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Athens · Mar 17, 2003, 10:43 PM

how many ppl bought a ibook only to upgrade to a powerbook later? What was the main reason to upgrade?

wataru · Mar 18, 2003, 02:28 AM

I sold my rev. B PowerBook G4 for a new 800MHz iBook. What would you call that? The performance feels about the same, so maybe it's a "sidegrade."

I mostly wanted a more rugged machine, better Airport reception, and the couple hundred dollars I got because the G4 was still worth more than even an iBook.

Athens · Mar 18, 2003, 02:53 AM

i was refering to getting a new ibook only to upgrade to a powerbook

hempcamp · Mar 18, 2003, 03:59 AM

I thought about "jumping up" to the 12" powerbook, but after looking at it and testing out the powerbook in Apple Soho I wasn't too impressed. Honestly, for regular stuff, it didn't act any faster than my iBook, and it seemed less rigid and durable.

--Chris
iBook 700

suprz's ghost · Mar 18, 2003, 08:02 AM

I bought my ibook because of the good deal and it will be my first real laptop (other laptop is a PB1400) and i wanted to get used to having a laptop and eventually getting a 12in powerbook (but i'll wait for the next revision, i dont buy rev A's)

xtal · Mar 18, 2003, 10:49 AM

Originally posted by hempcamp:
I thought about "jumping up" to the 12" powerbook, but after looking at it and testing out the powerbook in Apple Soho I wasn't too impressed. Honestly, for regular stuff, it didn't act any faster than my iBook, and it seemed less rigid and durable.

Same here. I'm very happy with my iBook.

If I had the option of the 12" Powerbook when I bought my iBook, and I knew what I know now (about both), I would still buy the iBook and save the cash. Plus Applecare is much cheaper for iBooks than for Powerbooks (perhaps signaling the durability of each machine?)

AuPhalanx · Mar 26, 2003, 09:59 AM

Before I purchased Gatsby, my 800-MHz iBook, I looked at the PowerBooks, specifically the 12". (I was toying with getting the TiBook, but the cost was out of my range.) For what I do, most people were telling me to get the PowerBook. I publish books and would be using PhotoShop and other Adobe applications, an accounting program, Internet... I would be beating the Hell out of my machine!

When I compared the two side-by-side, of course the PowerBook looked nicer and had a few things going for it, but the iBook won. Why? Cost, form factor, ruggedness, and the few "extras" on the PB are things that I will not use.

I know that this does not address your question specifically, but I hope that I can redeem myself here: In the future I do plan to get a 15" PB with all the trimmings. The main reason: as a desktop replacement that I can use as a sometimes portable. I would then keep my iBook as the "true" portable. Whereas the PBs have the power and brawn of a good desktop, the iBook's ruggedness cannot be matched. And it's performance is good enough for me--one or two seconds on a benchmark test does not cause my heart to skip a beat.

I'll be enjoying my iBook even when I get a PB and an iMac and an iPod and an iTransporter...

Have fun... Tony

audvidsvs · Mar 26, 2003, 10:16 AM

I bought an Ibook at first as I tried to decide whether to try a "Switch" or not. I really liked the Ibook and then I got a chance to play around with a 15" Ti.

The screen was the biggest factor for me. My eyes are getting worse and it made a huge difference and just feels so much bigger. Unfortunatly the whole machine also feels a lot bigger and seems less rugged. I also use a Panasonic Toughbook windows machine which feels indestructable so I have to be careful with the bigger more fragile Ti.
I also like having the PC card slot and with a gig of ram and a new 40 gig drive it feels a lot faster than the Ibook(600mhz vs 667DVI).

I can not say enough though about the bigger question for me of the switch.
Although I still need windows for my work I am trying to migrate to Virtual PC as much as possible. It works just OK. Faster than I thought but still slow. I also am still trying to understand how to run and optimize some windows stuff on it. I am sure there is some degree of Pilot Error going on here. My instint is still to make it all harder and less obvious than it really is(The Microsoft Way) but Time takes Time as they say.

Thats my experience
Ed

entiZ · Mar 26, 2003, 04:04 PM

You might get more information from the powerbook forum

stew · Mar 26, 2003, 05:11 PM

I would upgrade to a 15" Powerbook if they weren't so expensive. 1280 pixels, DVI, a G4 and audio input would make a difference for me.

wataru · Mar 26, 2003, 05:57 PM

Originally posted by Athens:
i was refering to getting a new ibook only to upgrade to a powerbook

I know, but if you're comparing the two, I thought you might want to hear about someone who's done the opposite.

WizOSX · Mar 27, 2003, 12:23 AM

Originally posted by Wataru
I sold my rev. B PowerBook G4 for a new 800MHz iBook. What would you call that? The performance feels about the same, so maybe it's a "sidegrade."

I did just about the same thing except I went from Ti550 to 700mhz iBook (a new sealed box discontinued combo drive model). The swap gave me about $300 to put toward a new digital camera. And I now have a combo drive instead of DVD only (bought the Ti a little too early). Overall the iBook feels slightly faster (obviously I don't use Photoshop). What most people would call a "downgrade" has for me been an upgrade--totally quiet, rugged, inexpensive machine that I don't have to worry about. Great!

BrunoBruin · Mar 28, 2003, 02:07 PM

I used a 500MHz iBook for a year before selling it on and buying a PowerBook. The iBook worked well for its intended use - light word processing, Web, watching DVDs on airplanes. But I really needed something faster and a bigger screen as I had a lot of work that I was taking home. I knew someone with a then-current 667MHz Ti and it was LOUD and HOT. I said I'd wait until Apple fixed those issues, and for good measure threw in DVI-out so I could use the 17-inch display from my Cube if I wanted more room. Curse them, they went right ahead and did just that, so I felt obligated to buy.

I do a LOT of work (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop) on my PowerBook that I wouldn't have been able to do on the iBook; I would have had to use my Cube instead. (If for no other reason than hard disk space; I just finished a project that consumes about 6GB, and my iBook only had the 10GB drive!) The PowerBook has really become the main computer I use away from work. So I'm very happy I made the switch.

But today's iBooks are miles beyond the model I had - better processors, faster bus, vastly improved GPU.

dampeoples · Mar 28, 2003, 02:19 PM

I'm looking to upgrade this 500MHz iBook to the 800MHz model, while the PB's are nice, I don't think I need even the power that the 800MHz provides for what I use this for, although the 800MHz will be faster than my iMac

andretan · Mar 28, 2003, 05:32 PM

I would love to upgrade to the 12.1" AluBook IF I had the $$$ to.

It's smaller than my current 700MHz iceBook, and has a G4, and has...... more VRAM than my current iBook T_T
Oh yah, not to mention the use of Dual displays (although it isn't well implemented like the bigger PBs).

dUbio · Mar 29, 2003, 06:00 AM

Got a brand new iBook 12" this week, and i love it. But when a rev B or C PB 12" comes out with L3 cache DVI and some other stuf i'm going to trade my iBook in for a PB 12"

appledude83 · Mar 29, 2003, 04:52 PM

I've had my iBook 800mhz since December and I like it alot. The new 12 inch powerbook is tempting but not enough of an improvement to warrant the price to upgrade for me.

Scooterboy · Mar 29, 2003, 09:35 PM

I've had my iBook 600 since November 2001 and haven't been tempted enough to upgrade to the 12" PowerBook. I'm waiting to see the next iBook, and will then decide iBook vs. PowerBook.