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Attention 17 in pbook owners. Was your purchase worth it?

taeclee99

taeclee99

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 4, 2002
833
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Anywhere but here
I am one of those persons on the fence regarding a new pbook 17 inch model. i bought a 1 gig 15 in last nov. I am thinking about selling the 15 in and getting the 17 in model.
I have some questions?

How is the 3D performance in games?

Do you miss not being able to be in OS9?

Is the lighted keyboard bright enough in the dark?

Actual real life battery usage?

Is the airport range as good as Apple claims?

TIA
 
Re: Attention 17 in pbook owners. Was your purchase worth it?

Originally posted by taeclee99
Do you miss not being able to be in OS9?
Click to expand...
no, this is my first apple since the IIgs so i dont care..

Is the lighted keyboard bright enough in the dark?
Click to expand...
um its ok, the screen lights up the keyboard some so i can type fine.

Actual real life battery usage?
Click to expand...
about 3 hours.. i found that the battery life goes up significantly if you are not playing music, most likely bc the hard drive doest have to spin..


overall impression.. this thing is crazy, the screen is amazing, it is bright crisp and huge. it is incredibly light and the overall design is far superior to its predecessor. i also love the feel of the keyboard and the ports on the side arent too bad.
my pc friend who hated macs and wouldn't even listen to me talk about them is now begining to consider them.
 
Re: Attention 17 in pbook owners. Was your purchase worth it?

Originally posted by taeclee99
I am one of those persons on the fence regarding a new pbook 17 inch model. i bought a 1 gig 15 in last nov. I am thinking about selling the 15 in and getting the 17 in model.
I have some questions?
Click to expand...
I won't be the most qualified to answer your questions (I have no experience with the 15" powerbook), but I do own the 17" powerbook, so...
How is the 3D performance in games?
Click to expand...
Decent. Gameplay is smooth, not too terribly jerky. I'm not a hardcore gamer, but game performance seems to be fine. Probably on par with you current 15"er.
Do you miss not being able to be in OS9?
Click to expand...
Well I've used OS 9 at my school, and I must say that OS X seems quite nice, and I don't miss OS 9 at all. I have only run one program, a game in classic so far (Myst II: Riven).

Is the lighted keyboard bright enough in the dark?
Click to expand...
At the maximum brightness of the lighted keyboard, it is visible in the dark. The top keys (the function keys) are a bit hard to read, may be because of the etching (not clean enough) or simply too close to the glare of the display.

Actual real life battery usage?
Click to expand...
I'd say real life batt usage is around 3 hours, and at maximum performance it is a bit under two hours (1:50)

Is the airport range as good as Apple claims?
Click to expand...
I don't know how good the ti's range was, but I've found that I can access farther away from access points at my University than I did with my PC laptop card (Linksys WPC11). That may be because the Linksys card was old and had bad range.



Dunno how well that answers your questions, but you need to ask yourself some questions.

Do you really need a computer now? If so, consider the current line: the 12", 15", and 17".
Do you need the screen space? If so get the 17". Do you want the portability? If so, consider the 15".

If you are patient enough, and can live with your 15" powerbook for now, here is my advice. Wait until new 15" powerbooks are announced (may be weeks or months from now) and consider your purchase again. Prices may drop in your favor, and you may get a nice speed bump on the 17" as well.

If you can be extremely patient, wait for the 970 to be released in the powerbooks. This may take up to a year, but if you can control your envy for a bit, it may become a worthwhile investment.

Just my opinion,
O.A.
 
now that i've been playing with the pb17 for a week, i realized that i'm very comfortable with the size of it. so much so that I don't think I can go back to the 15", much less the 12". do any pb17 owners agree?
 
Yes, its as good as everyone has said. First competent laptop to replace a minitower, dual monitors and all. Expensive, and worth every penny.
 
It's too quiet, the screen isn't big enough and, Oh, I was talking about my TV. I do miss OS9 only because I cant optimize the hard drive with Alsoft's Plus Optimizer as well as I can't use Diskwarrior any more. Light up keyboard could be brighter, but it works. Gaming performance better than 15" Ghz? Maybe, maybe not. No one knows for sure and rattling off specs isn't good enough for me. Guess we'll have to wait for actual tests to be run. Gaming seems pretty good to me, a former 667 DVI owner.
All I can say is I would not trade it for any Ti, even a 1 Ghz. The build of it; no stiff hinges, no paint, no screen marks from keyboard, no excessive heat and minimal fan noise and surprisingly few first generation bugs and flaws in the 17" series make it an instant winner.
 
Re: Attention 17 in pbook owners. Was your purchase worth it?

Originally posted by taeclee99
I am one of those persons on the fence regarding a new pbook 17 inch model. i bought a 1 gig 15 in last nov. I am thinking about selling the 15 in and getting the 17 in model.
I have some questions?

How is the 3D performance in games?

Do you miss not being able to be in OS9?

Is the lighted keyboard bright enough in the dark?

Actual real life battery usage?

Is the airport range as good as Apple claims?

TIA
Click to expand...

I was in the same boat as you (I own the 15" 1GHz) and I recently just ordered the 17"; who knows when it will arrive. I played around with the demo unit for a bit at Micro Center and the screen is superb. I like the extra screen space and it doesn't seem to be much heavier than the 15".

Anyone else here who own or used to own the 15" 1Ghz "upgraded" to the 17"? What do you think of the 2?
 
I've got a 17" on order, but I'm seriously toying with the idea of cancelling it.... I've got the 1GHz 15" and there's something in my head telling me to wait until there is a PowerBook speedbump rather than going from one 1GHz machine to another 1GHz machine.

The 15" really isn't all that far from being revised and I can't see Apple keeping it at 1GHz after 6 months..... for another X amount of months. And then I really can't see Apple waiting months after that to speed bump the 17"

Hmmmmm...... decisions.....
 
I sold my 15" on Jan. 9 and will be getting a new 17" today.

I'll let you know.
 
I like the portability of the 12" but crave the power of the 15" or 17"

To me, if you are going to be transporting it around alot, stick with your 15" until the next revision.

If the 15" is revised to the 17" specs (keyboard, AE, FW800, Al body) then the 15" is a no brainer!

I hate playing the waiting game though :(

The performance of the 17" is not enough to make me lust for one the way I do for the 15"... it's just bigger. Whoopdy doo!
 
i thought adjusting to the gigantic size of the powerbook would be the most difficult thing...to tell you the truth trying to decide how to customize it is harder :D
it's wonderful, almost flawless and the only complaints that i have so far are software related.
of course it's worth it!
 
Software as in iMovie3...wow whatta bomb. Drop it and get FCE if that's what's botherin ya. No more DVD-R's out of audio sync for me with my 17".
 
Originally posted by WilliamGates
Software as in iMovie3...wow whatta bomb. Drop it and get FCE if that's what's botherin ya. No more DVD-R's out of audio sync for me with my 17".
Click to expand...
software as in the operating system itself. i got a kernel panic the first day i used it. i got FCP on the alubook :D
 
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