One of our readers has sent us this interesting e-mail during the week-end, hinting that Apple plans to release a new Powerbook with a high definition capable display:

I noticed the new powerbook manuals have changed their wording from referencing the 1440x900 panel to:

Depending on how your Powerbook was configured, it may have a wide-screen display that has a "native" resolution of 1920x1200 or 1440x900.

(From my Powerbook manual page 22)

Could it be that Apple is planning on making a 1920x1200 lcd panel an option in the near future? Or perhaps this was planned and then delayed for the release of the G5 notebooks. At any rate, Apple sales has no clue what this is referring to, and suggest it's just talking about video mirroring; the wording is pretty clear though... Apple intended for the new 17" powerbooks to come with either 1440x900 or 1920x1200. I sure wish we know if/when this would arrive.

Our reader, Jonathan, had ordered the lastest generation Powerbook 17" and has just received it. He has also sent us a picture [1] of the mentioned manual's page.

Considering that 1920x1200 pixels resolution is used for high definition cinema and that Steve Jobs has said that 2005 was the year of high definition, we may draw the conclusion that this feature will come this year on. Will it be a new "Powerbook HD"? Will it be a BTO option? Will it come with G5 based Powerbooks? Time will tell.

If you have also received one of the new PowerBooks of the latest generation (no matter what the screen size is), please confirm us [2] that you can read the same on the user manual. It would also be interesting to know if other Powerbook G4 models are concerned.