JGotham
2005-02-03, 04:20
Hello AN Members, I'm not a switcher yet, but I hope to be in the next few weeks!
Barring all the flaming, whining, etc. abou tthe new powerbook update, to me, its a good thing because I want to switch and I need a laptop now, and what appears to be the last revision of the powerbook before another "step" makes me feel like its a bit more solid. Anyway onto the question:
I'm a graphic designer just starting out of school, and I need to learn the OSX operating system and do real graphics and web dev work on this laptop. I'm wrestling between the 12" powerbook and the 15". My current situation is that I will be using this laptop very much on the go, and just starting out, I've decided to travel via bicycle instead of car. I plan on biking 3-6 miles a day to work, depending on the job, and want to be able to bring the laptop with me every day. Needless to say, battery life is important to me at these times. Most of the work I do will be in Flash, photoshop, illustrator/freehand. I plan on getting around 1GB memory on the machine I end up getting, I'm just having trouble deciding between the two.
The 12" would seem to be the best bet for portability, but I'm wondering if I will be able to competantly do my work on it. Flash is a bit crunched feeling on my current monitor res of 1280x1024, I don't know if I will be able to work well with a 12" res, but the 15" res doesn't seem much better in that regard. The graphics card worries me a little, but not much since I don't do video or 3d rendering (yet).
15" seems great, only its more expensive, and bigger. I can probably do my work on the powerbook sufficiently on the 15", but will I regret having the screen while biking that far? Also, battery life on the 15" seems to be much less than the 12" (my friend seems to only get 2.5 hrs at best), will that be another problem? Otherwise, features are great.
What would you all advise? I'm almost positive that switching will be great, either way, but what should I go with? I like the idea of a 12" now, having a super portable, and then when I become a more employed designer and a bigger machead, I can keep the 12" for portability and have an additional powermac tower or 15" powerbook that is the next revolutionary step for laptops that will be able to handle anything. If it doesn't go smoothly though, I'll have a 12" portable that I really cant do anything with on the go, and I'll just be waiting for another mac to come around. The 12" seems great, but it definitley has its downsides and doesn't get as much of a boost from this last update as the larger models. The 15" seems to have all the features, but would I be better off with a super-portable when I will want one in the future for light work on the go and I get another apple machine that has newer hardware? Will the battery life be able to handle the long days as well as the 12"?
I'm looking at a future setup of 4 machines: 1 PC tower, 1 ultra-portable laptop, 1 bomber laptop to handle work on more extensive trips, 1 powermac tower. Is this all completely ridiculous?
What do I do?!? Please help me decide!
Barring all the flaming, whining, etc. abou tthe new powerbook update, to me, its a good thing because I want to switch and I need a laptop now, and what appears to be the last revision of the powerbook before another "step" makes me feel like its a bit more solid. Anyway onto the question:
I'm a graphic designer just starting out of school, and I need to learn the OSX operating system and do real graphics and web dev work on this laptop. I'm wrestling between the 12" powerbook and the 15". My current situation is that I will be using this laptop very much on the go, and just starting out, I've decided to travel via bicycle instead of car. I plan on biking 3-6 miles a day to work, depending on the job, and want to be able to bring the laptop with me every day. Needless to say, battery life is important to me at these times. Most of the work I do will be in Flash, photoshop, illustrator/freehand. I plan on getting around 1GB memory on the machine I end up getting, I'm just having trouble deciding between the two.
The 12" would seem to be the best bet for portability, but I'm wondering if I will be able to competantly do my work on it. Flash is a bit crunched feeling on my current monitor res of 1280x1024, I don't know if I will be able to work well with a 12" res, but the 15" res doesn't seem much better in that regard. The graphics card worries me a little, but not much since I don't do video or 3d rendering (yet).
15" seems great, only its more expensive, and bigger. I can probably do my work on the powerbook sufficiently on the 15", but will I regret having the screen while biking that far? Also, battery life on the 15" seems to be much less than the 12" (my friend seems to only get 2.5 hrs at best), will that be another problem? Otherwise, features are great.
What would you all advise? I'm almost positive that switching will be great, either way, but what should I go with? I like the idea of a 12" now, having a super portable, and then when I become a more employed designer and a bigger machead, I can keep the 12" for portability and have an additional powermac tower or 15" powerbook that is the next revolutionary step for laptops that will be able to handle anything. If it doesn't go smoothly though, I'll have a 12" portable that I really cant do anything with on the go, and I'll just be waiting for another mac to come around. The 12" seems great, but it definitley has its downsides and doesn't get as much of a boost from this last update as the larger models. The 15" seems to have all the features, but would I be better off with a super-portable when I will want one in the future for light work on the go and I get another apple machine that has newer hardware? Will the battery life be able to handle the long days as well as the 12"?
I'm looking at a future setup of 4 machines: 1 PC tower, 1 ultra-portable laptop, 1 bomber laptop to handle work on more extensive trips, 1 powermac tower. Is this all completely ridiculous?
What do I do?!? Please help me decide!