[wei888]

I'm about to get myself a PB very soon. But im just wonder is 12" a right choice. I'm planning to do lots of graphic stuff and fair bit of web and multimedia stuff with it. Anyone with a 12" PB please do share your experience. I'm currently using a G4 850 tower in office, I find the speed of it still acceptable. Not sure the 12" PB is better then it or not, I've never did any work on PB so far.

btw, any news bout PB G5?

[effgee]

wei888,

Need more info to answer your question:

• Would that Powerbook then be your only machine? Would you be getting rid of the G4 Desktop?
• What kind of graphics stuff do you do? Pre-press as in Quark, InDesign, Photoshop?

[seventn]

Speed would be fine but you HAVE to get an external screen. 1024x768 does not cut it for "full time" work.

[sheer]

I'd say performance on a 12" PB will be comparable to the tower you already use. I've got the 12" PB 1ghz myself and it is a zippy machine using 10.3.1. All I have to compare against is the G4 466 I use at work (OS9, bog standard save for 384mb ram) and the G4 400 I use at home (10.3.1, extra 40g hd, 512mb ram, Radeon 32mb) and the PB is noticeably quicker than both, even on battery power, tho I wouldn't want to be working in PS/Ill/Quark for long periods of time with the 12" screen, thank gawd for the mini DVi out.

[bovie]

I just love my 12inch Powerbook I have a 1Ghz with 768MB Ram, 40gb, combo, ap and bt. It works great but I still use a big 19inch monitor at home. The 1Ghz is just a little slower than my 1.25 Powermac.

[effgee]

Ok, maybe I'm spoiled by my dual processor G4 here. But if the majority of your work is graphics-intensive and you want to get things done quickly and efficiently, then no Powerbook (be it 12", 15", 17") can hold a candle to a desktop machine with "identical" specs (processor speed, RAM) - not even mentioning the dual processor machines (G4 or G5).

They all have abysmally slow hard drives (compared to desktop machines) and the graphics boards in any laptop aren't speed daemons either. The ATI 9600 in the 15" and 17" PB is fine, but the nVidia in the 12" is not sufficient for heavy Photoshop lifting.

I have five machines here in my office (well, 6 if you count the crappy PC) - a dual G4, a single G4, a Cube, a 15" TiBook and the rev. B 12" PB - they all tell the same story.

Mad scientist Rob seems to confirm my real world experience with his benchmarks. IMO, there's only one portable combination that might come close to its desktop equivalent - that is if you take a 17" PB, upgrade it with a 7200rpm hard drive and deck out the RAM.

And please don't get me wrong here - I love both of my Powerbooks to death. But to think that a 1 GHz Powerbook is as fast as a 1 GHz Desktop (or even a dual processor desktop) is what we call here "lying in your own pocket".

The Powerbooks are great machines - if you primarily work in office apps and occasionally dabble in graphics/video, they will be able to replace your desktop machine and you'll be perfectly happy. But for someone who primarily does graphics work (I work on my machines anywhere from 8-14 hrs. every day), I can guarantee you that, as soon as the Powerbook's novelty effect begins to wear off, you'll be wanting a faster machine.

And of course, as stated above - an external monitor is pretty much a must for all-day work on the 12" PB.

[madmacgames]

I do all my web design/coding on my 12" revB and don't have a problem with it (running local dev server doing PHP/MySQL in Dreamweaver; graphics in Photoshop/ImageReady). This is my only machine also. The speed is fine for me (about the same as my AMD XP 1500+ PC desktop was).

I'm sure a dual CPU desktop (or single) would be faster than book if for nothing else than the hard drive speed. But that doesn't mean the powerbook is slow either.

Nor does the screen bother me. I'm sure if I had a 19" to compare it to, I'd rather have the 19", but some of us cannot afford such luxuries. To my eyes there is nothing wrong with the 12" screen.

[Cwriter]

I would second the comment on using an external montior with your 12".

I just switched from an 12" ibook to a powerbook 15". The extra real estate will come in handy with the extra palettes from photoshop or illustrator.

[effgee]

... just as a clarification - it was not trying to put down the 12" PB - I have one and I love it.

My comment about the nVidia graphics chip not being able to do heavy Photoshop lifting was actually in reference to the initial questions I had posted upthread. I use Photoshop, Dreamweaver, BBEdit on the Powerbook myself and it does handle these apps, of course.

My point is that the 12"Albook is not an ideal tool for pre-press oriented graphics work. For example, last month I put together a large format brochure/poster combo for a client that contained TIFFs ranging in file size anywhere from 50 - 300 MB. Imagine doing retouching work in Photoshop on a drum scan measuring nearly 80 x 60 cm @ 300dpi - waiting for Photoshop to rotate the file on the PB alone will give you enough time to pick, roast, grind and brew the coffee beans yourself ...

[SEkker]

19" CRT screens are dirt cheap, seems an excellent investment.

I'd also consider a dual monitor setup, even if you're just adding a 15" (which are free).

SCE

[all2ofme]

I agree with what effgee said above. Exactly the case here. I do Photoshop work all day and I'm just itching to get a faster machine than the 1GHz 12" I have here (768MB).

[aehaas]

I have a dp800 and it is too slow for me with Photoshop CS. I am waiting for the second generation G5. I have a TiPBook 867 and this is no good for me and any grafix type work. I also use Quark.

If this is what you do all day then speed is time is money. Every dollar spent on speed is important and as said before, laptops do not have enough graphic speed.

Save money for a few more months then get the faster machine. No person I know has ever said that they spent too much money for too fast a machine. Has anybody ever heard that one before?

aehaas

[wei888]

thanks you for all your replies, its great and i think I'll know what should I get. I'll be getting the PB as a mobile workspace when I travel around. when i'm back I'll use video out onto my 19" crt. I'll be doing most of my freelance and private pre-press + web project on it. Running Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Quark, Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks (ofcourse not all of them together at one time...)

and yes this is my only Mac I gonna have at home. budget & mobility is a main concern for me now, so I wont be able to get G5 or dua G4 destop for now

I think you guys will never know that getting a PB at my place will cost me 3 month salary as a graphic designer.

[shabbasuraj]

it is a great computer...along with its 17" brother it has garnered a minor cult following among its users, more so than any other Apple product in the recent pass, aside from the iPod...

there is something freakish about both the 17" and the 12" that sets it apart from the "just right size of the 15"....

this is why I have both 12" and 17" in my household...

buy the 12", you will not be dissapointed...