The Bluetooth version on the PowerBook, however, is the Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), while the MacBook has its immediate predecessor dubbed 2.1 + EDR. As well, the built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T GB Ethernet is standard on all MacBooks. While it came with the 15- and 17-inch versions of the PowerBook, its 12-inch got the less advanced 10/100BASE-T instead.
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