Is this a bad time to buy a powerbook?

I'm looking at getting a powerbook in the next week or so, but now I'm wondering if I shouldnt hold off until January with all these rumours of dual core G4 or G5 powerbooks. What do you guys think?

Also, how has apple been historically about pricing with new versions? Should I expect these new generation of powerbooks to be more expensive than products out right now?

Thanks!

I would wait

You most certainly won't see a G5 but a dual G4 is a possibility

Apple generally keeps the same prices for the low end -> High end and just updates the specs

I just bought a PowerBook last week and have no regrets. For a laptop, the Powerbook (1.5GHz) is more than enough power for a laptop. I also got the videocard upgrade (to 128MB). My thinking is, given the current speeds and features of the current Powerbook lineup, there isn't going to be a huge demand for major increases for a laptop like in the desktop world.

Just my 2 cents.

I concur...

I converted a buddy of mine the other day, he bought a 12'' 1.33ghz with a superdrive, cost him 2500$ Cad after taxes he is in love with it, i still think its worth it because your battery life and heat are still good, and besides rev.A of anything usually is flawed and sucks, wait for rev. B, then again Tiger....lol One thing though my 1ghz powerbook full charged battery is only getting roughly 3hours, my buddys which is obviously new but has a greater power draw with the same energy settings his reports close to 5 hours, did he just get an upgraded watt/hour battery you guys think?

J

Apple has said G5 powerbooks are a couple of years off and i dont know about dual g4's anytime soon but i would wait until tiger comes out then you dont have to fork out £80-90 quid.

I'm in a similar position to the original poster. However, the only thing that's keeping me from pulling the trigger on a new 12" PB is the possibility that the updated 12" PB in the new year may come with a vastly superior GPU than the current nVidia Go5200. If a 128 Mb 9700 were offered in the 12" PB then it would be able to play current games like HL and Doom3 (have they been released for Mac?) whereas the current Go5200 can't come even close.

Anybody have any thoughts on a possible GPU upgrade to the 12" PB?

Re: I bought a PB

I went ahead and bought the PB 15" with 1.5 Ghz. I could've waited longer but it makes no difference for me because it has been nearly 5 years since I've had any new Mac. I still have the old but trusty G4 PowerMac Sawtooth from '00. I felt it's time for me to get PB and then get the G5 PM. I'm really happy with my PB and I'm still installing more software as time goes on for heavy duty work such as graphic/web design and movie authoring.

It depends on if you feel it's worth to wait or not. For me, it doesn't matter. It's faster than my old PM so it's what it matters at this point.

I just bought a PB 12" 1.33 GHz and I love it. I just have one question though. I download lots of huge files from the internet, so my PB is always on, but I've seen that if I close it, it stops the Internet connection and automatically suspends. Is there a way to avoid this?? Because even if I choose in System Preferences to never suspends, if I close it, it suspends. Thank you