[kdixey]

I've been soliciting advice over the past several weeks on these forums and I had ended up deciding to go for a new 12" powerbook over a 14" ibook (with educational pricing the powerbook is a much better deal).

So, I drove down to the local Apple store a few days back and picked one up. I brought it home and noticed two things right off the bat. It had a stuck red pixel (which I could have lived with) and the 12" screen simply too small for me. I found that even though the screen was very sharp, my eyes quickly got fatigued. I also found the build quality of the powerbook to be less than confidence inspiring. It had a terrific fit and finish but it felt sort of fragile at the same time. I have the same complaint about the tibook I borrowed. I do alot of field work and I don't know if I would feel confident using the powerbook in those conditions.

So...I took the powerbook back (and after some negotiation about weather or not I needed to pay a restocking fee) I brought home a 1 ghz 14.1" ibook and I am thrilled.



I think the 14" ibook is terrific. The screen is sharp, bright and easy to read and I find the extra space around the keyboard confortabe. Battery life has so far been impressive and I while I think the powerbook felt a bit snappier, it is not that significant (and I think the extra RAM will help). This machine is defintely an upgrade from an old clamshell ibook (and an old 400mhz tibook I had been borrowing).

I know that everyone will say I SHOULD have bought the 1.2ghz, but getting the slightly slower (and I do mean slightly, 1.07 ghz vs 1.2 ghz is nothing) is leaving me enough in my budget to get 768mb RAM and get a few software upgrades. I'm on a tight budget with a young child so saving a few bucks over the other models was the right thing to do. I can live with the stigma of not having the FASTEST ibook, it's twice as fast than anything I have been using.

While do wish I had a bigger HD (although I can live with 40gb) I think the $100 difference between the 1 ghz and 1.2 ghz (that's taking into account the 1.2 ghz has an airport card pre-installed) seemed a bit steep for .12 ghz more speed and 20gb of HD. My FW 80gb external HD can be pressed into service if need be.

So, in the end I ended up choosing the 14" ibook over the 12" powerbook because despite the powerbooks's advantages on paper (faster, smaller, more VRAM, blah, blah, blah) because I felt the ibook gave me a better experience for the type of thing I need a computer for. I need a durable, rugged computer that I can throw in my bag and take to the library or into the field for research. I needed a bright readable display for the many hours of writing I do (with the machine often sitting in my lap) and enough horsepower to deal with some graphics and other types of multimedia. Basically, this computer needs to get me through grad school (because I'm not going to have enough money to do this again until I'm done).

I'll probably get myself a bluetooth adapter. I could have gone the BTO route, but buying it in person allowed me to check the computer for dead and/or stuck pixels which is not an option with BTO. Sometime down the road I may even buy a larger and faster HD and have it installed at the local Apple service place where I live (they can do it an not void the warranty).

All in all I am very happy with the ibook and would liek to say that despite what the specs may say the 14" ibook is a terrific and I think largely overlooked machine. It's fast, has a nice display and while it isn't as small as the 12" it is not THAT big (my wife's DELL is huge compared to the ibook.

Thanks again for all the help and I look forward to playing with my new computer and contributing to these forums that helped me get through this process.

...one more thing, I don't care how much VRAM the powerbook has I think the ATI video card in the ibook is a better card and IMHO DVD video looks better played back on the ibook than the powerbook.

[Michel_80]

Nice, nice. Agree, 12" is too small to have as a only computer and still conserve your eyesight. Looked at the 14" (have a 12" myself) and actually liked it

[Rev-O]

If my only computer was a laptop, it wouldn't be a 12". Too small. But as a travel computer and a toy, it's wonderful. Decent size to watch a movie on, play certain games (neverwinter nights presently), and suitable for iMovie and what not on the go. I'm purdy partial to mine.

Congrats on the 14" iBook!

[gkrykewy]

Of course, there's always the option of having a 12-inch as a primary computer with a big honking monitor hooked up to it when it's at home (along with a bluetooth keyboard). That's what I do with my iBook. 19-inch CRTs can be had for... what... 100 bucks now?

[kdixey]

I think the 12" ibook and powerbook are pretty sweet little packages. Having had the opportunity to play with the 12" powerbook I can definitely see situations where it would be the ideal computer for someone.

I can hardly wait to bump up the RAM. Any suggestions as to where to buy it? I'm currently looking at buying it from Crucial (it may not be the cheapest, but its good quality RAM). I also popped for a .mac subscription. It was $30 off with the purchase and I get $30 off of Keynote to boot (I was plannng on buying Keynote anyway).

Back to playing with my new toy.

I think I'm having as much fun as my son is having with his empty Kleenex box (I'm starting to wonder why I bothered to buy him any toys at all).

[Usual Suspects]

i 'm still not sure if i'll go with a 12" iBook or PB...

the iBook has everything i want, but i absolutely need an extra monitor at higher resolutions for photoshop!

that's where the spanning hack comes in... problem solved? let me ask a few questions:

how confortable is spanning? i could imagine myself having all palettes and the dock on the iBook, with my photograph on the second screen.

can you choose how the screen are placed logically (like left-right or one on top of the other)?

and how important is the amount of videoram? i don't do anything in 3D and i don't play games. will 16 MB (half the ram for each screen) be enough for photoshop and main OS X usage (exposé)?

kdixey, have fun with the 14"!

[gkrykewy]

FYI, I bought my ram at 4allmemory.com. Best price I could find, and it's been working fine - no kernel panicks or anything.

[fastback]

I'm stuck between a 12" iBook G4, or a 14" iBook G4, the price difference is $300, in which I could buy 3 year's worth of Apple Care if I decided to buy the 12" iBook G4, I don't want to spend too much.

[kdixey]

I am finding the 14" ibook to be a very nice upgrade from the 400mhz tibook.

I think the 14" ibook compares pretty favorably to the 12" powerbook. What it gives up in speed it makes up for in other ways. The screen considerably nicer to deal with, I find that I really like the size quite a bit, its very comfortable. It may not be as portable as the 12"powerbook, but it's not THAT big. Battery life has been terrific (between 4-5 hours easily) and it is very quick and responsive despite only having 256mb RAM (the 512 stick is on its way).

That $300 you save over the powerbook will also buy you 1gb of RAM.

[Michel_80]

iBook look nice. How come their trackpads seem more accurate than the Powerbook's? Checked it out in Apple shop yesterday.

[Rev-O]

Originally posted by kdixey:
I think the 12" ibook and powerbook are pretty sweet little packages. Having had the opportunity to play with the 12" powerbook I can definitely see situations where it would be the ideal computer for someone.

I can hardly wait to bump up the RAM. Any suggestions as to where to buy it? I'm currently looking at buying it from Crucial (it may not be the cheapest, but its good quality RAM). I also popped for a .mac subscription. It was $30 off with the purchase and I get $30 off of Keynote to boot (I was plannng on buying Keynote anyway).

Back to playing with my new toy.

I think I'm having as much fun as my son is having with his empty Kleenex box (I'm starting to wonder why I bothered to buy him any toys at all).

I have a Crucial 512 in my 12" iBook for a total of 640 meg, and it works jus' fine. If you're feeling flush, pick up the 1 gig ram chip that's available, but 640 seems to work good for me.

[kdixey]

I ordered a 512mb chip from crucial today. with 256 built onto the motherboard I'll end up with 768mb RAM total. That'll be just fine. I'd love to have popped for the 1gb chip but I wasn't feeling quite so free.