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mgargan1 said:
...Plus the 17" can handle 5.1 surround sound, which the 15" can not.

What do you mean by this?


From apple.com:
"Built-in stereo speakers with midrange-enhancing third speaker (12-inch and 15-inch models)
Two built-in stereo speakers (17-inch model) "
 
Michael8510 said:
What do you mean by this?


From apple.com:
"Built-in stereo speakers with midrange-enhancing third speaker (12-inch and 15-inch models)
Two built-in stereo speakers (17-inch model) "

It's got an optical audio output jack, which the other models do not have.

My regrets about my powerbook? Well, seeing as its an old school revision C Tibook (yep, thats a full Ghz slower than the current top of the line 15 incher) my only real complaint is that I had to buy it when i did, when i needed it for college, because the line was updated four months later in november. Other than that, i've got nothing bad to say, its a solid little machine and I expect it to last past graduation next year.
 
I just picked my 17" PowerBook up today. My only regret? I didn't get it sooner. :p

Alright, I admit it -- the three hours and 19 odd minutes I've had the thing isn't enough to really provide an honest opinion. But first impressions... wow, she's a smoking machine! :D
 
I've had my 17 for about a week now and I love it. My only regret is not bringing it to work today and being forced to code on this PC :) I don't really find it to be too big. I have a 12 inch iBook as well and it is definitely very portable, but I somewhat feel once you've crossed the line to a 15, then a 17 isn't much worse. I've never owned the 15 though, so I won't argue this point, its just my opinion :) YMMV

Get lots of ram and a good bag if you are taking it around. I got a Booq Vyper XL and quite like it, but your needs might differ.
 
virividox said:
my only regret is i wish i needed to go to college now and not 2 years ago cuz then my laptop would be so much better haha

My only regret is that I wish I went to college after laptops were invented not 18 years ago when I had to type a ten page paper into memory on a Smith Corona that had a screen that allowed you to see about half a sentence.
 
Why not use your PB 12" with the 20" LCD?

Daedalus said:
I bought a 12" powerbook last summer, and regretted it. I sold it a few months later to someone who would use it more.

First off, this isn't a powerbook bash, though. It was a great piece of hardware. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

I just bought the wrong system for my needs. I should have known better. I can't stand working at low resolutions like 1024x768 (I'm spoiled by working on large monitors), and I didn't really need portability. I should have bought a Powermac or an iMac. But I got sucked in by the beauty of the powerbook, and let desire override logic.

So now I'm trying again. I've got a Mini on order. It'll let me use the 20" LCD I already have, and it's tiny and quiet, which is exactly what I've been looking for. This time I think I got it right.

I was just wondering why you didn't simply use the PB 12" with your external 20" LCD? The ability to drive a large external display was my reason for moving from a 12" iBook to a 12" PB.
 
My regret is none so far. But, I cannot decide which PB I am going to use to log on this site (I have thre PBs already as my sig suggests). My new 12" PB will come with me for my business trip (by car). I am not going to take it with me over a plane ride because I don't want it go through the Xray machine and dirty TSA baskets at the screening process.
 
I have an 15" 800 MHz G4 TiBook that's nearly four years old. I have a dual 2.0 GHz G5 PowerMac, but I end up using the TiBook about 80% of the time, it's just too convenient. I've hauled it all over the world and it's come through like a champ. The performance with Panther and 768 MB of RAM is still great, it doesn't feel like an old machine at all, and the screen still looks great (I treat it well and keep it calibrated). I use all kinds of stuff on it including Cinema4D, Photoshop, After Effects, InDesign, Xcode, Cubase, and Final Cut Pro. If you're doing heavy duty 3D rendering, using Motion, or you want to play the latest games at high framerates, the PowerBook might not be for you, but for anything else, it's great. It's my 3rd PowerBook (2400c, Pismo, and TiBook) and they have all been excellent, well-crafted machines that I regretted parting with.
 
I thought that I would get home and open this 15" and be so sad that I did not spring for the 17". Turns out if I had sprung for the 17" I'd be sad. I want something I can carry around. The 17" just seems too long.
 
Yeah, should have kept my G4-800 12" iBook.

The reason is fiscal, nothing else. This 12" rev. c is a wonderful machine, and will last me until it literally falls to pieces.
 
i only have a 12" but this probably applies to all PowerBooks...

i place it down on a completely flat surface, push on a corner... and it rocks. ive only had it a month or so at the most but its warping already -_-
 
Cuckoo said:
I do have a serious regret. Im the proud owner of a 15" 1.25ghz PB, with 512mb RAM. Often i think owning a 12" with a 20" display would be better. Use it with a BT mouse and kb at home (with the display) and 12" for more portability.

If only the 12" was a bit more powerful.....
The new 12 inch powerbooks are much faster than your current 15. ;)
 
No regrets to this point

I have been using my 12" Powerbook as my primary computer for over a month now. I sold my PC with 17" monitor a week after I got the Apple and have not missed it at all. I would have liked the 15" but it was just out of my price range. The 12" was still a stretch for my student budget, but no regrets with my desision. I would like to eventually get a 20" monitor and a BT keyboard, but I would probably be farther ahead if I sold this machine and got a 17" PB at that point. Expose makes working with the small screen very livable. As an agronomy student the powerbook is total overkill for my school needs, but I expect to get at least 3 yrs usage out of it. I do 90% of my word processing with Pages and use Excel daily, and it is nice to have all my photos and music so easily accessible. This may sound odd but I do not use it in classroom because I rather read my handwriten notes to study from rather than studing off the computer screen. I do put all my class notes into PDF after I finish each class though.
 
stcanard said:
Are you talking about the 12"? I've never found my 15" keyboard to be undersized, and just checked -- aside from the missing numeric keypad, it's the same size as the HP keyboard on my work desktop.

My only regret is that when I bought it I stayed with the default 2x256 memory configuration instead of paying the $50 to go to a single 512, because when I added my 1GB I've had to waste 256MB.

Other than that, no regrets, and as a Rev A Aluminum PB owner, I have not yet seen a PB upgrade that's made me wish I had waited before buying.
your 15" power books keyboard is the same one in a 12" (sans pointless keyboard lighting, aside from cool factor, it's not bright enough to be practical).
 
BrianKonarsMac said:
your 15" power books keyboard is the same one in a 12" (sans pointless keyboard lighting, aside from cool factor, it's not bright enough to be practical).

And the 17" has the same keyboard as the 12 and 15"ers...
 
No rocking here!

raggedjimmi said:
i only have a 12" but this probably applies to all PowerBooks...

i place it down on a completely flat surface, push on a corner... and it rocks. ive only had it a month or so at the most but its warping already -_-

Just tried this on mine (15" PB - 8 months old) - it is rock steady.

My regret is not getting more memory - have standard 2x256 - will probably increase in the next few months - then I will hopefully seem to have a new machine :)
 
YS2003 said:
YS2003
Al 12" PB 1.50 mhz/80 GB/512 MB Ram/Superdrive
Al 15" PB 1.25 mhz/80 GB/1.5 GB Ram/Superdrive
Ti 15" PB 550 mhz/20 GB/1 GB Ram/Combo drive
HP Pavilion ZT1180 1.18 mhz Pentium3/40 GB/512 MB Ram/Combo drive/XP Home
Compaq Presario 1800T/850 mhz Pentium 3/20 GB/386 MB Ram/XP Pro
Dell Latitude X200/933 mhz Pentium3/30 GB/632 MB Ram/XP Pro

YS, I can never figure out how to get rid of my old desktop PCs either. Somehow doing the old "university dumpster driveby" doesn't seem socially responsible . . . ;)

My only regret is that I have not yet owned a Powerbook, I've been admiring them ever since the old 1xx series. Yet even when I worked at Apple (in the mid-late 90's) I could never justify owning a Mac, not for the kind of work I did at the time.

Of course, Apple's come a heck of a long way since then and my PB regret should be gone shortly! Though I admit it would be nice to have those discounts again!

p.s. I did have one of the original NeXT boxes though, so kind of an early OS X machine . . .
 
Never regreted buying my 12" PB 2 years ago. It's still a quite powerful machine. Just recently it surprised me by not getting slower at all when I burned a DVD, listened to music, had InDesign and Illustrator opened and was writing a mail. Hower, sadly, I'll be replacing my beloved baby now. Had it connected to an external monitor at home for the design work and only did demonstrations and little changes in front of my clients. I'm doing more and more freelance work at agencies now and after 3-4 hours design duty on the 12" screen my eyes hurt. Will give it to my father though, who is looking forward having his first mac, it'll stay in the family, yeah! :p
Ordered a 15" 1,67 Ghz. I'm curious which model I will prefer after using the 15" for 2 years. While my eyes will be grateful for the bigger screen, there were many occasions (at a café, train, airplane, car, a crowded advertising agency table full of papers and ashtrays,...) where I was looking at my 12" and thought, I'm sooo glad you are not bigger...
 
BrianKonarsMac said:
your 15" power books keyboard is the same one in a 12" (sans pointless keyboard lighting, aside from cool factor, it's not bright enough to be practical).

Well that's what I thought, which is why I'm confused by the statement that the keyboard is too cramped ... after all it is the same size as they keyboards you get on a desktop!
 
don't we all have regrets????!?!?!?

My only real regret is not springing for a 12" Powerbook when I bought my iBook. I am thinking of it more and more these days and even though after trade in it will cost me a grand I will be able to drive my 20" LCD without hacking or hogging the VRAM.
Also, the PBs have doubled in speed since I bought my iBook so maybe it will be worth the wait!
 
chaosbunny said:
Never regreted buying my 12" PB 2 years ago. It's still a quite powerful machine. Just recently it surprised me by not getting slower at all when I burned a DVD, listened to music, had InDesign and Illustrator opened and was writing a mail. Hower, sadly, I'll be replacing my beloved baby now.

Oh, the power of OS X! On the Windows side, the DVD burning programs "suggested" shutting down all other programs.


Had it connected to an external monitor at home for the design work and only did demonstrations and little changes in front of my clients. I'm doing more and more freelance work at agencies now and after 3-4 hours design duty on the 12" screen my eyes hurt. Will give it to my father though, who is looking forward having his first mac, it'll stay in the family, yeah! :p

That is one of the better reasoned responses on going to a bigger screen.

I have a 12" PB that I used for DTP for my employer. I had it connected at times to a 17" CRT that I had around, but it just made it easier to read sort of. I have now found that LCD screens rock for "older" eyes. Add to that that I went with a 20" LCD, and wonder what kept me from this before.

Ordered a 15" 1,67 Ghz. I'm curious which model I will prefer after using the 15" for 2 years. While my eyes will be grateful for the bigger screen, there were many occasions (at a café, train, airplane, car, a crowded advertising agency table full of papers and ashtrays,...) where I was looking at my 12" and thought, I'm sooo glad you are not bigger...

The 12" screen is a perfect general size IMO. The 10" Sony's and such are too small. The 15" units just too big.

Too bad no one yet offers a "cheap" and "small" and "portable" 15" LCD display for meetings and such. Or even a projector that was more affordable and portable (not the bricks that we have today).
 
stcanard said:
Well that's what I thought, which is why I'm confused by the statement that the keyboard is too cramped ... after all it is the same size as they keyboards you get on a desktop!

I think it is a case of not having space on either side of the keyboard. The design on the 12" PB "forces" the user to "think" that the keyboard is "smaller".
 
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