[TheWart]

I am thinking of ditching my windows desktop in favor of a 12" ibook or pb, but I have a quick question.

Since I do not think I could live with a 12" screen all the time (cant afford 14 or 15...also not portable enough), I was thinking of maybe picking up a cheap 17" lcd. That leads me to two questions: does it wear the notebook down if I left it on for most of the time I am in my room? I usually leave my desktop on 24/7, but my friend had a dell HD which died cause he left his lappy ontoo long. I would shut it down at night, etc, but would at least 5-6 hours of continuous use (plugged into power adapter) pretty much every day wear it out quickly?

Also, can either the ibook or pb out put to an lcd at a higher res than 1024? I ask, cause most 17" lcds have a native res of 1280, and they sometimes look crappy when not running at the native res.

Thanks a lot, and awesome site btw....makes me want a mac.

[torifile]

1) It's no problem at all to have your computer on all the time. My 12" is up probably about 12-16 hours a day.

2) Yes, the powerbooks and ibooks can run an external display at a much higher resolution than the built-in 1024*768. 1920*whatever is doable with my 12" powerbook. I'm not sure what the ibook can do, but it's definitely higher than the 1280 of a 17" display.

[Brad]

I used to think I could never live with a 12" screen. I was "spoiled" by using a big 19" display for years before I got my 12" PowerBook last summer. I quickly realized, though, that the 1024*768 screen really isn't that bad at all. Exposé is a godsend for window management and will take care of most of your reservations once you get used to it.

My 12" PowerBook has become my full time machine. I originally only wanted it for the road, but I've found myself using it ten times more than my "clunky" old PowerMac tower.

It's rare that I ever hook up my PB to my big desktop display. The only times I do are when I'm doing graphics work or when I'm working on a big project that actually requires me to be looking at two or three or four documents simultaneously.

Originally Posted by TheWart Also, can either the ibook or pb out put to an lcd at a higher res than 1024? I ask, cause most 17" lcds have a native res of 1280, and they sometimes look crappy when not running at the native res.

The *first* place you should always go if you have general technical specification questions like this is the product's page on apple.com. More than likely, your answer is right there. In this case...

http://www.apple.com/powerbook/specs.html

NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 graphics processor with AGP 4X support and 64MB of DDR SDRAM video memory (12-inch models) Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports up to 1024 x 768 pixels on the built-in display and up to 2048 x 1536 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors

[TheWart]

Thanks for the quick responses.

hmm, it is funny that you say that about a 12" screen being enough, cause I have two friends here who say the same thing (one has a 12" ibook, the other a powerbook). I suppose I could always get it, and if it works out, then I wont have to spend the extra $$ on an external display.

Thanks for the info/tips!

[theyoda3]

You could also look at any local apple stores for the older version of the 15" powerbook, the 1.33 ghz 15" or 1.5ghz 15", you can probably get a good discount on them. There isn't a lot of difference between the last model and the new model. The processor may be a little slower but the fsb is the same, and it has a 64mb video card i think instead of 128, and maybe a slower hard drive, and no two finger scroll, but that doesn't seem to be working so well, and i guess there is the fall deector, but if your notebook is asleep it makes no difference, plus how far does it have to fall to dectect the fall and stop the hard drive in time? I guess if you are willing to make a little sacrifice and get the older model and buy 3rd party ram like Crucial or something then you might be able to afford a 15". I bought the older ersion 12" PB recently and i love it, I'm glad i got it and not the newer one. Also, the 12" screen is pretty big. I've hooked mine up to an external monitor and its fun to do, but i never actually use both screens. I still prefer the 12" screen over the external monitor.

[kretara]

I have a 12" PB and I love it.
I spend much of my day writing code and the 12" is OK at that (esp since I installed Desktop Manager -- God, how did I live without this?) but the screen gets cluttered very quickly. I usually have 2 BBedit windows, 1-3 browsers and 2 terminal windows open at once.
What I really love about the 12" is that it is so light and easy to take anywhere. I have an old Ti 500 (15") and this thing is a monster to carry for long.