Comments on: A Continuing Discussion of the Unibody MacBook 13″ vs. PowerBook 12″

By: Molly

Molly — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:49:28 +0000

How do you do it,theappleblog.com?

http://richardfreewill.blogspot.com/

By: Dina

Dina — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:10:04 +0000

Wow. http://www.pbcxentral.com is te shit.

By: Angel

Angel — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:34:58 +0000

I’ve neved had a powerbook, but other 12″ notebooks have a tiny keyboard, and that’s something I really don’t like. It’s awful when you work for 7 hours on a proper full-size keyboard and then arrive home and have to deal with those tiny keys.

By: ed

ed — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:42:44 +0000

I have the 12″ PBG4 1.5 and it is a wonderful machine. If only it could get the webcam and the power upgrade, it would be absolutely perfect.

However, nobody has mentioned anything about the keyboard. I think the old Powerbook keyboards are more solid and reflexive than the new klikity-klaks. Anybody agree?

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:36:46 +0000

A month or so ago, there were a bunch of stories about “the best macs ever.” The SE30 got the most votes, but the PB12-G4 gets mine.

The fact that we’re debating and not coming up with a good way to replace it shows, in a way, how perfect it was. There was a moment in time when it did everything it needed to in the environment that existed then. And for many of us (me included), it still comes pretty close.

The inherent frustration that’s evident in some of these comments (and others) over the lacks of a suitable replacement is, sadly, to me an indication that no suitable replacement is coming – and that one day, we’ll probably all have to bite the bullet and upgrade/retire. Snow Leopard is going to be a big hurdle if it is really good and Intel-only, as I’ve read.

Still: I sold my PB12 when I bought my first Macbook Pro – and totally regretted it. Man, did I regret it! Then my brother bought a Macbook. I offered him $500 and a bicycle that was in my garage for it. He’s riding the bike, and I’m using the machine. I hardly ever carry the Macbook Pro around…

By: john

john — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:00:27 +0000

I’ll keep it brief. I’m another PB12-MB13 convert (or sellout depending on who you ask!)

I had and fell in love with the
12″ PBG4, the 1.5Ghz best of breed. I got it for free from my sister, much abused and dented and covered in stickers (the computer, not the sister!) $300 got me a new external housing, a bigger HD, and the maximum 1.25GB RAM. It came with Panther, went through Tiger, and even ran Leopard (albeit with a bit of beach balling).

The plastic MacBooks were never a worthy replacement for my beloved PBG4, but the aluminum ones? I bought the 2.4Ghz one the week it came out from the Apple Store Fifth Avenue. And I’ve loved it. It hasn’t yet developed a soul like my PB had, but after another year of journeys, stories, and dents, it will get there :) it is a worthy successor.

By: Guilherme

Guilherme — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:36:42 +0000

I am the proud owner of a 1.5 GHz 12″ Powerbook and I love every aspect of it (well, it could have a better graphics chip than the FX5200), and it’s still enough machine for what I do. While I think the 12″ form factor can’t be beaten, I’m not hopeful that we’ll ever see 4:3 laptops rolling of assembly lines again.

That being said, the only disappointing thing about the Unibody is the lack of Firewire. Being a long time Firewire user and seeing its clear edge against USB, I have invested a considerable amount of money on Firewire disks and cameras, and while most of them are also USB compatible, they’re much slower and I felt that Apple is backstabbing us who bought their words and went Firewire.

By: Kurt Garnjost

Kurt Garnjost — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:16:19 +0000

When Apple stopped making the 12″ G4 laptop, I dispaired. I loved my 12″ G4 PowerBook. It went all over the world with me and did all I asked of it. When the MacBook Air came out, it did not fill the bill. Too many compromises and not enough disk space. I actually use my laptop to do real work. When the 13″ MacBook UniBody arrived, I spent a lot of time considering. My investment in FireWire external drives was toast. It was bigger, but it was also a gorgeous piece of technology. Eventually, I gave in and bought one. I am not at all sorry I did. The increase in speed and processing power is substantial. The hard drive is 320 GB versus 100 GB on the 12″ G4. I have 4GB of RAM versus 1.5GB on the G4. The MacBook still fits in my smaller brief case. I have really not lost anything (except the FireWire port) and have gained much. The machines are not the same, but they are close enough that the 13″ MacBook is a worthy successor to the 12″ G4 PowerBook. (I also bought a new 24″ LED display, which is equally impressive. It’s only problem is my wife cannot yet use it with her hand-me-down 12″ G4 Powerbook when I am not home because of mini-display port.)

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:22:42 +0000

I agree with the other folks chiming in for the 12 inch Powerbook. Footprint is just as important as weight and thickness. Just look at Sony with their super compact but full featured sub notebooks. Although I haven’t had the good fortune to own a 12 inch Powerbook I did have a 12 inch Vaio notebook before and I really appreciate the portability and its small foot print. My current workhorse is a Aluminum Macbook 13 incher and I feel that it is still a bit too wide for a frequent international traveler like me. As for heat issues, I’m pretty sure we are all aware of the cooler and more efficient versions of Intel cpu chips coming out in the near future. So a super compact 12 incher Macbook Pro NANO that does not fry eggs is possible a few years from now.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:25:20 +0000

I used the 12″ PowerBook for years, starting with a 1 GHz model and moving through two 1.5 GHz versions. I moved to a black MacBook in 2007 and now use a unibody 15″ MacBook Pro as my primary computer.

Despite all of those changes in primary hardware, my travel machine remains a 12″ PowerBook (my first 1 GHz model). Even at the ripe old age of six, the PowerBook does just fine on modern software, runs long enough on its battery, and delivers a terrific user experience in the smallest footprint possible for a full-featured computer.