[yukon]

I'd show pictures of my 3400c, but a description will work. The thin plastic stubs that held the stiff hinges broke, then a hinge itself broke, then the entire plastic stiffener eventually shattered. the screen's cable eventually severed, leaving a laptop that can play 1.2gb of music (a bulky, ugly, falling apart, low capacity expensive iPod with no screen).

I hear of new laptops getting <2 hours of battery time, where my 3400c did that last week, and of every other OS X update causing <1hr.....I want around 4 hours now, and I'm told Apple's promises of 4.5 and 5 hours are lies. I hear of $1200 hinges failing on new TiBooks, where AppleCare just argues forever. I hear of powersupply and logic board problems, 12"s warping and wobbling, and a host of new problems on the new 15" (what would otherwise be my choice). I hear of components simply not working on PC laptops.

What to do....Dell has a warranty that encompasses any problems, but their laptops have terrible specs compared to Apple. When I test Apple's laptops in stores, OS X feels as slow as on my first-gen G4 (my supercomputer). Any PC I use runs linux, so Windows isn't an issue, yet OS X still beats linux. Laptops are a lot of money, and I don't feel like shelling out big bucks for the same old G4 or 2200XP+, and being stuck at those specs forever.

I could buy an Apple laptop that has problems, or I could buy a PC that has more problems. I could buy a ruggedized PC laptop that has the same problems, but much lower specs, for a lot more money, but be tough enough to take any spill or drop...maybe it would last. I could try to build my own laptop out of a Mini-ATX board for upgradability, but I don't know enough about powersupplies and batteries to do it yet, i'd probably get only 1hr anyway. I could buy a C3 laptop, that will get great battery life, but be slower than a Celeron 1ghz.

I have no laptop, you remember what that's like, so any "wait for G5/XP64"s will be painful. What is a student to do?

[h00ligan]

the new 12" has no problems. and gets over 4 hrs battery life. I have been using one at work and it is wonderful.

I have a 15" ti at home that has never given me any trouble at all, almost a year now.

if you want rugged, and since you ccame from a 3400, i would say go with a new 12" then in a few years you can upgrade to whatever the latest and geatest is.

I will say also , the ibook is extremely durable....comeing from a 3400 c it should seem fast too. There are a lot of options, but taking the problems listed on these bards ans across the world problems, would be silly.

[LfGrdMike]

umm ya the battery 2hours thing was a bug and now its fixed sense yesterday.

[yukon]

I'm afraid that I'll buy one, it'll have some problem, and AppleCare will argue with me until i give up. If it's a problem that happens with normal usage, then I know they'll almost certainly refuse.

LfGrdMike: I've been told of powerbooks getting only 2 hours of life on average. the x.2.8 update brought people down to 1hr I read, which was fixed. an Apple salesman told me to take whatever number Apple gives, and divide it by two, and take that as "moderate usage". After most OS X revisions, I hear much of battery time lessening, specifically 10.2, 10.0.4 (or 10.1.4, or something), and others.