[blktlr]

Well, I sold my 15" TiBook 1Ghz SuperDrive today and bought a new 12" 900mhz combo iBook (also planning on purchasing a G4 with the leftover cash before the summer's out).

I was afraid I might be a little disappointed with the downgrade, but after taking this for a spin, I have no regrets. Given, I don't do a lot with video and only occasionally launch Photoshop, but this things seems just as zippy as my PowerBook while running through my normal daily tasks in OS X (I used the extra RAM from the PowerBook I sold to max the iBook out and plugged in an airport card almost immediately - my impressions are based on this performance).

It also feels much more solid - the build quality seems a bit better - much tighter, no creaking, etc. I actually like the keyboard better too - it sets tigher in the indention and has a more concrete feel - the TiBook keyboard was wobbly. I don't feel like I have to baby this machine or be extra careful handling it (of course, there's a lot less invested in this one!).

AirPort range is amazingly better. The machine runs very cool too. The screen is nice and bright - small enough to be super-portable but just fine for my (young) eyes.

It does run a little warmer than I expected, but I've also been copying four gigabytes of files from the backup drive to get myself in order again.

All in all, I'm impressed. It's not as sleek, sexy, or eye-catching as my old TiBook, but I think it'll meet my needs just as well.

And for bragging rights, a bigger screen, and graphics, I might just buy myself one of the MDD G4s before Apple stops selling them - though right now I'm not sure I'll be needing one.

later,

-blake.

[Dave N]

I recently sold my 667 DVI and bought a 900 MHz iBook. Overall I've been very happy. It didn't take any time to get used to the 12" screen. I mainly just do email and websurfing, so most of the time I wasn't using much more screen space (on the TiBook) than I am now. As far as speed goes, I find the iBook to be about equal to the TiBook. Like you, I don't use a lot of processor-intensive applications.

The only thing I really miss about the TiBook is the screen quality. The iBook screen just isn't as nice. Text has a little fuzziness, and I sometimes get heavy pixelation when scrolling through high grapics webpages (although I haven't noticed this as much with Safari as with Camino).

I don't think I will own another Powerbook unless they get the heat issue solved. I use my laptop 99% of the time on my lap, and the TiBook was just too toasty for me. I have an "E-Z Lap" lap pad for my iBook, and hardly ever get any heat.

[NYK Ace]

i was also looking to do this based solely on the extra amount of money id be able to get from the switch but am unsure at the moment. im just not sure if i can give up this 15" screen

other then some video editing (in iMovie and ive burned a couple DVDs) i dont use this more then for web surfing/email/IM.... i might wanna get into ichat AV but the ibook handles that too

what to do... the $$$ or the sweeet sweeet Ti


(ps i am a cash strapped college student so maybe the $$$ might be a good idea but could you use an ibook as your main machine in this G5 era?)