[onlyafterdark]

Hello fellow novians, I am curious in opinions from those who have recently purchased the new Powerbooks. Besides the obvious problems that have occurred with the new powerbooks (ie: trackpad problems) has anyone had any other major problems? What features are you most pleased with / disappointed with?

Right now I have a rev a 12" PB and will be in the market for a new PB in the near future. Dont get me wrong, I love my 12". I think its the perfect laptop for those on the move all the time. However, I am finding that my 12" is starting to show its age and I am getting a little sick of having to use the 12" screen all the time. Things have changed quite a bit since I first got the 12" and I am finding that I am multitasking a lot more and need more screen real-estate.

So the obvious solution would be a larger screen. I went to the university's apple store the other day and looked at the latest revisions of the PBs. The first thing I noticed was how much the PBs have changed since the first few revisions. The 17" and 15" seem to have increased in quality quite a bit, especially the 17". I love the screen on the 17" (it just looks so damn good).

However, the 12" didn't peak my interest as much as it did the first time I saw it. It still looks like a tank and that it can take a beating plus one, but it just isnt as impressive when sitting next to the 15" and 17" as it once was.

The next thing that I fell in love with on the new powerbooks was the trackpad. The models I played with didnt seem slow at all and the new vertical and horizontal scrolling is great. It would definitely make things easier when you dont have a mouse close by.

The fact that the 17" has an optical in/out for audio is also a big bonus. It would allow me to finally get rid of the m-audio sonica theater sound card while still being able to use my logitech z-680 speakers.

Now for me, the 17" wasnt the original choice. I am still taking my PB to the odd class and the 15" really does seem like the perfect balance between portability and performance. But with my edu discount, the price difference is very small between the fully-loaded 15" and the 17".

The obvious comment there is, is the screen and the other small differences in the 17" worth the extra money? In my mind it is because I just wont have the money to buy a good 20" or larger screen to go with the new PB anytime soon (but I am still open to convincing otherwise) and I will be able to get rid of the external sound card.

So all you PB owners out there, how do you feel about your purchase? Any suggestions/comments?

[onlyafterdark]

Wow, I didn't expect this. After that hellishly long PB thread that we had to endure with, no one has any comments on the new PBs?

I guess everyone is caught up with Tiger, powermacs and imacs right now.

[mers]

Originally Posted by onlyafterdark After that hellishly long PB thread that we had to endure with...

Are you referring to my hellishly long PB thread?

But seriously, I had the identical dilemma, given the small edu price difference of the 17" and the loaded 15". I went to an Apple store and played with both of them and picked up both of them, and I couldn't see myself tolerating the bulk of the 17" for a few more inches. So 15" it is.

As for screen real estate, you can pick up 19" CRTs for quite cheap.

[Cecilia76]

Well,

I got my new PB (15", 1.67, 1Gb, 128Mb VRAM, DVD+-R) on 15th of March. What to say? It's almost beautiful.
Till now, no problems at all. I barely noticed the trackpad problem: sometimes the tp stop working and I need to press a little more on it. Anyway I just downloaded the 10.3.9 and they should have addressed this issue.
No other problems: no deax pixel, no backlit problem, everthing seems to work smoothly for the moment.
I really do like it's design: I have also an IBM T42p and I thought it was very sexy but the PB is much more!
Hope I will remain so happy. Hope it helps.

Carmine

[autodata]

How's the fan? I'm considering the 1.67 15"

[donniedarko]

so far so good with my 15". I do mostly audio recording with it and i haven't had any problems. the fan is working just fine not too noisey at all. good luck with your purchase.

[Cecilia76]

Almost always off. I noticed it just twice, but very softly.
It's ok for me.

C.