i book or powerbook for designer

for connecting to an external monitor, you can do it with the ibook and the powerbook. however, the ibook can only 'mirror.' so you'll be able to connect to anything using the adaptor, but only will be able to display on the external monitor at the same resolution as the ibook (1024x768). the PB can output to higher resolutions and is capable of spanning. these could be important issues if you'll be dealing with graphic design.

Originally posted by kidA
for connecting to an external monitor, you can do it with the ibook and the powerbook. however, the ibook can only 'mirror.' so you'll be able to connect to anything using the adaptor, but only will be able to display on the external monitor at the same resolution as the ibook (1024x768). the PB can output to higher resolutions and is capable of spanning. these could be important issues if you'll be dealing with graphic design.

Click to expand...

Actually there is a hack that let's your iBook span with an external monitor.

What's your budget? If I were you I'd considering getting a refurb 12" 1.0 ghz PB for $1350 and an external 19" CRT monitor for $150, as opposed to getting the 14" iBook 1.0 ghz for $1500. Both have the same screen resolution but the PB lets you span. If $1500 is your absolute max, that's your best option. If you can maybe go up to $1700, you might be able to pick up a refurb 15" 1.0 ghz. The refub stock seems to change daily. Of course, if you don't want a refurb and you don't want to hack your iBook to span, then I'd try for the $1600 12" PB.

Your options in the $1500-1700 range:

refurb 15" 1.0 ghz PB--> $1700
new 12" 1.0 ghz PB--> $1600
new 14" 1.0 ghz iBook--> $1500
refurb 12" 1.0 ghz PB--> $1350

If I were you I'd either go for the refurb 15" PB (you need desktop real estate for any kind of graphics work) OR the refurb 12" PB plus external monitor.

good luck

For your purposes, it sounds like the 15" PB is your best bet for two reasons:
1) It has a better videocard, among other things, than either the iBooks or 12" PB and
2) the resolution will be much higher....sure, you can hook anything up to an extrenal monitor when you are at home, but what about when you dont feel like sitting at a desk? The whole reason for getting a laptop is portability....what good is that if you need to sit at a desk at home to do what you want with it?

IMO, its worth the extra money.....

Originally posted by pinto32
The whole reason for getting a laptop is portability....what good is that if you need to sit at a desk at home to do what you want with it?

IMO, its worth the extra money.....

Click to expand...

Great point. I'd never thought of it quite like that, but I think you're right. Why by a small one to hook up to an external monitor. Get the 15 and never look back!

I assume you are going for the 15" Powerbook, combo version. Apple memory is very expensive. I think you will need to upgrade to 512MB, www.crucial.com have a good reputation, and is who I purchased memory from in the UK to upgrade my powerbook. I looked at their website and one 256 MB chip is $45.99 compared with Apples $100.

It may be outside your budget, but if you are going to do some video editing, then the 15" superdrive may be worth considering. Apart from the ability to create DVD's that will play in most set top players, the Superdrive version comes with more memory, faster processor, the sexy backlit keyboard and airport extreme built in.

Another thing to consider...

.. if you will be travelling with your selection, as a working designer you may just want the higher end PB.

Imagine you walking into a presentation.. what would make a better impression... an iBook, or a 15" PB?

I'd consider the Pimp-factor as well when choosing, in this case.

I just got the superdrive 15" 1.25 from apple.. but just customized out the superdrive for a combo and the 80GB and the 60GB, and the 2x256 for a 1x512 so i could get another 512 from crucial. Came to 2149 with educational pricing, not including the $120 to cruical.

from one designer to another...

my short answer is, if you've got the $$, go big.

you're looking at some big programs running on your laptop: Illustrator, Photoshop, etc., and there's no doubt that you'll have at least 3 of them open at any one time. -- get a good processor. doesn't have to be top of the line, but get something that won't feel slow in a few months.

desktop real estate is all important. you end up w/ so many palettes open in design programs that you'll eat up a good chuck of the screen on a small monitor. and unless you intend on getting a really NICE desktop LCD (i.e. Cinema, very nice if you can get someone to buy you one like i did!), just get a good monitor on the laptop & forget the external. -- go 15" if you can (my 14" original PB is alright, but another 1" would be nice).

you're designing a website: mock it up in Photoshop, cut it up in Imageready (or Fireworks), drop it all into Dreamweaver, preview it in a browser....you've got a lot of stuff going on. not to MENTION video editing! --get as much RAM as you can. none of my computers have less than 512MB.

i've never bought a refurb, but that may not be a bad idea. kind of like a car, by the time you drive it off the lot, it's lost 25% of it's value. and it's not like the new computers don't run the risk of coming w/ issues, too.

hope that helps!

OH, and if you do any kind of video editing, the SuperDrive is a no-brainer. edit, burn, go. sweet.