My Powerbook dilemma

[Reuven]

I am wanting to buy a PB but confuzed if I should go for a 12" or 15" & also if I really do need that superdrive.

I will mainly use the PB for wireless internet ie email & surfing the net , mp3's and maybe a small amount of movie editing.

Most of all I want it to last me a while !! So should I perhaps wait or go for the kill & get one ? I can wait a few months if i have to.


Overall what would you say are the main pros & cons to the 12" PB & the 15" PB

Thanks / Regards

Reuven

 

[m4c]

For what your using it for I'd go with the 14" iBook. Put the extra money in RAM or software or an iPod.

 

[nbs2]

sounds like me

I was pretty much in the same situation. I'm waiting for my choice to arrive right now. I decided the PB15 with the superdrive was what I wanted, mainly b/c I hope that this computer might last 3 or 4 years. The iBook bothered me simply b/c I thought it looked like a cheap box and I wanted to be able to expand down the road. I figure the PB can hold more ram, a bigger hd, etc.

Also, while my Vaio has a problem with crashing and all, its screen is impeccable. 3+ years of use and abuse and i've only seen one dead pixel. It's been nice. The higher resolution and bigger screen and the fact that it is also my desktop replacement made me want to go with the 15".

Last thing - look for a refurb or wait a couple weeks. I got mine for US$2000. not bad for a $2600 machine.

Good Luck!

 

[JOD8FY]

I know that it's tempting, but if I were you, I'd wait a couple months. New powerbooks have to be coming soon. It's been around 8 months since the last update. I'd hate to have you spend a lot of money and then have it outdated instantly.

Either powerbook will be fine for your needs. I do editing on my 12" and have no problem - I love it! It depends on your needs. They are very tempting but try to put it off. Just my 2 cents.

JOD8FY

 

[Reuven]

I know that it's tempting, but if I were you, I'd wait a couple months. New powerbooks have to be coming soon. It's been around 8 months since the last update. I'd hate to have you spend a lot of money and then have it outdated instantly.

Either powerbook will be fine for your needs. I do editing on my 12" and have no problem - I love it! It depends on your needs. They are very tempting but try to put it off. Just my 2 cents.

JOD8FY

Thanks JOD8FY I think I will take you up on your advise. Patience does pay off !

The last thing I need is get a PB G4 then 2 weeks later who know ? a G5 will be released !

As for your 12" do you ever find that your screen size is ever to small ?

Thanks

Regards,

Reuven

 

[t300]

I am in the same boat with you right now....

12 or 15?

But beyond that...Should I wait or not?

The question is... Would you really want to get a first edition G5 PB? It could (Ha!) be very buggy...

 

[Spyharpy]

First, I'm waiting for the next revision since I certainly don't want to buy someting that's going to be seven months old. Period. Currently I have a G4 tower and 21" CRT display. I'm looking at a Powerbook to replace my aging setup and make some deskspace. I also want a 20" Cinema Display. At first, the 17" and 15" were the suitable desktop replacements but justifying a 20" display was kind of hard.

I'd like to have a portable laptop to place on my lap and take with me. Seeing that I'm leaning more towards this preference, the 17" became out of the question. It was simply too big. The 15" was borderline and the 12" was just perfect. I went to several Mac shops and went back and forth between the 12" and 15" models. I found the 15" still on the large size (for my preference) so I decided to go with the 12" and that will justify the 20" display. Since the price difference between the 12" (Superdrive) and 15" (1.25/Superdrive) is about $900, that will cover a big portion of the 20" display. I can get by the options lacking in the 12" that the 15" has.

This is how I determined which Powerbook to get. Having a 20" display is very desirable to me and I'd be happy with a 12" for it's portability. I'd check out both models extensively and determine what features are most important to you. Only one will be perfect for you.

 

[nargot]

definitely get an ibook as a PB is not needed for your usage, max it out with ram, hd, APX, BT and you will save HEAPS

 

[discoforce]

give in to temptation...

I am in the same boat with you right now....

12 or 15?

But beyond that...Should I wait or not?

The question is... Would you really want to get a first edition G5 PB? It could (Ha!) be very buggy...

You can listen to other folks' advice about 12" vs. 15", but you really need to go to an Apple store/reseller and play with them. I spent forever looking at these beauties online, but it simply doesn't compare.

For me, I fell in love with the 15" (and have been happily playing with my refurb 1.25GHz SD for a few weeks now and couldn't be happier ).

To answer your second question, obviously I decided not to wait. It ALWAYS makes sense to wait as long as you can to buy a new computer. However, after following Macrumors for several months I realized that many who were waiting were miserable (including me) and those who took the plunge were having a ball with their new PBs. Once the refurbs came out, I never looked back.

If you can wait, by all means you probably should. But if you need one or are simply ready to start using it and stop waiting, then jump in The current models will work great for years.

Just my $.02

 

[Kingsnapped]

definitely get an ibook as a PB is not needed for your usage, max it out with ram, hd, APX, BT and you will save HEAPS

Amen. I consider myself a prosumer editor (a few projects a month) and I've used the superdrive for two of them. The only time I max out the 1.25 processor is rendering video or working in garageband.

 

[JOD8FY]

As for your 12" do you ever find that your screen size is ever to small ?

Thanks

Regards,

Reuven

I've never had a problem with my screen size being too small. I do video editing on it and really don't have a problem. As for surfing the web, writing documents, even playing some games, it still is good. I chose the 12" because it's more portable than the 15" and I need portablilty. Let me know what you need it for and I'll tell you if I've had a problem .

JOD8FY

 

[rueyeet]

I am wanting to buy a PB but confuzed if I should go for a 12" or 15" & also if I really do need that superdrive.

Something to keep in mind with a SuperDrive, especially if you're going to be buring a lot of CDs from your MP3's, is that the SuperDrive is slower than the Combo drive for such things.

However, if you're going to be doing enough movie editing that you think there's the tiniest possibility that you'd ever want to burn a DVD, then you're not going to care that a Combo drive does CDs faster.

As for waiting....NAB's close enough that it's probably worth waiting on just in case, but it's up to you whether you think WWDC isn't too long to hold out on the slim chance of a G5 PowerBook. A mere speed-bump to the G4 doesn't justify waiting for it, but if that's the next PowerBook they release, I'd bet the next product revision would be the G5, in which case you've just waited months to find out that you can't buy a PowerBook without it becoming obsolete with the next revision (since no one expects more than one G4 speed bump before the G5s).

 

[nargot]

I've never had a problem with my screen size being too small. I do video editing on it and really don't have a problem. As for surfing the web, writing documents, even playing some games, it still is good. I chose the 12" because it's more portable than the 15" and I need portablilty. Let me know what you need it for and I'll tell you if I've had a problem .

JOD8FY

i'll second that, 12" is the perfect portable size... all other laptops are thin desktops as you can barely lug them around all day without gripes and moans (these i do here from others... and the others are jealous of my 12"). Unless you can think of a specific reason why you need bigger, get 12".

 

[law guy]

But what about the usually present apple LAG TIME

As for waiting....NAB's close enough that it's probably worth waiting on just in case, but it's up to you whether you think WWDC isn't too long to hold out on the slim chance of a G5 PowerBook. A mere speed-bump to the G4 doesn't justify waiting for it, but if that's the next PowerBook they release, I'd bet the next product revision would be the G5, in which case you've just waited months to find out that you can't buy a PowerBook without it becoming obsolete with the next revision (since no one expects more than one G4 speed bump before the G5s).

I JUST ordered a 15" PB SD last evening and I'm wrestling a bit with what to do. But let's just say that there were product upgrades ANNOUNCED on Monday. Would I see a ship date of Mid-May, knocked back to June? In that case, there really isn't an upgrade coming for awhile.

I think I'll keep my order in as I do need something in the next few days, but Apple often has quite a lag time between some products and shipping versions, so I'm not sure I'd really be missing an update. Or do folks think this is the sort of thing that'd be in stock immediately?

 

[mooshoo]

Hi. I'm new to the mac world (windows refugee). I just purchased a Powerbook G4 two days ago. I went with the 15 inch, with combo. I also had the same problem with deciding what to go with like a lot of you guys. My wife bought an ibook last year, and I got a chance to use it when my VIAO went down (frequently). I really liked it, but had a problem with the 12 inch screen. I know the res. is different but I still thought it was too small. 15 inch is almost too big, but I think it's a good compromise. I'm enjoying it a lot though. The keystrokes feel great, as does the sturdy construction of the case itself. I'm satisfied. I think I do need a bit of memory though.