help me with screen size 12" or 14"

Hi All,

I am new to this forum. Thinking of buying an iBook but can not decide between 12” and 14” screen. I like the compact size of 12” iBook but at the same time 14” Screen appeals me. The cost difference is $300. I don’t care the extra 30GB on 14” iBook or the extra 0.133 GHz processing power.

I will iBook for normal day to day applications such as word processing, spreadsheet, accounting, emails and not very keen about other heavy duty applications such as Movie, graphics etc. Overall one session will last not more than 2 hours.

Is that 2” difference is really noticeable? worth spending extra $300?

I am sure this topic must have been discussed in this forum but I would appreciate if someone can provide me some quick feedback.

www.amazon.com is offering the latest 12” ibook(M9623LL/A, 12", 256MB, 1.2 GHz, 30 Gb, Airport extreme card built in) for $849 after Mail in rebate ! (free shipping, no tax)

SuhasG

i picked the 12".

when I had the 12 and 14 side by side I initially picked the 14 because I thought i'd see more. It looked bigger but as I kept going back and forth with the same webpages open, i saw the exact same thing but the 12 just shrunk font and pics a little bit. Resolution is exactly the same so no difference in graphics. It just seems like its showing you more but in reality you can adjust screen size with the 12 to make it almost comparable to the 14.

But for me my budget was $1400. I was all ready to go with the 14 when I started to think of what I would be using the iBook for. I started to realize that the 2" difference is really not that much at all. The 12 actually made things sharper but yes sometimes the font is kinda small on certain pages and if you have poor eyesight you can always enlarge the screen size.

For what you listed the 12" is perfect for you. The best way is to get to the Apple Store and do a side by side...but you will not be sorry with the 12. Geez, $999 is a steal as is (I spent the rest of my budget to upgrade RAM as it is a MUST, and got a D-Link BT adapter, and a laptop bag)! $850!? you got it made! Go for it my man! You will not be sorry!!!!

You're right, it has been discussed many times and it all boils down to personal preference. I chose the 14", the extra real estate does make a difference. If weight isn't an issue get the 14".
12" could = regrets
14" = no regrets

i got the 14" after borrowing the university 12" no regrets, 14" enables better viewing for photoshop, games etc i know if i got the 12" i would always be wondering.

my friend has a 12" powerbook and regrets it he likes the bigger screen size, i carry my ibook around uni allday long and doesnt tire me out .

I got the 12" for the reasons mentioned by code777 above.

For me it wasn't so much a weight consideration, more general size: The 14" is quite bulky and you need a proper bag to carry it in (rucksack or case)
The 12" however I just stick in it's sleeve and can put in my shoulderbag, small rucksack, whatever...

It's about the size of a college notepad and as thick as a textbook so I don't really notice it. The 14" is more like lugging an atlas around. Not so much heavy as bulky and impracticable to take with me every day. (which I need to do)

If size & weight isn't an issue for you, get the 14".
If it is and you don't mind the smaller screen get the 12".

The speed difference is negligible in my opinion...

I'm planning to get an iBook soon as well and I think I will go with the 12inch one. I know that it's small compared to many similarly priced laptops which give you a relatively-monstrous 15inch screen but I like the fact that it's small and light. I can always plug the iBook into my 17inch flat screen monitor at home anyways if I'm in for a long session. Plus, I could use the extra £150 for other things like RAM, USB mouse (as I currently have none) and a wireless router.

I seriously don't mind the 12" screen at all. I actually prefer it over my 17" CRT monitor, because the quality is so high and it's so clear and crisp.

Go for the 12". The extra 2" of space doesn't really make a difference at all. I still play games and watch movies on my 12", and I don't mind it one bit. Plus the portability and money factor is always a bonus.

Go 12"!

It is 12" Finally!

Hi All,

Thanks for all your suggestions and advice. Finally I concluded in favor of 12” iBook and placed my order at www.amazon.com. My final price would be $999 - $150 (MIR) = $849!
Now it is the long long wait. Delivery estimate is about 20th Nov.

Yesterday I went to local Apple store, I tried both 12” and 14” iBooks, compared them side by side, viewing the same page, running the same application etc. By the way the sales kid over there was very helpful to me during all these exercises.

Here are my observations:

1. 12” in small, compact, light weight compared to 14”.
2. I was much comfortable while carrying 12” iBook.
3. 14” display is only slightly bigger and adds no gr8 value; in fact I found the 12” screen crisper then 14”.
4. As ‘mangoSharingan’ said earlier I can always connect a big screen when at home.
5. 14” iBook offer 30Gb extra but I don’t need that much and if needed I can connect an external disk.
6. I don’t thing the extra 0.133 GHz of 14” will make any drastic speed improvement over 12”.
7. The $300 saving can be better utilized to add extra RAM and some add-ons.

So the winner is 12” iBook.

I checked with the sales kid at the store about price match with Amazon, firstly he didn’t believe it, then he called the store manager, she said they can not match any MIR, club discount etc.

I called 1-800-MY APPLE, the sales assistant there first declined to match but on a second thought he asked me to hold on for a while and returned with $100 off making the 12” to $899! After telling this to the sales manager of the Apple store, she offered me a discount 10% on both 12” and 14” iBooks. Making 12”@ $899 and 14” @ $1169!

However Amazon deal is much better as I don’t have to pay sales tax. I am in SanDiego US and tax here is 7.75%, so at the end I decided to go with the Amazon deal.

Once again thanks a lot for the help.

Regards

SuhasG

what!? they agreed to it????? oh man. When I bought my 12" at the Apple Store they said they can not match any "internet" price. They even called someone at Apple about it as I made a small stink about it. Oh man, maybe i should go back and demand a credit!!! and get more goodies for my 12"!!!! They also did go online to look up this offer on Amazon and the manager told me its the old version of the iBook but... who knows. I'm gonna try to go there tomorrow and ask for a credit

suhasG said:

1. 12” in small, compact, light weight compared to 14”.
2. I was much comfortable while carrying 12” iBook.
3. 14” display is only slightly bigger and adds no gr8 value; in fact I found the 12” screen crisper then 14”.
4. As ‘mangoSharingan’ said earlier I can always connect a big screen when at home.
5. 14” iBook offer 30Gb extra but I don’t need that much and if needed I can connect an external disk.
6. I don’t thing the extra 0.133 GHz of 14” will make any drastic speed improvement over 12”.
7. The $300 saving can be better utilized to add extra RAM and some add-ons.

Click to expand...

Those are the same things I have been thinking as well! It's not like I'm going to use my iBook as a mass storage for movies, songs and games, even though it will be my main system. I'd rather buy an external 120GB hard drive or something and plug it in whenever I need to back up something like a video file. Plus. the lighter weight will really help me as I usually have a load of other heavy stuff like textbooks in my bag! And finally, I'm sure with the extra £150 that I will save, the extra bit of RAM should offer my iBook a better performance boost than a measly .133Ghz increase in CPU speed!

Yeah, I went for the 12" for the same reasons, enjoy!

Go for the 12", both 12" and the 14" has 1024x768 as maximum screensize, so I don't really see the reason why you should go for the 14"... maybe just me

the only thing with the 14 is you can see a little more, things are enlarged a little more but that's it. unless you need the 60GB HDD then go with the 12 as speed is not really an issue between the two.

Congrats, enjoy your new toy man!

if you want the larger monitor. might as well just get the biggest, as the screen is the same 1024x768 resolution as the 12 in offers

it's still 1024x768, just um. bigger? =/

suhasG said:

......I checked with the sales kid at the store about price match with Amazon, firstly he didn’t believe it, then he called the store manager, she said they can not match any MIR, club discount etc.

I called 1-800-MY APPLE, the sales assistant there first declined to match but on a second thought he asked me to hold on for a while and returned with $100 off making the 12” to $899! After telling this to the sales manager of the Apple store, she offered me a discount 10% on both 12” and 14” iBooks. Making 12”@ $899 and 14” @ $1169!

However Amazon deal is much better as I don’t have to pay sales tax. I am in SanDiego US and tax here is 7.75%, so at the end I decided to go with the Amazon deal.

Once again thanks a lot for the help.

Regards

SuhasG

Click to expand...

i tried my best with the apple store and they again said they can not and will not match amazon price and they keep insisting that the model being sold there is the older version. they also said there is over a month or so wait on getting those models as they come from apple distros anyway (whatever that means).

i was curious, which store did you go to? Because the manager said if i could find out which store then they would reconsider giving me a credit...

Code777: Here are some more details...

code777 said:

i tried my best with the apple store and they again said they can not and will not match amazon price and they keep insisting that the model being sold there is the older version. they also said there is over a month or so wait on getting those models as they come from apple distros anyway (whatever that means).

i was curious, which store did you go to? Because the manager said if i could find out which store then they would reconsider giving me a credit...

Click to expand...

Hi Code777,

The facts mentioned in my earlier posts are 100% correct.

Amazon is selling both old (April-04) and new (Oct -04) iBooks and MIR is offered on new iBooks too. I think Apple Store is talking about the old iBook w/o looking at the new ibooks listed on Amazon, new iBooks list is far below on the page and one has to search for it!

Here is my amazon.com order extract:

“Apple iBook Notebook 12" M9623LL/A (1.2 GHz PowerPC G4, 256MB RAM, 30GB Hard Drive, Combo Drive, Built-in AirPort Extreme) [Personal Computers] $999.99”

Now if you look at Apple web site, the new 12” iBook part number is: iBook 12" 1.2GHz Combo Drive M9623LL/A;

I think this part number is same as the one mentioned in my amazon.com order.


Further, the older 12” iBooks (April -04 release: Apple iBook Notebook 12" M9426LL/A ) were with 1.0GHz G4 processor and never came with Built-in Airport Extreme card.

So it seems to me that what Amazon is shipping to me is the latest (new, Oct-04 release) iBook.

I am in San Diego, CA USA and Apple Store in Fashion Valley, San Diego offered me that 10% discount on both 12” and 14” iBook.

Store Address
7007 Friars Road
San Diego, CA 92108
(619) 682-3477

(I was there on 04 Nov 2004, time: 03:30PM PST).

The 1-800-MY APPLE too offered me $100 off when told them about Amazon. (I called on 3rd NOV 04, 08:30PM PST) In fact I tried one more time, this time they said now it is $50 but when insisted they came up with $50 on iBook and $50 on Apple Care plan!

Regarding the delivery time, I placed order on 3rd Nov and Amazon is shipping my iBook by 16 to 20 Nov, so certainly there is no one month’s delay. Amazon had made it clear that ; for MIR date of placing the order is considered and not the actual date of shipping.

By the way, when I came to know about Amazon Deal and 2-3 weeks shipping delay, I first placed order for 12”, knowing the fact that Amazon never charges until they ship. I can always cancel my order before they ship, in the mean time I carried out further research. I could have used a9 discount (1.5%) to lower the price even further but considering the MIR just refrained (want to avoid any conflicts or excuse to decline MIR saying” this offer can’t be combined with any other offers/discounts’ blah blah...)

I came to know about this deal through from:

http://www.macprices.com/weekib.shtml

New iBooks: Lowest Prices
14" 1.33GHz
SuperDrive Amazon $1343.99 B0002IONGC Includes $150 mail-in rebate (11/21) coupon
14" 1.33GHz
Combo Amazon $1143.99 B0002IONG2 Includes $150 mail-in rebate (11/21) coupon
12" 1.2GHz Amazon $849.99 B0002A6YVC Includes $150 mail-in rebate (11/21) coupon


Well, this deal being discussed on many MAC forums , people couldn't believe it at first and many said that it is a typo by Amazon!


By the way , if you look at Amazon now, the MIR is removed and now shipping through J&R! But wait just click buy 'Used and New' A seller list will appear , first one is J&R , the next one is Amazon itself but no Amazon Logo, there you can still see the MIR offer!!

You can always visit the Apple Store again and negotiate with them based on part numbers.



Hope this helps.


Regards,


SuhasG

**** i tried but apple store manager will not budge. the manager refused to call the San Diego store and was getting mad at me so i stopped pushing. I am on the east coast... oh well. I tried right? You got an insane deal! Enjoy you iBook when you get it!!! I even went online at the Apple Store and the manager REFUSED to look at the webpage. Whatever!

Oh well, I should stop - should have just ordered my iBook on Amazon and used the rest of the loot to buy goodies for it. No biggie, I'm still very happy with my purchase.

I can understand..

code777 said:

**** i tried but apple store manager will not budge. the manager refused to call the San Diego store and was getting mad at me so i stopped pushing. I am on the east coast... oh well. I tried right? You got an insane deal! Enjoy you iBook when you get it!!! I even went online at the Apple Store and the manager REFUSED to look at the webpage. Whatever!

Oh well, I should stop - should have just ordered my iBook on Amazon and used the rest of the loot to buy goodies for it. No biggie, I'm still very happy with my purchase.

Click to expand...

This happens, when I got my digital camera I also missed a deal, but I learnt a lesson. So this time, first I placed my order and started researching.
I had a very good experience of San Diego Apple Store, the sales kids and their manager were very helping and patient (for my broken English.. I am not a native English speaker.. English is my third language).

Anyway we'll keep in touch and share our experiences. I am a total newbie for Mac. For last 22 years I am using Gates boxes. 1982 PC-XT 2 FDD no HDD, 3.57MHz CPU!! to todays P-4 2.2 Ghz, 512 MB, 60GB, XP desk top.

Mac is an experiment for me, if successful , I will get an iMac/eMac for my kid. But for my professional work (hardware / software Design and Product Engineering) I still have to use those Gates Boxes.

Well, that's all for now.

Regards,

SuhasG