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Trygve · Aug 24, 2003, 09:55 AM

I currently have two laptops:
iBook 600MHz, 384MB/20GB, Combo, Airport
TiBook 667Mhz 512MB/30GB, Combo, Airport

These have been great for the past year while my wife and I have been living overseas in the Republic of Georgia and Czech Republic... I have been able to operate my internet-based software business well.

Now we are considering traveling for 6-9 months and I think I will sell both of them and buy a single 12" G4 (AluminumBook), and set it up with 640MB, 60GB, Combo, Airport.

We will be traveling with backpacks all over East Africa, SE Asia and the subcontinent with it so it needs to be reliable. I will be using it to write software and handle e-mail support and admin. Any opinions of this machine would be helpful.

I would almost consider doing the trip with only the iBook, but as I am using it to write software with CodeWarrior etc. the speed may be limiting... Currently I am using the TiBook for this.

How rugged is the 12" G4 and do you think I will be happy with it?

Anybody in Central Europe interested in buying one of the above machines? :-)

Thanks for any thoughts.

Evinyatar · Aug 24, 2003, 10:20 AM

Won't you miss the higher screen res on the TiBook? You seem to gain little by this, except for 200MHz and a bit of HD space. Just my 2 cents.

n_lim · Aug 24, 2003, 10:29 AM

Hi Trygve,

I went from a 667 Ti book to a 12" Al also. I am very happy with the switch. I didn't really notice that much difference in speed between the two, but what I did notice was the increase in portability and I believe it to be quite a bit more rugged as well. I babied the Ti and still got a scratch or two. I haven't babied the 12" at all and sometimes don't even use a sleeve in my bag and after a wipe down the 12" looks as god as new. The entire package seems more rigid to me and I think it sounds ideal for what you are going to be doing.

It also has a terrific keyboard. The only thing is that it does not have a pc card slot in case you need it for expansion so keep that in mind.

Good luck on your decision. You also may want to wait a bit if you can, as it seems that we are close to an update soon as it is now in its 8th month since introduction.

cheers!

wildcard · Aug 24, 2003, 10:30 AM

I've owned a 15" Tibook and the 12" Powerbook. The 12" Powerbook is far more rugged than the current TiBooks in my opinion, especially the screen hinge. It should survive the trip, but I agree that it's a high price to pay to upgrade just for the ruggedness factor.

Trygve · Aug 24, 2003, 11:13 AM

I can probably wait until mid-late October to buy. I fear I may miss the high res TiBook screen as the iBook is a bit confining at times. What I have now is not very rugged and portable. It needs to fit in a backpack and survive months on the road in the 3rd world.

The iBook would fit the bill, but I can sell what I have now and turn around a buy a new one and should break even more or less.

kennedy · Aug 24, 2003, 11:23 AM

Originally posted by Trygve:
I can probably wait until mid-late October to buy. I fear I may miss the high res TiBook screen as the iBook is a bit confining at times. What I have now is not very rugged and portable. It needs to fit in a backpack and survive months on the road in the 3rd world.

The iBook would fit the bill, but I can sell what I have now and turn around a buy a new one and should break even more or less.

I'd judge your most critical issues are reliability and portability. Based on that, if you are go with a PB12, I wouldn't wait for the new model... new models *might* be less reliable... the current PB12 seems to be well-proven, well-sorted-out model. I'd get it sooner rather than later, giving yourself time to work out any bugs before you're on the road and its much more difficult.

Whether to switch would seem to depend a lot upon just how reliable you need to be and just how portable you want to be. Two machines will be waaayyyyy more reliable than one!! But if your portability concerns say "one machine", a newer computer would be a bit more reliable than older ones. And the PB12 has been very reliable. Sooo, if portability is more important than reliability, I'd probably upgrade to a *current* PB12, but make sure I gave it time to exhibit any problems before I headed out.

JMHO, FWIW. HTH.

n_lim · Aug 24, 2003, 06:51 PM

I would wait for the new model and the resulting user feedback and decide between the two. Since you said you can wait, it would just be unwise to buy now since the new 12" could introduce a feature you desperately needed and didn't know it (new models have a tendency to do that). The buying a mac (or any technology for that matter) law usually is: if you can wait, wait. At the very least prices on current models will drop. Reliability almost always gets better, especially since they are not going to be doing an entire redesign from the case up.

As far as missing screen real estate, yes, you will. But most of us have gotten used to it quite quickly and the increase in productivity because of its portability made up for that quite quickly. That said and your willingness to wait, maybe a more durable 15" Ti is your answer?