My TiBook battery deterioated to a stage that it would only hold about half an hour of charge. I would have had the machine for two years in April, so althou I am not a heavy battery user this particular battery has been with me for a good 20 months. I don’t think I should have any complaints.
Bought a replacement for HK$1050 yesterday. Now it is showing close to four hours of charge. Bliss.
I also looked at potential replacements for my TiBook. I have found that my 15” is a bit too clumsy for carrying around, so I am looking at the 12” models. Both the 12” iBook and the 12” Al Powerbook G4 are plenty good.
The G5 Powerbook is expected to come out this year, so I’d probably want to upgrade again within the next 12 to 18 months, which means that I’ll want to get an inexpensive machine this time.
I want a SuperDrive, ‘cos the excellent iDVD software only works with SuperDrives and not other third party DVD drives. There is no SuperDrive for the iBook.
Also none of the 12” models have the battery capacitor, so one can’t just close the lid change battery and resume work like on my TiBook. Disappointing. Not that I have ever had two good batteries to do so.
Only the 17” and the top 15” Powerbooks have the self-illuminating keyboard. Excellent for working in the dark. IBM’s X-series Thinkpad has a tiny light on the lid which illuminates the keyboard. I have a freebie USB snake light but it’s obstructive. Apple’s solution is elegant. I hope they add it to the lower models.
Apple only makes a 800MHz 12” iBook, while the 12” PB G4 is 1MHz, i.e. 25% faster. Both models with WiFi, Bluetooth, additional RAM (640MB vs 768MB) and AppleCare, the PB w/ SuperDrive at just over HK$20K, is a good HK$7K more expensive. Not unreasonable in both cases. Decisions.
2 responses so far ↓
1 James Mok // Jan 28, 2004 at 7:10 pm
You’d just got the new battery. Save and wait for the G5 PB.
2 tin_the_fatty // Feb 2, 2004 at 10:30 pm
The PowerBook G5 may be coming this year, but not until mid-year at the earliest I think, and it won’t be cheap. It is likely to be available only on the 15” and 17” models. Chances are I’ll wait till they are more widely available and mature before I get one, which is more like early or mid 2005.
In the meantime, I want something smaller and more robust that I can carry around w/ me more often and maybe throw around a bit. The 12” PB G4 would give me a 50% speed boost and a SuperDrive. The 12” iBook G4 would give me a 20% speed boost and a more forgiving case. Both would give me a computer of more desirable form factor.
The Lady will be buying a Fujitsu P5020 shortly to replace the old HP laptop she uses, which is falling apart. I’ll have to wait a bit after her new purchase. Apple should be updating at least some of their machines around May/June, so I’ll probably wait and see what they are up to.