Looking for a new laptop for uni (ibook g4)

H

HotShot

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 24, 2001
Messages
169
Currently I have an NEC Versa P440.

Pentium 4m 1.7Ghz, 512MB DDR RAM, 30 GIG HDD, DVD ROM, etc.

It has about 2 hour battery life, it heats up, warps, the screen has shitty viewing angles, and because it heats up it has an extremely noisy irritating fan. It weighs almost 6 pounds.

I'm going to uni in a month or so.

Now I'm considering getting a new laptop for uni here is what I'm looking for:

Small, light, cool operation, silent/quiet operation, solidly built, something reasonably priced. Just word processing/surfing. No gaming.

Obviously I am a poor student, but I have some money saved up.

I'm considering the 12" ibook G4 at the moment.

I'm doing a business degree :D

Now, firstly am I overreacting wanting to get a new laptop? Or do you think my thinking is rational/justified?

Any comments recommendations?
 
Well, you seem to be the perfect candidate to me. Your complaints are poor battery life and fit and finish issues.

id highly suggest checking out an ibook G4, or a centrino laptop.
 
Originally posted by Methodical
Well, you seem to be the perfect candidate to me. Your complaints are poor battery life and fit and finish issues.

id highly suggest checking out an ibook G4, or a centrino laptop.
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I have looked into mainly the 12" ibook g4 and the dell 600m.

Both are, from I've read, very nice systems. But I have read that the ibook has a 6 hour battery life, whilst the 600m fails to get even to the 4 hour mark. Also the size is another bonus for portability for the ibook.

I've heard mixed stories for both laptops build quality.
 
it will be up to 6 hours depending on the config but in general I haven't seen too many battery issues lately...I am thinking of the 14" 933 myself...if you want a G3 700 16VRAM with Apple Care I might make you a good deal!
 
Originally posted by gigglebyte
it will be up to 6 hours depending on the config but in general I haven't seen too many battery issues lately...I am thinking of the 14" 933 myself...if you want a G3 700 16VRAM with Apple Care I might make you a good deal!
Click to expand...

i'm after a new one ;)

I will be going to an apple store on friday to check it out in person.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
Check out some of the IBM laptops as well, some come with trackpads now (YAY!) but they're solid machines, some of the most durable and some have good battery life.

I've never used an iBook that lasted 6 hours on a battery, where can I find one!? The Powerbooks I've always used with new batterys weren't so hot either, but I still prefer the iBook all things being equal. Better design and overall unit IMO. Particularly for the $$.
 
I'll have to agree. Advertising the iBooks with a 6 hour battery is plain outrageous. If you want to keep it in sleep mode for 6 hours maybe, but if you plan to use it, count on 2.5-4 hours.
 
How much you want for it giggle?

And then considering I one day had the money, how long you wanna wait for it? haha
 
my time frame is very flexable but it will probably have to be after taxes are done...price is going to be $750 or so as it has 640 Meg of RAM and the Airport card as well as AppleCare for just under 2 more years....I could just buy the new one and either sell mine here or on e-bay (prefer [H] though)
 
Originally posted by AntShaw
I'll have to agree. Advertising the iBooks with a 6 hour battery is plain outrageous. If you want to keep it in sleep mode for 6 hours maybe, but if you plan to use it, count on 2.5-4 hours.
Click to expand...

I get 5.5 hrs per charge on my 14" iBook G4 933mHz while programming, reading email, web browsing, and listening to streaming music all at once. If I watch a DVD, then drop the time in half, which is still enough to watch just about every DVD out there.

Other things I like about the system are: How quiet it is. The fan never comes on (Except the time I stress tested it with distributed.net's RC5-72, and even then it wasn't loud.) even when watching video. Heat on the palmrest and the underside is not an issue, only the area around the hinge gets a bit warm. The keyboard is one of the best on any laptop and easy to type on for long periods of time.

So far I only have two complaints, the speakers suck and I wish most of the ports were on the back and not the side. Audio quality is fine with headphones or external speakers though. Having the ports on the back would free up some of my deskspace from wires and such.
 
trust me you want the ports on the side...all you have to do is look at the issues with previous hinge designs like on the powerbooks and besides by having the display drop down on the back you have a lower profile
 
Side ports are becoming more and more common in all systems now, look at the back of a lot of the slimmer dells and IBMs, etc and you'll see there's not much on the back.

Some of these things are tiny, under an inch thick.
 
sounds like a powerbook 15" or 17" ...now I have seen some of the IBM's that actually have an extended battery on the back so ports would not work there....you do have to admit that the designs of both the powerbook and ibook is very nice
 
http://www.macmall.com

If you're looking for a cheap *new* iBook, they're still offering 12" G3 iBooks for $794. But supplies appear to be limited, so you might want to order soon if you decide to get an Apple.
 
Apple has the G3's also and you can get iBook 900MHzG3/128MB/40GB/COMBO/E/56K/12.1TFT for $899 if you want
 
Originally posted by gigglebyte
sounds like a powerbook 15" or 17" ...now I have seen some of the IBM's that actually have an extended battery on the back so ports would not work there....you do have to admit that the designs of both the powerbook and ibook is very nice
Click to expand...

Generally, yes they are, but they do limit Apple. Battery life is acceptable, but being able to have 2 batteries in it would be great. Also they aren't as beefy as some of the windows laptops are, but they're not really intended to be as powerful (or as big) as those so they're a good medium between power and portability. I like the iBook a lot, I think it embraces this the best, I think the powerbook is lost in the middle and personally think it was a poor attempt. The case isn't very strong, power is middling and the screens should be better.

Oh well, we're all entitled to our opinions. :)
 
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