PB Pismo for Backup/Travel Laptop

[bolocheung]

I am considering the purchase of a used Pismo on eBay for use during my trip to China in October. Basically will be using it for iPhoto so I can download my digital photos for archiving and writing captions of the photos while the experience is fresh in my head. I figure it would make a good backup to my AlPB 15" (this is my baby and use as desktop replacement) which I don't want to carry around in China with the terrain, etc. What are your thoughts? I would like to spend around $450-$500 for the setup. Would it be better to get a different mac laptop for this function?

[hello world]

I did exactly this two years ago.

I didn't want to beat up my baby (then a 15" titanium), so I got a used Pismo from ebay for $400 to take travelling. I would have settled for a toliet-seat iBook or a Wallstreet PB - if you're downloading photos, you'll need USB (which the Wallstreet doesn't have). It served my purposes (email and photoshop).

Just make sure you buy it enough ahead of time. A used computer is bound to come with some sort of problem.

I'd say that between ebay and craigslist, these are in your price range (and suit your purposes):

Pismo as-is
Wallstreet with PCMCIA USB card
Original iBook
500 g3 iBook

I'd recommend the snow-colored 500 iBook. I had one for a short time. It's the most portable within your reach, and probably just as fast as the any of the others. I've seen it popping up real cheap used lately.