Let’s face it.  The old PowerBook G4 is a much nicer looking object than the new MacBook Pro.  What’s nicer in the new MacBook line? Well the unibody thingy is nice, but that’s about it.

So, what sucks?  You have to start with the keyboard.  A black keyboard?  Why oh why?  It doesn’t look nearly as nice as the silver keyboard on the G4.  I guess it’s about the contrast that can be created for the lighting in the keyboard.  In any case there are some lighting conditions that will actually cause the black keys to be inferior. The lighting in the silver keys on the previous MacBooks was fine.

What else?  The black screen edges?  Why oh why?  This combination of keys and screen make the new Apple line-up look like very average laptops.  That’s just wrong.  The reasoning for this is probably something about making the screen look larger than it actually is.  Well at the end of the day you have a “bigger” screen, but an ugly one at that.  

Ironically, in the new MacBooks you have a uni “body”, but limbs (the keys and screen) that don’t belong to this same body.  On the good old G4’s the limbs and the body belonged to the same laptop.

What else is nicer on the G4?  The speaker areas and the power button strike me as more beautiful.