Powerbook buying advice

fashnnuggt · March 18, 2004 2:48PM

My name's Emmy and I'm looking into getting a Powerbook, either 12" or 15". The first question I have is about battery life, because the reviews say it's behind industry standards. Have you had problems with short battery life? The second is how functional a 12" screen is. For college students or business people, is 12" large enough for an everyday computer?

mcq · March 18, 2004 2:56PM

Hi Emmy,

I think the 15" has had lower battery life than usual PowerBooks, around 2-2.5 hours I think people usually report.

As for the 12" PB, I get 3-4 hours which is pretty good for a laptop. It's a great size for a college student, and has enough screen space for most applications. You can always hook it up to an external monitor while at home to get more screen space if needed as well.

cam'ron · March 18, 2004 4:52PM

ive seen the 12 inch screen and its not a bad size and u probably get used to it as well. unless u plan on doing a lot of design work on it then its good to go. also, its an awesome size for transportation. if its meant more for taking places definitely go for the 12 inch

quagmire · March 18, 2004 9:31PM

first WAit till PB G5 come out. Then get 12 inch. The battery life is awsome. Only one bad thing. Since the 12 inch is so small the heat from Processer or where ever is more confined and starts to warp the aluminium case. But its not a big problem. The case won't pell off. the biggest the warpin will happen is about 1 cm of of its original positon. So get the 12 inch. Don't forget education discount. Even if your not a student apple won't track you down to see if your a student.

splinemodel · March 19, 2004 1:39AM

My Titanium 1Ghz gets abouot 4 hours of constant normal use. My sister's Aluminum 1Ghz seems to get about the same time, though I haven't really put it through much testing. Both are 15 inchers.

dmband0026 · March 19, 2004 2:40AM

Quote:

Originally posted by quagmire

first WAit till PB G5 come out. Then get 12 inch. The battery life is awsome. Only one bad thing. Since the 12 inch is so small the heat from Processer or where ever is more confined and starts to warp the aluminium case. But its not a big problem. The case won't pell off. the biggest the warpin will happen is about 1 cm of of its original positon. So get the 12 inch. Don't forget education discount. Even if your not a student apple won't track you down to see if your a student.

DO NOT ADVOCATE CRAP LIKE THIS!!! It's unbelievable that even after your "How to shutdown Microsoft" thread was locked you still post crap like this. If you aren't a student, don't cheat the system. You are abusing it for those of us who actually need it. Those of us who are paying our own way through school and can't exactly afford the prices that Apple charges. Again, I know that you are a student, but for you to say that it is okay for just anyone, regardless of whether they are a student or not, to take advantage of the discounts offered by Apple is just plain stupid.

The case will not warp due to heat, the processor doesn't get anywhere near the temperature required to soften aluminum. Learn your facts before you post.

And learn how to type, it's painful to read your posts. Sloppy grammar, sloppy spelling, incorrect punctuation, and stupid ideas.

jwri004 · March 19, 2004 3:25AM

Emmy

Sorry your thread has been hijacked by the *mire. If you look around a bit he is nothing more than a troll who we hope will leave.

As far as your PB concerns I have a 15" PB and love it. As far as battery life I can get about 2-2.5 hours when I am unplugged with full screen brightness. If you plan to play CD's or use apps that are processor intensive then this reduces your available time quickly. If I manage my power consumption I can get about 3.5 hours.

If you are really worried about the length of time you have you can get a second battery to increase your usage life.

One this I would suggest is to go into a store and have a play with the machine. Try and use apps that you think you will use. That way you might get a feeling about the size of the screen.

Also if you can max out the RAM. OSX is RAM hungry, and 512 is probably the minimum these days for acceptable performance.

luca · March 19, 2004 8:30AM

Some more advice, Emmy. If possible, go for a refurbished machine, or wait until the next revision. It'll be a long time before PowerBooks get G5s, so don't bother waiting (Quagmire is full of shit). Apple's refurbished deals are great, and you'll get a like-new machine with the same warranty as a brand new one for hundreds of dollars less. Also, if possible (unfortunately you can't do this with refurbs), get the biggest hard drive available. On a 1.25 GHz PowerBook G4, it comes with an 80 GB hard drive standard, which is the largest one available. On a 12", though, the stock hard drive is a small 40 GB, so I'd suggest bumping it up to an 80 GB right off the bat. It's very difficult to replace the hard drives yourself, so just go for the biggest one right from the beginning.

Make sure you calculate everything out before buying. Compare the cost of a refurb (including sales tax, if your state has it) to the cost of a brand new machine (including sales tax and an educational discount if available). Also, look at various retailers like CDW - they usually sell their computers without charging sales tax, so you could save some money that way.

tacojohn · March 19, 2004 9:39AM

Hey- I just got a new 1.25 15" refurb off of apples site- it came yesterday! Its only my second mac- upgrading from a 12" iBook 500MHz G3 (quite a jump).

It was cheap (for what it is) $1999- a great deal! It looks totally brand-new from what I can tell. Having a smaller iBook I have a feeling that I'm not going to mind the extra 2-3 inches and 1 pound (I work in photoshop, dreamweaver, flash, director, and stating to get into Maya) so I needed the extra screen space.

Here is a thread with a gallery of my new machine and stuff...

Just got a new mac!!!!

Get the 15".

jubelum · March 19, 2004 10:08AM

And just to further claify things... and as discussed in other threads... the heat from the laptop's processor is nowhere near hot enough to soften/melt/vaporize aluminum like shagmire says. His theories and "facts" continue to become more bizarre.

As far as battery life, I have an 867 PowerBook, and it does real well unless I am running a firewire-bus powered device. Guess those things are hungry.

Screen size is personal preference... depends on how much real estate you need. If you are doing things with lots of windows you need to see at once, you'll see the extra $$ is worth it for the 15". If you are doing Word/Mail/Safari, then I'd say 12" if you like the form factor.

Just my .02.

Powerbook buying advice

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