I mentioned in a previous post that I saw the 17″ Powerbook at MacWorld SF and Sean asked me to give more of my impressions.

Didn’t get to use it that long. But the screen is really big and there is a lot of space around the keyboard. Like a TiBook, but wider, maybe 2 or three inches from the keyboard to the side of the machine on both sides. This means it probably won’t fit in my backpack sleeve as my TiBook barely does.

I have a 17″ iMac at work and there is a lot of screen real estate.

The keyboard feels nice. To me keyboard feel is important as it is to a lot of people, but it is also subjective. I just read recently some one who hated the feel of the Aluminum keys. I didn’t notice the material and like the feel of the key press. For reference I don’t like the feel of my iMac white extended keyboard. The shift key is unreliable. I like the keyboard on my TiBook though.

Didn’t see the back light, but I can see its usefulness.

What else? Mmm the hinge for the screen is like the iBook and I think that is better. And all of the ports are on the sides, which is good if you connect and disconnect stuff a lot. Might be a problem if you leave it parked.

I could sure use a faster AirPort, but that requires a new base station as well.

Those are my thought on the 17″ hope that helps.