ibook/powerbook model guide

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I wrote this outside the forum but thought you might enjoy a cut'n'paste. Please post corrections if you see mistakes.


Battery life:
- 12" 1.2 GHz ibook: 50 watthours -> 6 hours (4.9 pounds, 11.2" wide)
- 14" 1.33 GHz ibook: 61 watthours -> 6 hours (5.9 pounds, 12.7" wide)
- 12" 1.5 GHz powerbook: 50 watthours -> 5 hours (4.6 pounds, 10.9" wide)
- 15" 1.67 GHz powerbook: 50 watthours -> 4.5 hours (5.6 pounds, 13.7" wide)
- 17" 1.67 GHz powerbook: 58 watthours -> 4.5 hours (6.9 pounds, 15.4" wide)

All batteries cost the same, the 50 watt hour models are not cheaper
like you could assume.



What do you get when you choose the Powerbook over the ibook?

I am not really convinced that the powerbook is better than the ibook,
and the reasons are:
- it looks much better, and it continue to look much better because
the silver case is attracting much less dirt than the white ibook
- you get a faster CPU and faster RAM
- you get 512 MB by default. I figure you should have 768 minimum
anyway. And 60 Gb harddrive is minimum
- it is a little lighter and smaller than the 12" ibook
However:
- you get less specified battery life
- the ibooks are manufractured by Asustek and some people say they are
of higher quality than the powerbooks
- you don't get the choice of the 14" screen which IMHO is the nicest
screen if you don't like tiny text. The 15" and 17" powerbooks all
have screens with higher resolutions and hence tiny pixels
- if you ever want Linux on that notebook (ok, unlikely but should be
mentioned), the graphics chip in the ibook is more friendly because
it has OpenSource 3D drivers. You cannot use the NVidia 5200 chip
in 3D with a PowerPC processor

The real upgrade is the 15" powerbook, which has a number of options
that neither the 12" powerbook nor the ibooks have:
- backlight keyboard
- option for dual-link DVI to drive Apple 30" cinema display
- 512 MB RAM in one chip, one free memory slot (the others have 256 MB
base and the expansion slot taken by 256 MB if you order 512 MB)
- widescreen LCD
- ATI 9700. Normally I hate ATI but only because of the drivers.
Here Apple does the drivers and ensures they actually work, so an
ATI card in an Apple is a good choice. The NVidia 5200 chip is slow
as hell, if you want games you want the ATI 9700 and hence the 15"
powerbook
- firewire 800
- gigabit ethernet

None of this stuff is in the 12" model. So the 12" powerbook is
really not that much of an upgrade over the ibook, almost all the nice
stuff requires the 15" model.

So, if you like to watch DVDs and want the bigger display, wait a
moment and calcutale out how much screen space a DVD ideo actually
takes. If you watch a movie with the full aspect ratio of 1:2.35,
then the 14" ibook has 53.4 square inch for the movie and the 15"
powerbook has 68.0 square inch. You see that even with the widest
aspect ratio movie the 15" powerbook doesn't have that dramatically
more space.

About the 30" cinema display: you need so-called "dual-link DVI" for
it, which is not the same thing as "dual DVI". "Dual DVI" means two
DVI connectors, "dual-link DVI" is one DVI connector with support for
much higher resolution. The 30" cinema display requires the latter
which in Apple laptops requires the max out graphics in the 15" or 17"
powerbooks.

The DVD burner in both ibook and powerbook doesn't have dual-layer
capabilty, I think it is the smarter option to get the cheap internal
drive and get an external dual-layer DVD burner. Or get an internal
dual-layer one on ebay. If you follow that logic, the 17" model has a
further price disadvantage because you cannot get them with the base
drive.

So here is the price comparision of what I think are the most
attractive Apple laptops right now:

14" ibook:
- no DVD burner
- 768 MB RAM
- 80 GB harddrive
==> $1499

15" powerbook with dual-link DVI:
- 1 GB RAM (768 MB not available)
- 80 GB harddrive
- deselect the DVD burner
==> $2399
- add $50 for the smart choice of getting the 1 GB in one stick

You can widen the gap a little by getting the RAM from independent
vendors, not Apple.

The gap widens further if you order at www.amazon.com which has $100 -
$150 mail-in-rebates right now and probably doesn't charge sales tax
to many states. You cannot get the 80 GB harddrive in the ibook that
way but maybe you can live with 60 GB until Seagate comes out with a
7200 RPM 100 GB drive. You will curse the ibook for being difficult
to disassemble, though.

If you want to be cheap you might want to snap a 1.0 GHz G4 14" ibook
from some leftover stock, they are really not that much worse. RAM is
more important, a 1 GHz G4 will do MacOS X fine with enough RAM. Note
that the first generation of G4 ibooks (933 MHz and 1 GHz) has only 256
KB cache, the later 1 GHz and up models have 512 KB. You want the big
cache, that means second generation ibook G4.

Buying used/ebaying seems to be useless.

What I thinkis sad is that Apple does not offer you a discount on the
cinema LCD displays. If you already select a laptop that can drive it
you are way above $2000 for the laptop, and you still have to pay the
full $3000 for the display. How about a $300 rebate if you order that
combo?

I know Apple doesn't want to go into a rebate battle like Dell does,
but I suppose a rebate on an expensive combo only is les harmful than
Dell who throw coupons around like no tomorrow.

Combining the 14" ibook with a 20" or 24" Dell display is left as an
exercise to the reader.

So, if you like to fiddle that looks like this:
- $1299 - $100 MIR for 14" ibook at amazon. Blackmail vendor into
giving you MacOS X 1.04 Tiger for free if you can or wait a week or
so
- $208 1 GB PC2100 module, or $62.99 - $95 for 512 MB (newegg)
- put money aside for Seagate 7200 RPM 100 GB drive
- get some random dual-layer DVD burner and an external case
- $520 for Dell 2005 20" widescreen LCD, or $1100 something for 24"