Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

zzarg · Feb 25, 2005, 05:44 PM

I'm wondering about getting a new 15" PB with 1GB (I already have a 1GB stick in my 12" I'll swap), 100GB HDD and 128MB VRAM but...
Does anyone have any performance comparisons between these two platforms ? My main interests are VirtualPC and Photoshop (if they run these well, they'll do anything !)

jld · Feb 25, 2005, 06:31 PM

I just upgraded from rev A 12" to New 15", and I'm very happy so far. The machine is much faster, and the hard drive is much much faster. The screen is the biggest improvement though, bigger, brighter, better looking.

zzarg · Feb 25, 2005, 07:08 PM

thanks for that.
How's the build quality looking ? My 12" new has a slightly warped feel, and the front-right edge has started to 'bulge', the screen latch doesn't always retract properly, the mini-screws keep trying to fall out and the palm rest is being eaten by (I can only assume) my sweaty palms.

I guess it's hard to tell until you've been throwing the machine around for a few months but... does it seem to be better / worse / the same as the older 12" ?

bbales · Feb 25, 2005, 11:09 PM

Originally posted by zzarg:
thanks for that.
How's the build quality looking ? My 12" new has a slightly warped feel, and the front-right edge has started to 'bulge', the screen latch doesn't always retract properly, the mini-screws keep trying to fall out and the palm rest is being eaten by (I can only assume) my sweaty palms.

I guess it's hard to tell until you've been throwing the machine around for a few months but... does it seem to be better / worse / the same as the older 12" ?

Sheesh -- I feel lucky! I have a Rev ! 12-inch too -- and it still looks great. About my only problem (except the rubber feet fall off every once in a while -- is that it doesn't always latch properly.

Some Guy [] · Feb 28, 2005, 06:53 PM

my rev A 12" has been a pretty bad experience for me so far...

-all the rubber feet fell off, apple wouldn't fix it
-palm rest area is all pitted because of my sweat i assume (also because of the heat!)
-battery started to only last about 10-20 mins after 1 year warranty was up
-power cord just stopped working shortly after the 1 year was up
-the thing gets so hot and the fan is almost alaways on, even when CPU usage is at 0.

my dad recently got a 15" 1.3ghz and it's pretty nice, fan never comes on and very little heat, even when ripping a DVD and recompression the MPEG2 for over an hour.

i'm planning on buying a new 15" 1.5ghz over the next few weeks as soon as my company approves the employee PC purchase program (40-50% company paid), woo!

-justin

iREZ · Feb 28, 2005, 11:25 PM

Applecare?

Some Guy [] · Mar 1, 2005, 02:41 AM

Originally posted by iREZ:
Applecare?

all those issues aren't covered by applecare except for powercord.

-justin

ddma · Mar 1, 2005, 07:35 PM

I have owned PowerBook G4 12 inch 867MHz, 15 inch 1.25GHz and now 1.67GHz, all I can say is that this 1.67GHz is the best one. It's quiter, less heat, and indeed, quite impressive speed improvement over 1.25GHz model.

zzarg · Mar 1, 2005, 09:52 PM

hopefully build quality has improved.
The more I use my old 12" and the more I hear horror stories about 12" and 15" construction the more nervous I get about splashing out for a new one

Some Guy [] · Mar 4, 2005, 05:52 PM

Originally posted by zzarg:
hopefully build quality has improved.
The more I use my old 12" and the more I hear horror stories about 12" and 15" construction the more nervous I get about splashing out for a new one

agreed. i used to buy an apple laptop (ibook/pbook) almost once a year. however that has changed since i bought this rev a 12" pbook.

-justin