[drloomis]

I'm searching on ebay for a cheap apple ibook.

Is there a difference between the dual usb ibook and the original ibook clamshell in terms of battery life?

I like them both, but if one of them gets normally more batter life, I'm there.

Does using mac os X increase or decrease your battery life?

thanks.

[SupahCoolX]

I have one of each (300mhz clamshell, 12" 600mhz dualie). The battery life is pretty similar, though a clamshell may get slightly more (depending on specific model, age of the battery, etc). OSX currently gets less battery life than OS9, but it is improving. UNIX doesn't have any built-in battery management, but Apple's doing a good job. Panther should see even more battery improvements.

I think the size, weight, additional USB port, Firewire (not available on all clamshell models) and, most importantly, the higher screen resolution of the Dual USB models makes them a HUGE favorite over the clamshells, in my opinion. The battery difference is pretty negligible, and the other advantages of the Dual USBs far outweighs that.

Don't get me wrong, I love my clamshell, but the little white wonder is light years ahead of it.

[bgordon]

I have a old clamshell 366 SE (non-FW) which I've upgraded with 576 MB of RAM and a 5400 rpm HD to maximize its performance in OS X.

I've had it for three-plus years and now I get 1.5 hours per charge. I don't think it ever got a lot more than that, although I did notice that OS X sucks more power from it than OS 9 did....and I will say that this machine's performance in X is *acceptable* at best. Things aren't horribly sluggish, but they aren't exactly springy, either; the 4 MB video card is a major limitation; I'd definitely get the IceBook, if I had my druthers.

- bgordon

[The Placid Casual]

I have a 466SE clamshell...

I get about 4 hours easily...

Peace,

Marc