Will the 17" Powerbook make me look like an idiot?

[Over Achiever]

I own a 17" powerbook, and I've carried it to class for the past 2 years. While personally I don't mind carrying it around (it's not as heavy as you think), from what people do in college, a 12" powerbook will work just as well. You don't need a gigantic screen to take notes ... Word is at a perfect width across the 12" screen, etc. Multiple windows can be managed by Expose.

I'd get the 12" powerbook for the portability, and if you really care about what the opposite sex thinks *cough*sad*cough* then it's not bad. They'll think it's cute and stylish ... why else do you think the iPod mini is so popular? Then invest in a good LCD at home, preferably a wide screen (if you stick with Apple then get the 20" display, otherwise any LCD would work) and you'd have a decent desktop at home to use.

If you're serious about college, then I think this is the best route, but hey, I'll keep bringing my 17" pb to class, library, and outside. It's the one computer I use, and I use it everywhere I have to.

Oh, if you get the 12" pb now, you save enough money to actually buy a new 12" pb in say 2 years if you feel you have to.

-OA

 

[Lancetx]

So yeah, a lot of people will stare at you and your big honkin' portable computer. Some will point and say, "Cool" while others will point at you like the dork who came to the prom wearing one of dad's suits.

Spoken just like a person who's jealous that he doesn't have one himself. But seriously, people should quit worrying what anyone else thinks. If you have the money and a 17" PowerBook is what you really want, then by all means get it. I wouldn't give a damn what anyone else thinks. Besides, anyone that thinks negatively of someone that has one is probably just jealous anyway and that's their problem.

 

[Rob587]

well i dont hik u guys understand the dilema.. i dont care anymoreabout what other ppl think.. my decision is now btrwn the G5 powermac with a 20" display or the 17" powerbook and I cant decide... portability isnt really why im having to decide, its the fact that i just love the way the powerbook looks... obviously if they were the same i would get the G5, but there not.. which one should i get?!?!?!?! Help

 

[rdrr]

Depends on the school, or school of thought for that matter. If you are going to Texas A&M or any Texian University then BIG is in. Something like MIT, CAL Tech, RPI, or any geekery school then smaller and wearable is better.

In the end it boils down to adding a few more ounces and with the amount of books you'll be lugging around, it will be negligable(sp? too lazy to check spelling).

 

[yamabushi]

Laptops are better for students unless you have a real need* for the extra power of a desktop and such power is unavailable through the school. If you like the 17", by all means you should get it.

 

[Seanb23]

Increase the Ram-a-Mhz. It will feel like a PB G5.

Well, a single 512 stick is a little more than $100 right now. Seeing as g5 powerbooks or some revamped g4 versions are probably about a year away, it's probably not good money after bad, not right now, anyway.

How much of a performance boost did you see with increasing your RAM ? The situation I am in is that my 1Ghz 17" pbook simply chokes on a powerful audio editor/sampler I use that is very CPU intensive...the program (reaktor 4) simply shuts down until you drastically lower the fidelity with several applications open...and no, it's not a bug or a simple cache issue. The fact of the matter is that 1 or even 1.5 Ghz is, well, slow by 2004 standards.

Now, you might get the idea that I would be willing to switch back over to Intel's or AMD's much, much more powerful laptops from the tone in my posts...such is not the case, not at all. I wouldn't be here to begin with if I wanted to utilize that sad, buggy platform. I'm simply frusturated that Apple seems to be neglecting it's laptop line's hardware development, while the evil competition is running roughshod over them in every laptop benchmark I can find. It's almost as if they are counting on the niceties of the OS to keep people interested whilst they spend R&D money elsewhere...