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View Full Version : 12" screen size good?


machick
2006-01-15, 19:17
I did a search, but didn't find this sort of topic.

I was just wondering if anyone has had any frustrations with the 12" screen size in either the iBook or the PowerBook. As I posted in my other thread, I'm probably going to purchase an iBook within the next week or so and was looking to purchase the 12" because it's the cheapest. Just wanted to know if anyone has had any visually-related problems with it being too small to either word process or surf the internet. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

ghoti
2006-01-15, 19:27
I'm happy with it. My 12" PB has been my only home computer for the last six months, and I spend quite a bit of time with it (surfing the web, doing research, Photoshop). I got the small one mainly for portability reasons, and it's a good trade-off, IMHO. I have a larger screen in the office, though, so I don't use it all day - that may make a difference.

pilot1129
2006-01-15, 19:29
absolutely perfect size. i travel with it all the time. easy to toss in a backpack when i ride my ducati around the DC beltway. run dreamweaver off of it, play a little blasterball, its light and absolutely perfect as far as i am concerned.

i regret that apple may be cutting the 12" powerbook from its line up :(

chipz
2006-01-15, 19:42
The 12" PB I use is wonderful. I have no problem with the 12" size. It travels with me everywhere with ease. I think it will fit your needs very well.

Luca
2006-01-15, 19:45
It's okay, and the physical size is certainly nice... but the resolution is pretty bad. I wish Apple would stick a 12" or 13" widescreen on there with a 1280x800 resolution. 1024x768 is very 20th-century, and it feels cramped. Mind you, if you have OS X, you can make good use of even a 1024x768 screen by using Exposé, but I still can't stand anything 1024x768 or lower.

ghoti
2006-01-15, 19:47
I think most iBooks and PowerBooks now come with OSX, Luca. ;)

Dorian Gray
2006-01-15, 19:52
It's the perfect size. Enough resolution for almost any task (Luca's fussiness notwithstanding), and the iBook's footprint is about the same as a sheet of A4 paper, so it fits in bags that are designed for paper folders, etc. My 12-inch iBook fits snugly in a bag that is reasonable to carry around half the day. The increase in size to 14 and 15 inch models is significant because they don't fit nicely in anything made for typical student or business use.

I would be really surprised if Apple didn't replace the 12-inch PowerBook with an equivalent notebook. The model is almost perfect: a no-compromise computer in a tiny package. By far the most desirable PowerBook for me and many others (though overly expensive at the moment).

Luca
2006-01-15, 19:59
Well, what I was getting at is that a 1024x768 screen is more useful on a PowerBook than on a PC laptop, which doesn't have Exposé. Nearly all PC notebooks have widescreen displays, even the super-compact models. So it kind of sucks that Apple, the pioneer of the widescreen notebook, still only has three widescreen notebooks, the cheapest one of which still costs an incredible $2000. The 12" PowerBook and even the iBooks should have 12-14" widescreens with the 1280x800 resolution. But at least OS X lets you use 1024x768 fairly effectively.

Dorian Gray
2006-01-15, 20:17
Yeah, I am addicted to Exposé so I know what you mean. I think Apple's weird hang-up with going beyond [the seemingly arbitrary limit of] 100 dpi for the display is what has held back the machines for the last year or two. I'd be happy to have menu text a bit on the small side (while we wait for OS X's mythical resolution-independence) if it meant a better resolution! That said, nearly every casual computer-user I know uses ridiculously low resolutions if they have the option, even on LCD displays. So maybe Apple has struck a sensible balance for their overall market. The 1920x1200 15-inch screens you can spec on some Dell laptops is too far in the other direction.

machick
2006-01-15, 20:37
Cool, thanks for sharing everyone. 12" seems like the perfect size for portability, expecially carrying it around campus. I'm glad that I can still get a good screen in such a small package.

atomicbartbeans
2006-01-15, 20:54
I'll echo the others' praise for the 12" form factor. My 12" iBook G4 has been my only computer for over a year now, and I've never felt cramped or limited by 1024x768. 12" is really a happy medium between usability and portability... and my iBook's screen is so crisp and vivid compared to most PC laptops I've used.

BarracksSi
2006-01-15, 21:11
As others have said, Exposé has made screen size almost a non-issue for me. Seriously, it's so intuitive & useful that I can't stand using a computer that doesn't have it.

The 12" size is also perfect for portability, going anywhere that spiral-bound notebooks (remember, the paper kind) can go.

If you have a separate external display at home, run Screen Spanning Doctor so that you can span across both displays instead of simply mirroring the iBook's display on the external.

Luca
2006-01-15, 21:44
You should really get the iBook over the PowerBook, though. It's a much better value, especially with the MacBook Pro around lowering the value of the G4 PowerBooks.

The concern I noted earlier is really just me expressing my disappointment that even though Apple introduced the concept of the widescreen notebook, they just haven't promoted it nearly enough. It's too bad that even five years after the original PowerBook G4, there still isn't a widescreen Apple notebook for under $2000, when you can get one for as little as $500 from other companies.

So yeah, it's extremely disappointing to me that Apple doesn't have widescreens on all their notebooks like they should. But the 12" screen isn't really too small. I just can't in good conscience recommend any Apple notebook other than the MacBook Pro or the 12" iBook at the moment.

pilot1129
2006-01-15, 21:57
I just can't in good conscience recommend any Apple notebook other than the MacBook Pro or the 12" iBook at the moment.

well, therein lies your problem.

to be a successful apple representative/salesman, you absolutely have to lose that conscience.

:| come to think of it, thats what you have to do to get just about anywhere :no:

machick
2006-01-15, 22:17
Thanks for the input everybody. Even on the year-and-a-half-old eMac that I acquired this past November, I really like the Expose feature and can see how it would be beneficial on a 12" screen. I had always assumed that smaller somehow = inferior and hard to work with (thanks, in part, to my dad is who thinks "bigger is better"), but I see that 12" is a really good size for me and won't stifle my notetaking or anything.

Again, thanks for the input.

BarracksSi
2006-01-15, 22:21
It's too bad that even five years after the original PowerBook G4, there still isn't a widescreen Apple notebook for under $2000, when you can get one for as little as $500 from other companies.
Looked at another way, a widescreen notebook that's as wide as the 12" iBook (that would be about 11 or 12 inches wide overall) would have an abnormally short screen, and wouldn't be nearly as useful as the 4:3 screen size ratio of the current 12" iBooks and PB's.

The usefulness of the 12" Mac laptops would be hard to sell if there were similarly-priced Macs with flashy widescreen displays. Would you pay the same money for a normal-sized display if you could also get one with a wide display? I probably wouldn't, either.

Still, I'd rather have a small notebook with a "tall" display. I'd accept a widescreen version if its width wasn't any more than the current 12" 'Books. That would also require a higher screen resolution to fit everything well into a shorter space. But, then they keyboard would be either smaller or pushed to the front edge of the laptop, leaving less space for a trackpad and handrests.

Screw it... the 12" is a perfect size. Can't make it smaller without reducing its usefulness. Want a wide screen? Get a bigger laptop.

Franz Josef
2006-01-16, 08:09
Well, what I was getting at is that a 1024x768 screen is more useful on a PowerBook than on a PC laptop, which doesn't have Exposé. I would strongly second Luca's point above - Exposé makes working on a 12" screen very easy indeed. I'm surprised at how rarely I wish for a bigger screen, even for large Excel spreadsheets and the like.