ibook 12inch

[cube]

i live in england and we don't have an apple store

my eyes are quite good, does the 12 have longer battery life than the 14 or not, i plan to take it to uni next year so is it worth having the extra portability of the 12 do you think, also is the 14 really that much faster or not

The 12" has a smaller battery, so both models are rated for up to 6 hours of operation.

I don't think 10% increase in speed is worth it. I think the 14" can only be qualified as a good design if your eyesight is bad even with glasses.

 

[stevehaslip]

we don't have an apple store in the uk. (yet!) come november 20th though that will change! but incase you aren't in london there are plenty of apple centres (not stores) around the country. They are official dealers such as cancom, jigsaw, john lewis etc. There are many to choose from, just search on yell for your nearest store or you could just have a look in the back of mac user, they have a simplified map of the UK and a list of apple shops.

I wouldn't say buy from someone like cancom, if it were me i'd go to john lewis because they give you a 2 year waranty for free as well as your standard 1 year apple waranty. Also if you are a student then you are enligable for apples student discount. (its 9% off a new iBook) If you go in to a shop (and there are a few) that will only give you 6% or something then walk away straight away. Some shops think its better to make more profit than save you money.
need any more UK questions ask then i'd be more than happy to help, email, pm or post here.
Hope i helped 😉

 

[dontpanic]

The 12" has a smaller battery, so both models are rated for up to 6 hours of operation.

I don't think 10% increase in speed is worth it. I think the 14" can only be qualified as a good design if your eyesight is bad even with glasses.

thanks, probably go for the 12 inch then

 

[cube]

thanks, probably go for the 12 inch then

See for yourself first, if possible. Some people end up enlarging the fonts. Then it makes more sense a 14".

 

[dontpanic]

See for yourself first, if possible. Some people end up enlarging the fonts. Then it makes more sense a 14".

isn't the 14 inch the same resolution as the 12 inch model, everything will just be bigger, my eyesights fine so it probably won't matter

 

[cube]

isn't the 14 inch the same resolution as the 12 inch model, everything will just be bigger, my eyesights fine so it probably won't matter

Maybe it matters if you look at it the whole day, but there's no way to try until you get one.

 

[dontpanic]

also, if i do get the 12 inch model, should i upgrade to the 60 gb hard drive or, as i was thinking, maybe get an external usb2 drive or something?

30gb seems a bit small to me, being an ipod owner who will want to put quite a lot of music on there

 

[cluthz]

also, if i do get the 12 inch model, should i upgrade to the 60 gb hard drive or, as i was thinking, maybe get an external usb2 drive or something?

30gb seems a bit small to me, being an ipod owner who will want to put quite a lot of music on there

Yes!

30 GB is too small, and you always will need more disk space in the future..
Since its a bit work to get the mp3s from the ipod, you'll need to save them on your hd.

If you have say 15 GB of mp3s, and osx with ilife installed uses over 10 gb.. you're already out of hd space.
(a 30gb is about 27 gb formatted..)

The 60GB hd is only $75 extra.
Get it, and get a externat firewire/usb2 hd later when you run out of space.

 

[dontpanic]

should i go for a big external drive straight away though, i'm not gonna really need the 60 gb of data everywhere i go am i, and also is it worth getting the bluetooth or not?

 

[cube]

also, if i do get the 12 inch model, should i upgrade to the 60 gb hard drive or, as i was thinking, maybe get an external usb2 drive or something?

30gb seems a bit small to me, being an ipod owner who will want to put quite a lot of music on there

The drives Apple sells for iBook run only at 4200 RPM. But changing it yourself is a mess, very delicate, and voids the warranty. MCE has a service where they install it for you, but the only reasonable deal is for the 80GB (double the Apple price), and this would be interesting only if it's the 5400 RPM drive, which they don't say. They have dealers in the UK. See here

Given that Apple sells a 5400 drive of 80GB for Powerbook for less than the 80GB 4200 costs for the iBook, I would go for the 60GB, which is relatively cheap.

 

[cluthz]

should i go for a big external drive straight away though, i'm not gonna really need the 60 gb of data everywhere i go am i, and also is it worth getting the bluetooth or not?

Yo may not think that now, but in a year i think you've used it all.
I remember when i bought a 80 GB disk for my Sawtooth G4 (i had 20 GB in it before). I thought i'd never use that space, 1.5 years later i bought 120 GB more...

 

[*Y*]

Yeah, i agree with everybody else on this forum. The ibook is a very compact, durable machine. I think you will be very happy with it. Just upgrade the ram to the maximum your budget allows, get internal bluetooth, and get a big harddrive (those things get used up pretty quick) 😀

 

[eifster]

Wish I read this the other day...

All I can say is that my PB 12" 1GHz G4 (133MHz FSB, same as iBook) is easily a match for my Dell Dimension Pentium 4 2.4GHz (533MHz FSB) in games and Photoshop Elements and other general work.

Just bought my first mac over the weekend...ibook 14" with 512ram...I should have read some of this forum beforehand...it appears I should have gone with the 12" and 256ram, upgrading on my own. I did get the Bluetooth and 60G. I hope to have it today when i get home. Should I send back and get the 12"? Can I? Or does anyone think there is some benefit to the larger screen? I have been using Dells mostly but have gotten fed up with Windows....mostly use itunes, digital photo storage, Office, web/email....

Thanks!

 

[iShater]

Just bought my first mac over the weekend...ibook 14" with 512ram...I should have read some of this forum beforehand...it appears I should have gone with the 12" and 256ram, upgrading on my own. I did get the Bluetooth and 60G. I hope to have it today when i get home. Should I send back and get the 12"? Can I? Or does anyone think there is some benefit to the larger screen? I have been using Dells mostly but have gotten fed up with Windows....mostly use itunes, digital photo storage, Office, web/email....

Thanks!

My brother bought the 14", and he loves it. Unless you are used to a 12" laptop already, then you should be ok. Not sure if cancelling the order after it is shipped releases you from any restocking fees.

[EDIT] I just noticed that you customized it, I doubt you can return it without paying a fee.[/EDIT]

 

[yoak]

I have had my ibook for 3 weeks.
I got my 512 RAM from Crucial 2 weeks ago after getting a tip from this forum. I paid $137 for it, and it shipped to Norway in less than a week.
I have the 60G HD as well and can really recomend the 12" ibook. I love it, my girlfriend loves it. 🙂

 

[eifster]

My brother bought the 14", and he loves it. Unless you are used to a 12" laptop already, then you should be ok. Not sure if cancelling the order after it is shipped releases you from any restocking fees.

[EDIT] I just noticed that you customized it, I doubt you can return it without paying a fee.[/EDIT]

Thanks for the reply...i guess i'm stuck with it...but i'm not complaining! Can't wait...last mac i used was in 1984...back in college... 😀

 

[dontpanic]

i got a 14" ibook for £790 😱

 

[stevietheb]

My two cents:

So long as I'm in school and continue to carry the laptop everywhere...I will always use a 12". Perhaps one day if I want to use it in favor of a desktop, I'll go to a 15" powerbook--but, for my money, the 14" iBook doesn't make sense since it has the same resolution.

 

[ionas]

The original poster appears to be confused by the
Or, put simply, the iBook will be MUCH FASTER than your 850MHz PIII.

well a bit ... its like a 1.2GHz Centrino (Pentium-M)

the point is:
mac os x uses less CPU and BUS to display more nice looks, faster and smoother but it uses a hellwhole of RAM.

it is a lot more stable and a bit more secure than windows 😛 (i am more the pessimistic mac user ;-)

i like my powermac g5 dual 2.0 i bought in july 2004 besides the ****ING CHIRPING - but i ll buy an iBook 12" soon 🙂 (default setup + 2nd skin to put it into some bag and have it protected + 512mb ram)