My ibook/powerbook 'debate' has been resolved with the purchase of an 'old stock' 12" G4 1.33ghz superdrive powerbook. For this sort of purchase (and after the event) one can be very measured and list out all sorts of pros and cons for their decision; why this model and not some newer, 'better' alternative? Perhaps the best thing to reflect on, in the end, is that this purchase complied with a deep seated fundamental that's required for a sale to happen; namely I wanted to buy something ASAP. In other words I got the fever and had to do something about it.
In the store I was really tempted to buy an ibook 12"/30gig/1.2ghz (low weight, rugged, low initial purchase price) but I decided that by the time I purchased and installed a larger hard drive it would cost, if not as much as a powerbook, then enough to put me off the idea of bothering - and it would still have no proper clamshell mode or monitor spanning support either. Plus the ibook is due for an upgrade and I didn't want to wait up-to-a-month for a special order. I've always half regretted getting my 14" ibook as it was half kilo bit heavier than the 12" ibook. I also want to make my purchase and pick it up at the same point in time. Not order something and then wait ...
So first thoughts/impressions - I absolutely love it!
I definitely complied with a fundamental requirement for a sale to happen - I was 'the' motivated buyer - I wanted a laptop more than the people on the other side of the counter wanted to sell. In fact after asking if they had any 1.5ghz 12" powerbooks and being told no, I had to think and then ask a second time if they had any of the old models (this was after the salesman told me that he couldn't guarantee any order that I might make within less than a month). Anyway the dude makes a call down to the storeroom and then says "Oh, you do! How many? Four? Oh could you bring one up please?" And up comes the little black box. After a $500 discount and making sure iLife05 was included I've got my next 24 month interest free purchase - for about $5 a month more than I was paying for a 933 mhz iBook with no DVD burning, no airport, no bluetooth, a smaller HD (40 gig v. 60 gig), 32 v. 64 mb video, no digital/spanning video out and a slower system bus.
In the wash-up this unit works out as being about $400 cheaper than the current base model superdrive 1.5 Powerbook. For that $400 I give up Bluetooth 2, a 5400 rpm HD, a scrolling trackpad, 8x DVD (- and +) v. 4x DVD-R, a newer revision of Airport (g v. b) and a hard drive that will suspend if I drop the laptop. However using iScroll2 gives me excellent two-finger trackpad scrolling features and I don't mind having slower bluetooth (I have no bluetooth devices) or slower airport and hard drive. The only DVD burning that I plan to do is data backup so I'll pretty happy just to have the extra capacity that that brings me. The real deal for me was getting it on a 2 year interest free offer which I obviously can't get from Apple.
Going back to first impressions, I must say how 'nice' this machine is; the screen seems brighter and with better contrast than my old ibook. It is certainly much sharper and crisp. Fonts on the the old 14" ibook screen now seem to be HUGE in comparison. Probably the single nicest difference lies in the quality of the trackpad mouse button; the powerbook's is more crisp to view and tactile to use, with much less 'clunk' when it's depressed. In other words it has more of a precision 'click'. The keyboard is a delight to use, the keys seem to have greater indent and a more tactile response than the old ibook. I'm somewhat concerned about the battery life - it seems to be less than my (18 month old) ibooks at this point. But we'll see how we go on that count after I've power cycled the battery a few times.
