Is a 12" Powerbook going to be enough?

[ebik]

I'm a windows user (and forum newbie) who is going to be switching in the near future because I really, really hate windows. I really like the 12" Powerbook because of its size and portability, but I'm not sure if it will be enough considering what I do with my computer. As of now I am a high school student who uses the computer a lot. Some of the applications I use frequently are:
-Photoshop (my favorite program; use it A LOT)
-InDesign
-GoLive
I'd also like to use GarageBand with it and have read about some people having performance issues with it. So the final question is will the 12" Powerbook SuperDrive model w/ 768MB of RAM be enough to do all of these things and possibly do some of them at the same time? Thanks for the advice.

 

[Rod Rod]

ebik, that model PowerBook will be great for what you want to do. It'll be a good idea to plan to connect the PowerBook to a large monitor (such as a 22" CRT) to make the graphics and web development a little more comfortable. I haven't pushed GarageBand that hard and I can't report any performance issues, even back when I had the 867MHz PB G4.

 

[echeck]

My only concern with the 12" PB is the screen size. Performace is certainly not an issue, I don't believe you'll have any problems with the applications you listed.

So screen size is the only issue you need to worry about. I think for general use in photoshop and web apps the screen wouldn't be bad, but as Rod_Rod said, if you have an external monitor to connect to for the more intense activities it would make things much better. A 12" screen for photoshop is pushing it, but the portability is worth it, in my opinion.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

I have a PB 12" 1ghz and thought the smaller screen might be a long-term issue. It has not. The only problem I have is with some emails under Mail, and the text being too small from some people, or in a hard to read shade. InDesign and photoshop is not that hard to deal with.

I had a spare Mitsu SB70 monitor, and love how the Mac remembers where everything is to go when I connect it.

 

[ebik]

Sounds good to me. I've already got another monitor I can use so I think I'll be fine.

 

[iKwak]

Sounds good to me. I've already got another monitor I can use so I think I'll be fine.

You'll be fine. Powerbook is one fine piece of hardware.