newbie need help deciding

jmagic

i am wanting to get a new laptop, and have decided to go with apple.



i have narrowed it down to:

12.1 ibook combo

14.1 ibook

12.1 pb



these are the only ones in my price range

i really like the pb, but is it worth the extra money



i see very little mentioned about the 14.1 ibook, why is this?



is there any place that sells apple just a little but cheaper, or are prices standard? (cheapest i've found is through apple education)



anybody have experience with apple warranty or compusa's warranty? worth buying?



thanks in advance

jonathan

jayny

Considering the ibooks have recently been udgraded I would choose an ibook over the 12 inch powerbook. They are a much better value right now than the powerbook.



While the prices will be standard everwhere many internet/catalog

retailers such as macwarehouse, macmall, and maczone will offer freebies with computer purchases.



As with warranties they are generally in the sellers favor, but with a portable computer i may be more inclined to purchase one.

der kopf

I don't really know why the 14" ibook is so un-newsworthy. I have one, and I do like it quite a bit. I could never go with a 12". For one thing, my eyes tend to disagree already with the size of this screen, so I can only imagine what it'd be with a 12". People will claim small size and portability, but I have never had any problems with either. I can tote my ibook around with one hand perfectly, plus I have screen that's not killing my eyes. So, unless you plan on usng the laptop only now and then, I'd go with the 14" (except maybe if you plan to hook it up to an external screen). Many will disagree though. As for the powerbook, I do think it's a better computer by some distance. Is it worth the price, however? Again, the small screen will prevent me from ever buying one.

You should know that ibooks aren't the fastest of computers. I have a 600 Mhz ibook that was sold new in spring 2002, and already, I have issues with its slowness. I am, however, a heavy (power?!) user, so it could be me. AND the newer ibooks have plenty of tweaks to make them run smoother (notably a better video card, and a newer processor).



In general, there are many, many points on which you could decide for one or the other. You'll have to figure out what points are most important for you.

drumbug1

ah-hem....



(purchasing advise goes in general discussion)

fred_lj

I would also recommend the 14" iBook over your other two possibilities. If it's going to be your main computer, you'll appreciate the bigger size even though it's the same res. as 12" screen. And it's based on a proven platform; pretty much the Pismo incarnate with an IBM proc inside.



So it depends if this is intended to be your primary machine or not. And with the CompUSA warranty -- if it's cheaper than Apple's and has equal or greater coverage terms, then go for it, especially if screen breakage coverage is included.

mattyj

Splash ou for the PB 12" You know you want to.



Honestly, a lot more street cred, and better build than the iBook.

leonis

The 14" iBook is too bulky and heavy

ghost_user_name

Quote:

Originally posted by drumbug1

(purchasing advise goes in general discussion)

Yup.



Moving now.

towel

Quote:

Originally posted by Leonis

The 14" iBook is too bulky and heavy

And remember that it has the same number of pixels, just each one's bigger. IMO the 14" is only worth the extra money if you have really bad eyes. And even then you might want to get a 12" and invest the few hundred dollars you save in a new pair of contacts. That way the whole world is easier to look at.

jc

12.1 PB



Get the powerbook



G4 is the way to go if you can. Plus you will appreciate the many new nicities that the aluminium case brings

jmagic

ok, so now i have it narrowed down to the 12.1 ibook or 12.1 pb



i found out that since i am a student, i can sign up and get a student developer discount from apple online. $99 fee to enroll, but discounts make it worthwhile.



the price for a 12.1 ibook 900 combo dropped from 1299 to 1105



the price for 12.1 pb dropped fron 1799 to 1439



does apple online charge tax (TX)?



this brings total prices to 1205 vs 1539



i heard that it is essential to max out ram on the ibook which adds another $100 or so, does the pb need to have a ram increase, or is the 256 adequate? (checking additional costs to find final price)



i hear talk abou the ibook being a better buy, but regardless of value, the pb is definitely a better machine, correct?



With prices like this, what do you guys think that I should go with?

matsu

Ok, here's how it is with the 12 and 14. Most iBook owners want a bigger screen, Apple knows this so they charge 300 more for it. Unfortunately for Apple, most iBook owners don't want it enough to pay 300 more for a screen they really should be able to get at the 999-1299 price points. Eventually, Apple will offer properly priced 14" consumer books, but probably not untill next year.



Two, if you have access to an edu discount, go with the PB12 and don't think about it twice. The discount is much more dramatic. Mine was 500 CAN less than list. The same iBook was only 300 CAN less. These things change though, check it out. The PB still cost more, but not so much more.



It all depends on what you plan to do with the book and how long you want to keep it. G3's are horribly old, and of late the Sahara seems to produce all the heat and battery drain of the SOI G4 despite being a smaller process chip. Add that it lacks altivec, and you basically have all the short comings of the PPC minus the one redeeming value of the technology to date. G4's aren't setting any desktop speed records, but they're still competitive in the mobile market, and they like all of Apple's iApps better, and love photoshop in a way that gives G3's all wet dreams. You can hack the iBook to allow display spanning just like the powerbook, but you never know when something unofficial like that will cease working with the latest updates from apple, or if it might cause problems with some other app down the line. The Powerbook supports this out of the box and it works beautifully. Just plug in the external monitor and the PB12 detects it, you set a resolution for it and your ready to go. When you disconnect and plug in again, it remembers your settings. Perfect.



I say get the PB, but I'm a bit biased. The G3 iBook is also a nice little machine, I'd consider it as a second machine, but not as a main machine.



Buy RAM, not from Apple.

matsu

PS, I still have the standard 256, and it doesn't give problems when single tasking. Most of the time I'm either surfing, or using office, or VPC plus Access. The last of these could use more RAM. Still trying to find a digital camera I can be happy with, and then I'll be into PS7, and will probably need more RAM.

hobbes

Quote:

Originally posted by jmagic

ok, so now i have it narrowed down to the 12.1 ibook or 12.1 pb

[snip]



i hear talk abou the ibook being a better buy, but regardless of value, the pb is definitely a better machine, correct?



With prices like this, what do you guys think that I should go with?

Because of the G4, that's right, the PB" 12 is a better machine.

OS X is optimized for the G4, so there'll always be a noticable difference.



If you're not a heavy power user, though, I've found that the iBook's decent video card and Mac OS X, which utlilizes the card using a technology called Quartz Extreme, makes the iBook a stronger contender than it used to be.



They're both great laptops. If you're ready to pay the extra $320 for the G4, a better keyboard, Bluetooth, a slightly smaller and lighter model, the slot-loading drive, and so on, go for it. One thing to note: the iBook, being a "consumer" model, comes with AppleWorks, Apple's version of MS Works, which can read Word documents; the PowerBook does not.



Definitely buy RAM from a third-party (e.g. http://dealram.com/) instead of Apple.