12' vs 12'

I am heading to Flordia for the Holidays and will stop off at the Boca Raton Apple Store to see there iBooks & Powerbooks. As I will be heading to Unversity in September 2006. I know a lot could happen from now to then, but I was wondering what the main differences between a 12' inch Powerbook and 12' iBook are? Money is no issue! I know that model of iBook of has no Superdrive, but the 12' Powerbook has a shoter battery life. Trade offs I know, but if there are any University students reading this thread can you tell me what the enviroment of Unversity will demand from my pick? I will be taking "Computing and Information Systems" at Saint Mary's University. I will be commuting by Bus back and forth to the University.

If you the reader think that a Powerbook is a good choice is there a battery that I can buy that is maybe would last longer? A Superdrive would be nice, but is not a requirment since I will not be talking a video course.

i wanted a PB too, the Superdrive was a big lure as i deal with 1gb of photos at a time, but it records 1 speed!!!! that will take forever to burn!

suddenly it wasn't such a good thing.

in the end i got an iBook G4 1.2 and bought 1gb of memory for it. Worked out cheaper, and suited my needs better.

also, if you're going next september, wait til next august to buy it, otherwise it'll be slow by the time you get there.

Even if money isn't an issue, you shouldn't waste it, currently the iBook is just a better deal. Unless you have to have a superdrive or the better graphics processor of the PowerBook, then get the iBook. The Powerbooks haven't been updated in while, if you can wait you might want to, just to see what the new PowerBooks are like.

Get the 12 inch iBook over the powerbook b/c right now the specs are so close to each other and the price difference imo is not justifiable for what you would be using it for. in terms of the superdrive, you are right, it isn't really that fast. i would wait and just add an external one in the future. the powerbook is slightly faster but not enough to justify going for it unless you really like the way it looks. i have the ibook and am very very satisfied so far.

I was looking into the 12" PowerBook vs the 12" iBook but went with the 14" PowerBook instead. Why? Because I got an 80GB HDD, SuperDrive, 1GB RAM, 128MB ATI videocard plus the faster processor and lighted keyboard (drool). I was playing with the 14" iBook and 14" PowerBook at the Apple Store and the PowerBook just seemed a bit more zippier.

I travel quite a bit and use Photoshop CS, Studio MX 2004 (Dreamweaver & Flash) along with watching DVD's and playing Halo on it and its a dream.

rberry88 said:

I was looking into the 12" PowerBook vs the 12" iBook but went with the 14" PowerBook instead. Why? Because I got an 80GB HDD, SuperDrive, 1GB RAM, 128MB ATI videocard plus the faster processor and lighted keyboard (drool). I was playing with the 14" iBook and 14" PowerBook at the Apple Store and the PowerBook just seemed a bit more zippier.

I travel quite a bit and use Photoshop CS, Studio MX 2004 (Dreamweaver & Flash) along with watching DVD's and playing Halo on it and its a dream.

Click to expand...

I would also vote for the iBook..

I was soooo sure I was going to get the powerbook, it seemed like a no-brainer.
But realistically, I couldn't tell a difference in speed, the superdrive model was out of the question anyway (that much extra just for a DVD burner? HAH!) and the iBook has a better battery life....

@Aptmunich : the original poster stated that "money is no issue" so I gave him my thoughts about the benefits a PowerBook holds over the iBook. If money is an issue in the decision to you then you might want to start your own thread as I was answering the op's post.

And if you read my post you will be able to tell that I got way more than just a superdrive for the more money that I spent on the PowerBook over the iBook. The upgraded videocard alone is more than enough reason to get the PowerBook over the iBook, IMHO. However, if you can't afford it then you will be better off getting an iBook instead.

Just my 2 cents.