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Should I buy a 12" Powerbook?

peteryan7hao

peteryan7hao

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 20, 2008
164
0
melbourne
I've got an iMac but sometimes I would like to use a portable laptop when I'm on the couch. I don't need it for anything powerful mainly just for the internet, youtube and emails ect. I was thinking of getting a second hand 12" powerbook for its nice size.

Do you guys (especially powerbook owners) recommend it?
those powerbooks have been around for many years I'm afraid of the working condition and such....

p.s. It will prob cost around US$300....
 
No

Any powerbook you get is gonna be at least 4 years old. That would just be a waste of money. Just get a macbook
 
A year ago my girlfriend bought herself a 12" G4 iBook. After slapping a gig of RAM in it, she loves it. That said, if you have the money, get something a little more recent.
 
Hi,

My 12" iBook (1Ghz - 1.25GB ram -10.4.11) is my daily driver for surfing and email. Works fine, but is starting to feel a bit slower loading some webpages.

My father's 17" PowerBook (1.5Ghz - 1.5GB ram) is much faster and runs Leopard. For surfing and email there is no difference between the 17" and my sister's 2.1Ghz Macbook.

For editing video, mixing multi-track audio, photoshop, etc the Macbook would be the better choice over a Powerbook.

$300 for a 12" Powerbook that is 1.5Ghz and has maxed RAM (1.5GB) would be worth it. If it is a slower processor then drop your price accordingly.

s.
 
if you want to go apple (and you do) there are currently no netbooks... even though they might be released soon...

If i were you I would buy it. I know some people who have them and they recommend them. the 12" is also very portable and still holds a very decent keyboard.
 
Absolutely 100% worth it. However, don't settle for any less than the final 1.5GHz model. Originally I had an 867MHz 12" just to try them out. I already had a MacBook Pro, but I wanted something small to use on the go. I ended up liking it so much and getting enough use out of it that I went ahead and got the 1.5GHz model to replace it. The 1.5 plays flash video MUCH smoother, it has 2 finger scrolling, a 64Mb GeForce 5200 that supports Core Image, a bigger & faster hard drive, more logicboard RAM, as well as a few other perks like bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0 ports. If a 1.33GHz model is much cheaper, the maybe I'd settle for one because the specs are pretty similar, but I figured if I didn't go all the way for the high end model, I'd always be left craving more. The people that tell you its too slow or too old probably don't have one. I would put it up against ANY netbook on the market today because it really does perform that well. If you find one at a good price and in good shape, I don't doubt you'll be satisfied.
 
Perhaps you should consider getting something which isn't a Mac if it's just super light work you want to do and you've already got an iMac. You can get brand new net/notebooks which are more powerful than those older machines and with a new warranty too. The Hard Drive for those older machines could die at any moment and it'll be a lot harder finding and fitting a replacement.
 
agl82 said:
That's the dumbest comment I've ever seen. Buy a $1,299 machine to check e-mail and surf the web? Good Lord. :rolleyes:

Go with the iBook or pick up a netbook for a few hundred dollars. Netbooks are great for this sort of thing.
Click to expand...

dude, you can get a used macbook for like $500 if you look around a little bit that would run circles around a powerbook.

powerpc is old and dead technology.. buying anything powerpc is just a waste of money now.

i used a ibook g4 (1.33ghz, 1.5gb ram) recently and it's slow as ****.. they sometimes even struggle playing youtube videos. the bottom line is that the newest 12'' powerbook you could get is going to have technology that is over 4 years old in it. why would you ever pay money for that?
 
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Dont get a powerbook, G4 is dead technology. I own a powerbook 17' with maxed out RAM, my bro's 1st gen macbook smokes it in terms of performance, and he got it for $375 one year ago, so i think you can do way much better getting a used macbook...
 
I've got a 12" 1.5 ghz g4 powerbook for the same purposes, and I love it (just in case you haven't ascertained that from my avatar and signature).

Max the ram out, and turn off some of the eye candy features, and it will work just fine. There's a couple of good online guides to maximize performance under tiger and leopard.

If you can find a good used macbook for a couple of hundred more, well, that would be an option, too. For my simple uses, I prefer the size and form factor of the 12" over the 13" widescreen.

That said, if they came out with the same machine with a c2d chip and 4 gigs of ram and the ability to easily install a 7200 rpm or ssd drive, and I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Netbooks are all right, I've converted an msi wind and a lenovo s10 to hackbook airs, but I prefer the keyboard, and especially the bigger, scrolling trackpad, of my powerbook.
 
Can it actually run YouTube videos? At a reasonably satisfying speed?
My MBA Rev. B sometimes struggles with YouTube HD videos... I wonder how normal quality videos would look like on a PB... that's 4 years old..
 
I've got a 12" 1.5 ghz g5 pb with 1.25 gigs of ram. Regular you tube runs just fine on it. High def is a no go.

The OP, like myself, intends to use the pb for lightweight consumer purposes like browsing, email, word processing, etc. It's basically the equivalent of a netbook with a better keyboard, trackpad and DVD drive.
 
congrats. still one of the finest laptops apple has ever made IMHO. i only wish mine wasn't going out on me.:(
 
zioxide said:
powerpc is old and dead technology.. buying anything powerpc is just a waste of money now.

i used a ibook g4 (1.33ghz, 1.5gb ram) recently and it's slow as ****.. they sometimes even struggle playing youtube videos. the bottom line is that the newest 12'' powerbook you could get is going to have technology that is over 4 years old in it. why would you ever pay money for that?
Click to expand...

I just can't believe posts like this.

I used to use my 12" powerbook (1.5/512/80) every day for light internet and word processing/email untill its ethernet gave up the ghost (need it for connecting to my uni network).

Now I use a ibook clamshell G3 for those tasks, and with youtube aside, it works for most things i need to do. This thing is 9 years old.

For anything else, I have an octo-core mac pro.
 
student_trap said:
I just can't believe posts like this.

I used to use my 12" powerbook (1.5/512/80) every day for light internet and word processing/email untill its ethernet gave up the ghost (need it for connecting to my uni network).

Now I use a ibook clamshell G3 for those tasks, and with youtube aside, it works for most things i need to do. This thing is 9 years old.

For anything else, I have an octo-core mac pro.
Click to expand...

Zioxide is correct. Snow Leopard (10.6) won't support non intel processors. iLife 2009 already doesn't fully install on non intel. I think iMovie is incompatible. So it doesn't make any sense for most people to spend real money on a non-intel machine.

If you know what you are getting into, have another machine that is more modern, and can find a pre intel at a very cheap price, then it may make sense for some people.

I look at computers as a swiss army knife, though. I want 1 that does it all. Having one computer for email, one for video, one for music... etc. is more trouble than it is worth for most people.
 
dacreativeguy said:
Zioxide is correct. Snow Leopard (10.6) won't support non intel processors. iLife 2009 already doesn't fully install on non intel. I think iMovie is incompatible. So it doesn't make any sense for most people to spend real money on a non-intel machine.

If you know what you are getting into, have another machine that is more modern, and can find a pre intel at a very cheap price, then it may make sense for some people.

I look at computers as a swiss army knife, though. I want 1 that does it all. Having one computer for email, one for video, one for music... etc. is more trouble than it is worth for most people.
Click to expand...

For a secondary computer, it makes a lot of sense. And is a simple, reliable tool. Instead of a swiss army knife, it's more like a simple, sharp pocketknife carried by a farmer in his overalls.
 
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