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Why not a widescreen 12" Powerbook?

T

ThomasHobbes

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Considering that both the 15" and 17" Powerbooks have widescreens it seems like an smart move (especially since the 12" P'Books no longer share the iBook's screen) to shift the 12" P'Book to a widescreen model to better differente itself from the iBooks.

When next upgrade rolls around (either Nov., or Jan. seems to be the consensus) the 12" becomes (say) a 13.3" widescreen model - with a better GPU one can hope - and then you have a really obvious difference from the iBook line instead of little ones. Also it might have a bit more internal space to play around with which could only be a good thing.

To sum up:
Upsides: Widescreen, more diffrentation(sp?) from iBooks, more internal space.

Downsides: Little bigger, little heavier.

So... Good idea, bad idea?
Comments please.
 
It all depends on what screens are available. If that size screen isn't available from a vendor, they can't very well make the product.
 
Here we go

SONY VGN-S150 VAIO® S Series Notebook Computer
A notebook computer with an Intel Pentium M Processor 725 (1.6A GHz) / Built-in 802.11g Wireless Adapter / 13.3 inch Widescreen LCD
 
ThomasHobbes said:
SONY VGN-S150 VAIO® S Series Notebook Computer
A notebook computer with an Intel Pentium M Processor 725 (1.6A GHz) / Built-in 802.11g Wireless Adapter / 13.3 inch Widescreen LCD
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's a 13.3 inch widescreen. I guess if they release a 13" PB, then that's the screen it could use...but it's not a 12"
 
True, but it would certainly look different from an iBook, and better match with the rest of the Powerbook line. Maybe with the extra space Firewire 800, and a good GPU could be added making it have more similar features with the larger Powerbooks.

Anyway, there would still be 12" iBooks.

Edited to add:
Here we go, a 12 inch widescreen:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/8/prweb152565.htm
 
ThomasHobbes said:
True, but it would certainly look different from an iBook, and better match with the rest of the Powerbook line. Maybe with the extra space Firewire 800, and a good GPU could be added making it have more similar features with the larger Powerbooks.

Anyway, there would still be 12" iBooks.
Click to expand...

Oh, I think it would be really sweet. They might require a higher resolution screen too because Apple laptops tend to have the best screens available. Maybe they're limited by the technology...
 
ThomasHobbes said:
To sum up:
Upsides: Widescreen, more diffrentation(sp?) from iBooks, more internal space.

Downsides: Little bigger, little heavier.

So... Good idea, bad idea?
Comments please.
Click to expand...

The 12" is market as ultra portable, making it a little bigger would make it less portable. I use a 12" pb because I want a tiny little laptop to use in meetings, on the road etc. Moving the smallest in the line closer to the middle would alienate pb customers that really need the light small box.
 
I have said it before... the PBook line will go widescreen, I don't have a strong background for it but once, last year, I posted about the all-in-one screen iMac 😎 ... no reason for a non-widescreen PB... surprise us steve, you know how to beat other 13" laptops..
 
If the 12-inch powerbook got widescreen, you have to scroll yourself to death!
I can't imagine less height on the already tiny screen.. If apple ships widescreen 12" they have to find a smart scrolling device, or ship the pbooks with preinstalled sidetrak..
 
cluthz said:
If the 12-inch powerbook got widescreen, you have to scroll yourself to death!
I can't imagine less height on the already tiny screen.. If apple ships widescreen 12" they have to find a smart scrolling device, or ship the pbooks with preinstalled sidetrak..
Click to expand...
If they would just snip the margins on the left and right side of the screen (metal part) they could widen (13 inch) the screen and keep the same size. It could even be slightly shorter if they made the margin the same all-round. I would definitely get one if they did it.
 
i think they should use the screen from this notebook. it's 1280x768 so it's an improvement in res, plus it would make it a whole lot smaller. sony can fit a dvd burner and a 40gb hard drive in there, and with the new 60gb 1.8's from toshiba apple could have a 60gb hard drive, a dvd burner and all the features of a 12" pb in a 3.5lb enclosure (assuming it'll be a little heavier than sony's)
 
I think that if the 12" went 13.3"wide, that the design team might be able to thin it down a bit, thus sacrificing in footprint but making up in thickness. A better GPU WILL come along, but right now the 12" is the hotness and apple needs the specs to be lower than the 15's and 17's.

The big plus of going wide with the 12" is the huge amount of "cool" factor it would get.

The biggest problem is that the screen height is already at the limit for me (I have one). I guess if you hid the dock all of the time, you'd have about the same amount of room that I have now. What would really solve it is if the top bar (Apple/Finder/File/Edit...etc) would dissappear like the dock. Then, you'd have as much or more viewing space than the current 12"

-Hasta
 
I'd have to shoot myself in the 12" Powerbook owning head if they came out with a widescreen 12" or 13"....that'd be sweet.
 
ThomasHobbes said:
SONY VGN-S150 VAIO® S Series Notebook Computer
A notebook computer with an Intel Pentium M Processor 725 (1.6A GHz) / Built-in 802.11g Wireless Adapter / 13.3 inch Widescreen LCD
Click to expand...

Yep, I've always wanted a 12" widescreen. It would be perfect for me. I've been jealous of the above Sony for a month now, and it would really be sweet if they got something like that into a 12" PB.

But like Barham said, they can't make a 12" widescreen without making the height of the screen a bit less, and its already at the brink for me. Vertical space isn't so important, but if they made it shorter, that would be getting out of hand. The only consolation would be to up the resolution to make the desktop bigger. 😉
 
that would rock, except then i would want to trade in my rev A 12" PB for one. so i think they should not come out with one!
 
Abstract said:
Yep, I've always wanted a 12" widescreen. It would be perfect for me. I've been jealous of the above Sony for a month now, and it would really be sweet if they got something like that into a 12" PB.

But like Barham said, they can't make a 12" widescreen without making the height of the screen a bit less, and its already at the brink for me. Vertical space isn't so important, but if they made it shorter, that would be getting out of hand. The only consolation would be to up the resolution to make the desktop bigger. 😉
Click to expand...

If they did increase the screen resolution, think about the eye strain. It is already hard enough to read some text on the 12"PB. At a resolution of something like 1280x768, it would be close to impossible to read a document or webpage unless you increase the font size which would almost defeat the reason of getting the higher resolution.

But this is just my 2 cents
 
Abstract said:
Yep, I've always wanted a 12" widescreen. It would be perfect for me. I've been jealous of the above Sony for a month now, and it would really be sweet if they got something like that into a 12" PB.

But like Barham said, they can't make a 12" widescreen without making the height of the screen a bit less, and its already at the brink for me. Vertical space isn't so important, but if they made it shorter, that would be getting out of hand. The only consolation would be to up the resolution to make the desktop bigger. 😉
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean. If you mean that having a smaller height screen with the same or higher resolution would make things smaller, you are right. However, you could always increase the size of icons, fonts, etc. to make up for this. If you mean that it would have less resolution, it wouldn't. One of the 12" widescreens has a 1280x768 resolution. I'm not sure what other resolutions are available.

I think they should move to the 13" widescreen. But, would apple want to put a display in one of their laptops that had a different horizontal to vertical ratio (the 13" widescreen has 1280x800 resolution)?
 
I agree with the poster above who made the comment about the portability of the 12".

Why would you want a widescreen that small?

The 12" screens are great portable workhorses. There's no point screwing with a good thing. You want widescreen so you can see more on your desktop? Buy a 15" or 17". 🙂
 
ThomasHobbes said:
more diffrentation(sp?)
Click to expand...

Edit -> Spelling -> Check Spelling as You Type 🙂

I agree that the PowerBook should be all-widescreen. I've decided that my next Mac will be a PowerBook, and that it will be widescreen. Therefore I'm currently stuck with the 15", which is a tad too expensive for me. Having said that, the video chipset is also very important for me. The latest issue of Computer Gaming World has a comparison between the Radeon 9700 and 9800 - apparently Doom 3 is almost unplayable on the 9700 yet runs very well on the 9800.

Edit: Attached CGW review.
 

Attachments

OziMac said:
I agree with the poster above who made the comment about the portability of the 12".

Why would you want a widescreen that small?

The 12" screens are great portable workhorses. There's no point screwing with a good thing. You want widescreen so you can see more on your desktop? Buy a 15" or 17". 🙂
Click to expand...

I want a widescreen 12" because it would be great for me to be able to read 2 .pdfs side by side, or type a Word doc with a .pdf open beside it. You don't realize how often I have to do this. Lots of scientific papers are in .pdf format, or even on the net, and its great to be able to see 2 things on the screen at once. I'd be willing to give up some vertical screen space for a bit more horizontal space. The resolution would have to be different, as the horizontal:vertical ratio will be different on a widescreen, of course, but it would be great if they could do it.

The only reason I'd consider a 15" is for this reason, but if I don't have to give up a 12", that would be great. Actually, I was thinking about selling my 12" to get a 15" because it may allow me to see things in widescreen. Exposé is great, but I don't like using it every 20 seconds or so.

And if they replaced the 12" with a 13", its not too much bigger, and maybe Apple could offer a 10" ultraportable like Sony does. Its what many people want instead of the 12" anyway, so may as well offer it.
 
mini-widescreen-poewrbook would be nice. BUT... what kind of resolution would that screen have? it MUST have at least 768 vertical pixels to be able to run iMovie, and it should also have less than 854 vertical pixels to keep it smaller than the 15" model.

so...

if the resolution would be something by 768, then there would be the aspect ratio and DPI-resolution to think about. if it would be 1280x768, it would be the widest of the three powerbooks, which i think cannot happen as the 17" model is touted as the widest of the wide, and, because apple usually aims to the same DPI in its systems, so there's no way they would shrink the same horizontal pixels that 15" model has into a smaller display; therefore if the mini-widescreen-powerbook would have 768 vertical pixels, the horizontal pixel count would be something between 1024 and 1280, which would make 1152x768 resolution a good guess. any lcd manufacturer making such a display?

to make 1280x768 happen in a 12"(ish) powerbook would effectively mean that the displays of its big brothers would also HAVE TO be updated as well. apple likes consistency...
 
The 13.3" LCD that Sony's using is 1280x800, which is a 16:10 aspect - the same as the 17" PowerBook.
 
Nermal said:
The 13.3" LCD that Sony's using is 1280x800, which is a 16:10 aspect - the same as the 17" PowerBook.
Click to expand...

yes, and given that the 1280 horizontal pixels is the same as 15" powerbook, that screen has different DPI than the rest of apple systems, therefore making ui elements smaller. i think that is not acceptable, and currently there is no way to scale the elements.
 
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