[Macworld]

Post your comments for Can a MacBook replace a 12-inch PowerBook? here

[latha024]

Sounds like our two machines need to become one. The logic board in my 12-inch went out a few months after applecare basically refurbished everything else. As a student, it was perfect for me... hated to see it go.

[icerabbit]

I am interested to hear if you like the glossy screen? If you have had any issues with glare or reflections yet, and if you would prefer a matte screen, if that option were available.

[kinless]

I will be faced with the same situation in the coming months. As of this week I've had my 12" G4 lappy for 5 years. I've upgraded the memory and hard drive twice (usually around the release of a new Mac OS X) but I'm still on the original battery, which after 500 charge cycles continues to give me 2:30 of portable time. (Probably helps that it's plugged in 80% of the time) But you're right though. I lose about 15% of charge when sleeping overnight these days.
I'm waiting for Nehalem CPUs to go mobile before making my next lappy purchase. MacBooks look tempting, but if they don't bring back Firewire that will put a damper on my consideration (I Target-Disk-mode all the time) and the 15" MBP is a tad big for my needs.
I'll just hold on to this G4 lappy until it dies, probably another year, before bidding the same adieu.

[flybynight]

Thanks for the article. My wife's 12" PB is faring better than yours, but we still think about replacing it from time to time. It's a 1.5GHz and we just bumped the RAM up from 512Mb to 1.25Gb, which helped, but it has to happen sometime. Probably this fall if/when there is an update.

[doglesby]

I replaced my 12" PB a couple months ago. I am just thrilled with my new machine. Say what you will about limping along with an older machine, it makes the new one so much nicer.
You complain about a 12% battery loss during sleep? Have you ever used a PC laptop? If you don't hibernate the suckers, they're dead the next morning.

[pln]

Regarding power drain during sleep ... did you have your PowerBook (such a much better name than MacBook) set up to go into deep sleep? With the Intel switch, Apple switched to using safe sleep for faster waking and that uses more power.

Presumably you haven't changed that so on your MB:
pmset -g | grep hibernatemode

will return "hibernatemode 3"

If you have your PowerBook on hand, what's its hibernate mode?

[meall]

I still uses my PB 12" as a secondary machine and it fits my need (and my pocket) very well until now. I may take a MacBook ALU when they become less pricey to get better performances.

[albertw]

I loved my 12" PB. I liked the size and shape. If/maybe/when Apple comes out with a NetBook/Tablet/Air Lite/whatever I hope they use that form factor. It was very comfortable to hold and took up less space when traveling.

[heimdall]

I just replaced my 867 MHz PowerBook G4 with a MacBook 13" late last fall. Since I also have a desktop Mac with a 23" screen, I wanted portability, and as it became evident that there would never be a 12 MacBook, I went with the unibody MacBook.
The speed is gratifying--even though I do processor-intensive stuff on my desktop Mac, the speed difference is very obvious (I bought the MB because the power socket on the PB was getting flaky, not just to upgrade).
Still battery life is decidedly less, which is unfortunate, and as much as I think the Magsafe adapter is a good idea, I'm a little irked that I can't use my Kensington AC/car/air adapter anymore.
pln: I agree about the name. I don't understand why they dropped it; PowerBook has nothing to do with the PowerPC. Apple called them PowerBooks when they used Motorola 680x0 processors (I remember the quip, when the PPC and PowerMacs were introduced, that they'd be called the PowerPowerBooks).

[nweb]

Two years ago, I upgraded from a 12" Powerbook (1.5ghz) to a 2.16ghz MacBook. Like you, I was also blown away by the speed. But more important to me was the QUIET of the MacBook. The fans on my Powerbook were always on and the computer was always warm to the touch and it got super hot if I did anything that was processor intensive.
With normal web browsing, email, open office, etc, the fans on my MacBook are never audible enough to hear and the computer is not warm. I do use smcfancontrol to keep the fans at 2800rpm, faster than the stock 1800rpm but still inaudible.
And finally, what about the brightness and clarity of the display on your MacBook--which I've read is much better than my older MacBook.

[robogobo]

My wife and I are still using 5 year old G4s at home. I don't dare do anything that will remind me of how slow they are, because I don't want to replace them anytime soon (yes I do). When we watch movies in iTunes, I quit everything else, even the Finder. Firefox is a solo app too. At work I'm running a quad 2.66 Mac Pro, so the difference goes without saying.

[spiderbat]

My wife is still using a 12" PB (1.5 GHz, 1.25GB RAM, DVD burner). She works in the field of music history and uses it to record her researches in libraries, museums and other institutions. She needs just the horsepower to write texts, run FileMaker Pro, scan some image, and obviously prefers to carry a smaller laptop.
If I tried to substitute her PB with an unibody MB, she would:
1- bite me
2- file an immediate request of divorce.
The mean reasons are:
a) The lack of FireWire: she's using a few FW external disks, dedicated to different researches, and wouldn't like being forced to purchase new disks with an interface that, even at the same speed, is inferior.
b) The infamous super-glossy display: she can rarely choose her work station or change its illumination, and very often must work where other people happen to pass behind her shoulders, causing moving reflections ten times more distracting than stationary ones.
I'm not implying that a MB cannot replace a 12" PB in general, but that there are people who are still served better by the latter machine and that some of the choices Apple made with its newer laptops may be all but appealing for some professional users.

[blankbaby]

I'm going to miss seeing you try to coax that old PowerBook back to life!