I figure if the fan or hard drive noise bother me too much I'll just sell it when the new iMacs are released and I shouldn't loose too much on such a new machine (since I qualified for the Edu discount).
Did you see Apple's $200 off an iPod with PowerBook promotion? Even if you don't need an iPod, you could probably make additional money by buying one under the promo and re-selling it.
Hah! Now I've read your whole post. I'm with the people who received their PB from the other factor. I have a weak LCD and quiet HD. HDs can be replaced. LCD cannot
I guess that's true, deanza4now. However, I'm just as unlikely to replace the HDD as I am to replace the LCD. Anyway, I'll stop complaining because I would certainly pick a bright LCD over a silent HDD if the two choices were mutually exclusive (which they coincidentally seems to be).
Well after a weekend away (lucky me) I finally got home to my new 12" PB! I have only played with it for a few hours (am still downloading software updates on my slow internet connection) but I must say that I am very happy and impressed by it. It seems very speedy and contrary to other reports the fan noise is hard to hear at all (definitely unnoticeable over typing noise). The screen seems good. I think I have one stuck pixel (a magenta colour) though it's in the lower right corner and doesn't really bother me. In terms of heat the left palmrest I would describe as warm but not hot and certainly not uncomfortable. I haven't had a chance play around with any games to determine performace but am interested to see how it goes in Quake and Warcraft 3. Overall I'm very happy and glad to have a Mac again (after more than a year without one!) :-)
The heat in the left palmrest is startling to me after 2 weeks of constant use. I never used the rev.A 12", but I'm surprised that this is supposed to be significantly cooler. I guess the thin skin on the human wrist and the constant blood flow is like liquid cooling for your powerbook.
So how's the real world battery life on the 12" PowerBook? I've had the 15" AlBook, but the battery life was just terrible that I returned it to Apple. I was only getting about 2.5 hours with real usage (LCD at least at half, WiFi on and normal surfing, etc.) I am hoping the 12" would last a bit longer as I need another Mac Portable? I'm afraid Centrino has spoiled me (in terms of battery life).
I'm not sure if it's a new feature in the latest revision of PBs but I think the processor can scale frequency depending on load (can someone confirm this?) Anyway, the quote from the Apple help files is "Some models [latest PowerBooks] support the Automatic setting, which allows your computer to switch rapidly back and forth between the Highest and Reduced settings in order to optimize energy use, depending on how much work the processor is doing." I've only had my PB for about a month and I haven't really timed it but I'm pretty sure you get at least 3.5-4 hours with low load usage like word processing and 2.5-3 with more intensive usage like importing music/burning CDs/watching a DVD at full screen brightness. I just unplugged and it estimates 4:09 remaining, with screen brightness set to maximum. Turning the screen brightness to half maximum my battery life remaining increases to 4:49 and at quarter brightness it increases to over 5 hours, thereby satisfying Apple's claim on up to five hour battery life. This brightness setting is really quite unpleasant though, you would need at least 50% brightness to work pleasently in a dimly lit room and full brightness in a bright room or outdoors. Hope this answers the question.
Quote:
Originally posted by Patchouli
So how's the real world battery life on the 12" PowerBook? I've had the 15" AlBook, but the battery life was just terrible that I returned it to Apple. I was only getting about 2.5 hours with real usage (LCD at least at half, WiFi on and normal surfing, etc.) I am hoping the 12" would last a bit longer as I need another Mac Portable? I'm afraid Centrino has spoiled me (in terms of battery life).
In terms of the Superdrive, mine shipped with a Matshita DVD-R UJ-825. Interestingly, Disc Utility says that its capabilities are: CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW.
Unfortunately, for some reason it occasionally doesn't recognise a CD that I want to import into iTunes. These are real, official/bought CDs with little or no marks/scuffing. It just doesn't seem to like the way the data was recorded and either spits it out straight away or keeps deliberating, trying to figure it out for ages until you press the eject key. I had one CD (this was an official promotional CD) where it had no problem recognising the number of tracks on it, but as soon as I tried to import into iTunes it just wouldn't work and I eventually had to Force Quit iTunes before ejecting the disc. I'm actually a little pissed off because it wouldn't recognise the first two of my flatmate's CDs that I tried to import. Has anyone else had problems with the optical drive in their Powerbooks recognising audio CDs?
Comments
Originally posted by s.metcalf
I figure if the fan or hard drive noise bother me too much I'll just sell it when the new iMacs are released and I shouldn't loose too much on such a new machine (since I qualified for the Edu discount).
Did you see Apple's $200 off an iPod with PowerBook promotion? Even if you don't need an iPod, you could probably make additional money by buying one under the promo and re-selling it.
Escher
Originally posted by deanza4now
Hah! Now I've read your whole post. I'm with the people who received their PB from the other factor. I have a weak LCD and quiet HD. HDs can be replaced. LCD cannot
I guess that's true, deanza4now. However, I'm just as unlikely to replace the HDD as I am to replace the LCD. Anyway, I'll stop complaining because I would certainly pick a bright LCD over a silent HDD if the two choices were mutually exclusive (which they coincidentally seems to be).
Escher
Originally posted by Patchouli
So how's the real world battery life on the 12" PowerBook? I've had the 15" AlBook, but the battery life was just terrible that I returned it to Apple. I was only getting about 2.5 hours with real usage (LCD at least at half, WiFi on and normal surfing, etc.) I am hoping the 12" would last a bit longer as I need another Mac Portable? I'm afraid Centrino has spoiled me (in terms of battery life).
In terms of the Superdrive, mine shipped with a Matshita DVD-R UJ-825. Interestingly, Disc Utility says that its capabilities are: CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW.
Unfortunately, for some reason it occasionally doesn't recognise a CD that I want to import into iTunes. These are real, official/bought CDs with little or no marks/scuffing. It just doesn't seem to like the way the data was recorded and either spits it out straight away or keeps deliberating, trying to figure it out for ages until you press the eject key. I had one CD (this was an official promotional CD) where it had no problem recognising the number of tracks on it, but as soon as I tried to import into iTunes it just wouldn't work and I eventually had to Force Quit iTunes before ejecting the disc. I'm actually a little pissed off because it wouldn't recognise the first two of my flatmate's CDs that I tried to import. Has anyone else had problems with the optical drive in their Powerbooks recognising audio CDs?