I Need Peoples Options on the 12 and 15 PB

Hi everyone, i plan on buying a powerbook but im having troubles to decide between the 12 and the 15inch. i was originally going to buy the 12 inch but had second thoughts that the screen would be too small. i would probably get an external screen later on for home use.
then a couple of days ago at a locale store near me they lowered the price of the 15inch PB. the diffeence in price between the 2 is about 300$. now i started to think to get the 15 inch. i would get the 15 inch for several reasons (bigger screen, more RAM overall, better video card, digital audio line in/out, luminated keyboard). the only thing is that i heard that the screen on the 15 inch has a horizontal line problem. Does anyone know if this is still occuring to the 15 inch?

I dont want any problems with my machine. this is my first mac. if anything ill get the 12inch and with the extra 300$ buy an external screen

tangram said:

Hi everyone, i plan on buying a powerbook but im having troubles to decide between the 12 and the 15inch. i was originally going to buy the 12 inch but had second thoughts that the screen would be too small. i would probably get an external screen later on for home use.
then a couple of days ago at a locale store near me they lowered the price of the 15inch PB. the diffeence in price between the 2 is about 300$. now i started to think to get the 15 inch. i would get the 15 inch for several reasons (bigger screen, more RAM overall, better video card, digital audio line in/out, luminated keyboard). the only thing is that i heard that the screen on the 15 inch has a horizontal line problem. Does anyone know if this is still occuring to the 15 inch?

I dont want any problems with my machine. this is my first mac. if anything ill get the 12inch and with the extra 300$ buy an external screen

Click to expand...

The horizontal line problem is supposedly thinning out, with less and less 15 inchers shipping with the problem. If you do get the problem, you'd probably have no problem getting it fixed by Apple. Personally I'd go for the 15-inch PowerBook because I find the 12-incher is absolutely useless and overpriced unless you value the size/weight compared to the iBook that much. The iBook is a much better value than the 12-inch PowerBook at this point, and I would go for the beefier 15-incher with the 1.67 GHz CPU, widescreen display with great resolution, much more advanced video card, dual-link DVI support for if you decide upon a 30-inch external display, and all sorts of other nifty features.

I think the 15" is a better buy. If you are getting the 12", you mind as well get an ibook. The 15" screen is pretty nice, decent sized for doing many applications.

I bought the 12" PowerBook second hand, so initial value over an iBook was of no issue to me.

The size/weight of this unit makes it portable everywhere...and that's something I've come to love. I'm addicted to my blackberry, so much so that I've written entire business proposals on it. The purchase of the PowerBook meant I have a real-size keyboard that is almost as convienient to carry.

On the road, I don't desire anything more then my 12". At home, however, in a house with two 15" PB's and a 17"PB...I've got screen envy. Sitting at a desk, or on the couch at home, this screen is too small. But on the road...

perfect.

-Dave

go for the 15 inch... for 300 bucks you're getting a much better deal. About the horizontal line...

I had an iPod video (BRAND NEW) and it had a black line running across the top of the screen. Not really big, but big enough to annoy me while watching a video. So, I sent it in to Applecare and within a week they sent me a BRAND NEW iPod video.

So yeah, go for the 15 inch.

I love my 12" Powerbook. I wanted a laptop for school for note-taking. I'm a grad student, so I tend to take copius notes. Since I'm an IT major, I thought it would be a good idea to get some cross-platform experience with a Mac.

It's extremely lightweight and portable, looks good, and performs great. I am SO glad I didn't get the Dell Inspiron 700m. The whole Mac experience has been very enjoyable. I upgraded to iLife06 and am enjoying that as well.

When home, I usually hook the PB up to one of my Dell 19" LCD's. I've got two, so I just hit the button to switch between analog and digital to go back and forth between dual monitor PC, and single monitor PC/Powerbook.

I got it with the standard 512 megs of RAM and then bought another gig and installed it.

I wish they would come out with the Intel version in 12". If they did, I would sell this and buy it.

But for portability and power, it's a good fit.

i have the 12" and sometimes i wish i had the 15 but for now, the 12 inch is serving me more than i need, its very portable which is a definite plus cause i travel from school to home alot and i find it powerful to handle what i need to do..

tangram said:

Hi everyone, i plan on buying a powerbook but im having troubles to decide between the 12 and the 15inch. i was originally going to buy the 12 inch but had second thoughts that the screen would be too small. i would probably get an external screen later on for home use.
then a couple of days ago at a locale store near me they lowered the price of the 15inch PB. the diffeence in price between the 2 is about 300$. now i started to think to get the 15 inch. i would get the 15 inch for several reasons (bigger screen, more RAM overall, better video card, digital audio line in/out, luminated keyboard). the only thing is that i heard that the screen on the 15 inch has a horizontal line problem. Does anyone know if this is still occuring to the 15 inch?

I dont want any problems with my machine. this is my first mac. if anything ill get the 12inch and with the extra 300$ buy an external screen

Click to expand...

If I were you I would buy the 15 inch. I have it, and do not have a horizontal line problem. I also know alot of people with it and they too do not have a problem. It does have alot more in it then the 12 inch and if you do get a horizontal line problem with your screen, then you can send it back and apple will fix it.