[MSME]

My wife recently got a job in a school (Airport all over the building, incidentally), so she's been wanting my precious iBook to take to work. This is great news for me because it means I get to shop for a new laptop. I am trying to decide between getting a 2nd iBook or a Powerbook.

I'm venturing into Cocoa programming, and I'm not completely happy with Project Builder's performance (length of time it takes to compile). So my big question is how much of a performance boost I will see in Project Builder if I switch to a Powerbook.

I'd be going with either a 12 or 15 inch Powerbook. Probably the 15 because of the LCD quality. Anybody have any advice?

[arnette]

if you DO switch to a PowerBook... go for the 15" inch. Besides the difference in cache and screensize, you just be happier with the processor speed.

Personally, I think the 12" PB needs to mature a little more before it's worthy of purchase. On the other hand, I love my 900Mhz iBook. I'm not going to the PowerBooks until they sandwich a G5 in there.

[MSME]

I just hope the price points stay the same when the new models are announced, but I'm guessing they will go back up. If the entry 15" PB goes back up to $2399, I'll have to get the 12".

[rambo47]

The 12" is nice and portable, but the 15.2" screen of the TiBook is absolutely addictive. Go for the big one! In addition the processor cache does make a noticable difference in performance. The 15" is still pretty light and thin as well. For my money, the 15" units are the sweet spot in Apple's PowerBook line up.

[IronPen]

I have a 12" PB, but haven't used the 15". I don't see any lag in performance with the 12" that some people are talking about. My guess is that people saying such things haven't used one for any considerable period of time.

The bigger screen, widescreen aspect of the 15" and higher resolution is nice, but considering it is, what, like 9 months old now, and $400 or so more than the 12" combo, I'd wait for the Al update, which is sure to come down the pipe very soon. I considered this and thought on it a lot before my purchase, and I just couldn't bring myself to get the Ti, especially given all the problems I've heard about it. Even a good friend of mine, a Mac specialist, said he wouldn't recommend getting the Ti now. If the Al update comes out and they lower the price considerably, then maybe it would be something to consider, but overall, I think the Al is soooo much better. No offense to TiBook owners. At least read the thread on PB complaints and other 15" Ti threads first.