Powerbook vs. Desktop for Photoshop

[caveman_uk]

I currently have a PM G4 tower and a 17" Studio display and the display is really nice. It's bright and clear and easy on the eyes. I also have an 12" ibook which is fine but apart from it's size the screen seems a little dull. I'm currently thinking about selling all of them and getting either a top-of-the-line 15 or 17" powerbook. I've heard the powerbook screens are better quality than the ibook's. Is this true?

Does anyone have any experience on using the powerbooks who has also used the desktop TFTs? Are they bright enough? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Diatribe]

I currently have a PM G4 tower and a 17" Studio display and the display is really nice. It's bright and clear and easy on the eyes. I also have an 12" ibook which is fine but apart from it's size the screen seems a little dull. I'm currently thinking about selling all of them and getting either a top-of-the-line 15 or 17" powerbook. I've heard the powerbook screens are better quality than the ibook's. Is this true?

Does anyone have any experience on using the powerbooks who has also used the desktop TFTs? Are they bright enough? Any advice would be appreciated.

Just a thought, but if you are getting the book for portability why don't you get the 12"pb and keep your display? I think I would keep the display even if you went 15". At home I can never have enough space whereas on the road I couldn't care less. The quality between the book's TFT and your studio display should be noticeable. That said, the books' TFTs are good but nothing I would do extensive photoshop work on.
Just my $0.02

 

[gileschin]

I was in a situation a couple of years ago where I was constantly on the go.
I purchased the first 15" powerbook 400mhz with Commotion Pro installed, which is like a Adobe After Effect program. Screen brightness was not a problem at all, you adapt to it. Also had FCP3 on the powerbook and wow, this portable was doing everything for me. If I could afford it I'd go out and pick up a 17" pb in a snap!

 

[tristan]

The PB screens are amazing. It's one of the computer's major selling points. Get thee to an Apple store and check them out.

With that said, are you really sure you want to do photoshop on a powerbook? Seems like a job for a PMG5 to me.

 

[caveman_uk]

With that said, are you really sure you want to do photoshop on a powerbook? Seems like a job for a PMG5 to me.

I'm not a full-time photoshopper or anything. It's just the one app I really notice that the studio display is miles better for than a 12" ibook. Not just the size...the brightness. I guess if I got more into movie editing I'd notice it doing that too.
Sure, a PMG5 would be great. But I quite fancy a portable I can use as a desktop too so I'm considering a 15 or 17" powerbook.

 

[SwitchHitter]

Same situation here. I went and bought the 17" PB yesterday. The sole purpose for dropping almost $3K is to use it for PhotoShop CS.

I strongly recommend it, then you can carry your laptop with you if/when you need to have it handy for photo work, etc.

I also have a 17"imac as well... but it's not portable.

I should get my 17" on Monday!!!

 

[Bhennies]

I currently have a PM G4 tower and a 17" Studio display and the display is really nice. It's bright and clear and easy on the eyes. I also have an 12" ibook which is fine but apart from it's size the screen seems a little dull. I'm currently thinking about selling all of them and getting either a top-of-the-line 15 or 17" powerbook. I've heard the powerbook screens are better quality than the ibook's. Is this true?

Does anyone have any experience on using the powerbooks who has also used the desktop TFTs? Are they bright enough? Any advice would be appreciated.

For very serious color critical work, people are still using CRT's. That being said, however, CRT's are very impractical for most due to their size. The powerbook screen is pretty decent, but I would suggest keeping the external 17". Get the 15" powerbook, it's plenty big and the 17" isn't very portable. With screen spanning, you can keep your palettes on the powerbook, and your color critical work on the 17" external. I have a CRT that I use for color crit. work, and I will use my powerbook (buying tommorrow) for palettes and such. Screen real estate is hard to come by and much appreciated!

 

[Jo-Kun]

my question is (since I use Photoshop professionally) what is the average size of your documents?
I used to work with a PB G4 400, and even with 1GB ram it was too slow for my use, especially since my scanner took 30min to write my file down (700mb... 1,5m on 1m 300dpi) and PS needed a lot of time opening one of them...

now I have my G5 (with 2CRT's hooked up because of the color and adjustment stability still being much better than TFT's)
scans that size now only take 3min because my harddisk can manage it now (PB disks are at 4200rmp standard and 5400rmp max when you buy them, or you schould replace it with the 60GB7200rmp drive available)

and opening the file in photoshop is quite fast.

So if you don't need portablilty that much, get a new G5 and keep your PB (there is a VGA->ADC converter available so you can even hook up your display on it)
if you want it to be portble, get the 15" or 17" and replace the standard harddisk with a 7200rpm drive

grts J

 

[JFreak]

current powerbook display is quite accurate in color - at least with what inks they use here in europe my designs translate very well to the printouts. if you can spare the 17", even better.

one can never have too much screen space, but i've found out that the 15" powerbook is really enough. mostly because it's widescreen and about as wide as 17" regular.

for me the 15" is perfect - 12" powerbook is too small and i wouldn't dream of taking 17" on the road. just right