Why I chose the 15 inch vs 12 inch -
I've spent the past 8 months or so "really wanting" the 12 inch powerbook. Originally I was dissatisfied with the RAM capacity, the lack of dvi out and the lack of L3 cache. That changed for the most part when the Rev B came out... but the 15 inch came out with it, so that complicated things at the same time. After much deliberation, ultimately I decided that the 12 inch was the machine for me.
So I had finally figured it all out and decided that I was going to the Apple store and I was going to buy the new 12 inch... even though the 15 inch was still kind of in the back of my mind. Okay... then I walked in and I got a variance of that weird disease that you get when you walk into the record store and forget what you wanted to buy. I drew a total blank and forgot my entire reasoning for wanting the 12 inch. Luckily I brought my girlfriend to the store with me (she has a black belt in common sense). My roommate also came along... he was responsible for making me 'switch' by selling me his Pismo.
So, I was there... a blank slate... and I was determined to get something that day. I love my Pismo, but I needed a new computer that I could run graphics applications on (Fireworks, Dreamweaver, etc.), music applications (Soundtrack), maybe play some games, and to end my 8 month run of checking all of the reviews on this forum every day... and doing nothing about the vast technological abyss that was developing in my life.
So I started over again... and I compared the two. These were my 'on the fly' impressions while i was there:
12 inch - pros
portable!
less expensive.
12 inch - cons
screen seems a little brighter and more 'washed out' than the 15 inch.
'lesser' graphics card when compared to the 15 inch.
screen resolution not as good as 15 inch.
15 inch - pros
bigger screen!
higher resolution!
high end graphics card.
faster and more expandable RAM.
faster processor possibilities.
15 inch - cons
less portable
more expensive.
It was all a blur, but I walked out of the store with a 15 inch 1 GHz powerbook (stock). I couldn't be happier. My recollection of my reasoning was as follows:
I have to use wintel machines at work, so this is not something I need to really carry around all the time... but it's still pretty portable if I want to do some projects at a friend's house, or if I'm visiting the folks for the weekend.... or if I want to spend the morning outside writing or something like that,
The 12 inch monitor is a little too small to really be productive on it. Decided that I wouldn't have a good time using Fireworks or Dreamweaver on it. I don't have an external monitor.
I could upgrade to 1 Gig of RAM pretty inexpensively on the 15 inch using 3rd party RAM. (I bought some sticks from Crucial and they work great).
I didn't really need a DVD-R drive. I have access to one because my roommate has one.
I'm going to want to play first person shooter games on it occasionally. Even though games are kind of a waste of time... I have to be honest with myself. The ATI card could future-proof me for UT 2k3.... Halo, etc.
The 1GHz 15 inch is a little faster than the 12 inch because of the RAM, and only about 13% slower than the 1.25 GHz 15 inch.... so I don't really feel like I'm missing out.
Impressions -
It's a thing of beauty. I've had this machine now for about a week. No white spots... no loud fans.... the CD spins a little loud when I first put a CD in the drive, but it seems pretty normal and it's quiet when it's in use. I had to order my Airport Extreme card from Apple because the Apple Store was out of them at the time... so I can't comment on the Airport reception, but so far, I think I"m exempt from most of the problems with the 15 inch that I've read about on the forum. I don't want to jinx myself, but 'm starting to wonder if a higher percentage of the problems are associated with the 1.25 GHz Albook?
The Unreal Tournament 2k3 demo runs pretty well.
Wolfenstein runs awesome.
I feel that in terms of games, it runs about 85% as well as on my 1.4 Ghz Pentium with 640 Mb Rambus, and 32 Geforce 2 MX graphics card.
I know 15 inch reviews are somewhat common here, but If anyone has any questions about this machine... let me know.
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