[icibaqu]

12" is a good choice. a friend of mine takes all his notes and does most his work at school on his 12". it's about how you use screen space, really. when at home, plug it on to an external monitor. if you want extra hotness, get wireless external kb/m and close the lid. girls looooooooove that.

[SassyPants]

For all you people in college, how do you deal with the abismall battery life of hte powerbooks??? I mean, if you're going to be in class 4-6 hours/day, and the battery only lasts 3 hours (less sometimes), does that cause problems at all if you're carrying teh notebook around with you?

[azdude]

I hardly ever (read: never) use my laptop in class. To me, the joy and value of a laptop for college is the ability to carry it with you and plop down in the library between classes, working at top efficiency since all your stuff is with you.

...and somewhere like the library, battery's not a problem, as there are plugs all over. If I *were* to use my PB in class, I'd be ok, because I'd be juicing up the rest of my day in the library.

[cakeandpie]

Originally Posted by SassyPants

For all you people in college, how do you deal with the abismall battery life of hte powerbooks??? I mean, if you're going to be in class 4-6 hours/day, and the battery only lasts 3 hours (less sometimes), does that cause problems at all if you're carrying teh notebook around with you?

at my school (which is on the quarter system) I am taking 18 units this quarter, where 20-21 is the max, and on my longest day I only have 3 hours and 20 minutes of class, all of which isn't even straight so if I needed I would have time to go back to my room and charge the battery. Furthermore, I don't even need my laptop in all of those classes. (I'm a mech engineering student, but also taking a few humanities classes). In fact, the only people that I know that have more than 3 or 4 hours of class a day are seniors who only have class one or two days of the week, so battery probably shouldn't be that big of a problem. Also, just as the person above me stated, it is likely that you will have time to find a place like a library or even classroom that has power outlets.

[SassyPants]

anybody here going to NYU that can tell me if they have outlets all over the place/ any issues with their powerbooks? ;-) there's gotta be someone from there in here haha

[teknik]

Grab a 12" and buy an external LCD along with a mouse/keyboard for at your dorm room.

Voila! Best of both worlds.

[senseigmg]

If not, get an extra battery. Also, I highly recommend the apple bluetooth keyboard.

[wuzup101]

I never have 4-6 hours of class during the day unless I have a lab. I usually only use my powerbook for classes that don't require extensive diagrams and such. IE: I use it for cell biology because the course is structured so that you can just look up the diagrams in the book (which is also online through pubmed). I would never try to use it for my honors ochem classes, could never use chemdraw fast enough I use it in my ochem lab a lot, and there's plugs on all the benches and on the hoods so that's not a problem (also wireless internet).

But I have to agree with the poster above in saying the main value of a laptop at school is to have YOUR stuff with you at all times. Sure there are plenty of computer labs, but you're never as efficient at a lab as you are with you're own computer. Depending on your major you may easily be able to take notes for all your classes on your powerbook. I know i've easily done 3 50min lectures in one day and still have battery life to sit at a coffee shop for over an hour. I make sure I turn wireless and bluetooth off... and dim the screan while in class. Since I'm not doing much there the battery usually lasts longer than normal. Now when I get bored and play rise of nations during class... um well... yeah

[polendo]

Originally Posted by teknik

Grab a 12" and buy an external LCD along with a mouse/keyboard for at your dorm room.

Voila! Best of both worlds.

what he said.

[wuzup101]

Originally Posted by polendo

what he said.

Have to agree this is a very viable choice. You can definitely get a nicely loaded 12" 1.5ghz powerbook, extra ram, and a nice 20" dell wide screen display for a good price w/ edu discounts. If you're only planning to use the powerbook for small projects on campus (IE surfing the web, taking notes in class, talking on AIM in class, or giving presentations w/ a projector hooked up) this is the rout I would go. I personally got the 15" because I wanted the extra power in the video area, the increased ram capabilities, etc... However, that is because I do most of my work away from my dorm (where I do have a 19" samsung LCD that I run off of it). The extra screen space is nice if you're always on the go. But if you plan on using your notebook a good deal while hooked up to an external monitor, definitely go for the 12".

In reality you're going to bicker w/ yourself back and forth about which machine to choose. I know what you're going through I did the same thing (and I was looking at some PC notebooks also). In the end you'll be satisfied with whatever powerbook you get (trust me). And if worse comes to worse, they have a good resale value. You can easily purchase another one w/ the funds from a crappy summer job + selling your origional machine.

[SpaceRockness]

wuzup101 ...or better yet let the poster buy a 15" PB then later see a posting of buying 12" like I had done, two PowerBooks are better than one

[Josh Reid]

Now that Apple's 20" Cinema Display has had a nice price cut down to $799, your choice should become clearer. A 12" PB with the 20" matching display.

On a side-note, I've been using my 12" PB as my only computer since November of 2003 with NO external screen. I've done web-developing, film editing, plenty of iPhotoing and e-mailing, all with no problems due to screen limitations. I'm considering getting the 20" display now that it's at a pretty nice price...but after this long being used to the 12" screen, I really don't know how much use I'd get out of it...

Just another perspective,
Josh

[Randman]

With a 17, you really don't need an external. Nothing like working on the couch with as much screen room as you need. And watching movies, playing games is great as well.

[SassyPants]

Originally Posted by wuzup101

In reality you're going to bicker w/ yourself back and forth about which machine to choose. I know what you're going through I did the same thing (and I was looking at some PC notebooks also).

Yeah, its basically what i'm going through. But, its "slightly" different, because i'm stuck between the 15" Powerbook, and the 14" or 15" IBM T43p.

[tbd]

Originally Posted by SassyPants

Yeah, its basically what i'm going through. But, its "slightly" different, because i'm stuck between the 15" Powerbook, and the 14" or 15" IBM T43p.

Thats exactly what I was stuck between when I got my new laptop 2 weeks ago. I went with the powerbook.

[SassyPants]

Originally Posted by tbd

Thats exactly what I was stuck between when I got my new laptop 2 weeks ago. I went with the powerbook.

Any regrets? Well, its only been 2 weeks, so probably none...yet...or ever...i don't know...

[tbd]

I am really happy I went with the powerbook, there haven't been any times yet where I thought "wish I still had a PC."

[wuzup101]

As for the T43, it is a great machine. Only downside is that it runs windows. Even so, a friend of mine has a T42 and he loves it. I have to admit it is a very nice machine and I was also considering it along side the powerbook when I origionally got mine. I'm very happy with my purchase, but if I ever had to buy a PC notebook that would definitely be the one hands down. You can always run linux on them

[ender2002]

I am thinking...
12" PowerBook, maxed out
BT keyboard and mouse
connected to
a Dell 2005FPW
and an XBox connected to the same monitor.

that dell display is awesome. it has great performance and has many inputs (DVI, S-Video, etc.)!