Picking out a new laptop

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Date published: 2/5/2005

WELL, I KNEW I couldn't be without a computer for very long.

I sold my PowerBook on eBay last week, and I made more on it than I thought I would. It was purchased by an evangelist in Indiana. He asked if I could send it express mail because he was preparing to leave the country on a mission trip, so I took a trip by the post office and sent it off. I have this image of a khaki-clad man in a jungle somewhere, teaching the natives how to play The Sims or Railroad Tycoon II on a fancy G4.

I had originally intended to shop carefully and hunt for discounts on various PowerBooks and iBooks before making my purchase decision. Instead, I ended up dragging my 8-month-old and my wife to Tysons Corner so I could hunt for a new computer at the Apple Store.

I had heard a rumor that Apple Stores sometimes have open-box computers in the back room, and sure enough, the salesperson volunteered to go back and look for a laptop with a 12-inch screen for me. Unfortunately, they didn't have any specials, so I decided to look at the new computers.

Apple's got a weird situation with their smallest laptop models, the iBook and the PowerBook with 12-inch screens. The PowerBook is slightly faster and has a faster graphics card. It has a larger hard drive as well, and it has built-in Bluetooth.

But it's also significantly more expensive than the iBook. And I'm a cheapskate at heart.

I ended up buying an iBook. And I've already bought and installed extra memory in the machine. Apple, like many computer manufacturers, doesn't put enough RAM in most of their base models. And they overprice RAM upgrades purchased through Apple. I ordered memory from a company called Crucial Technology, and they had it to me within a couple of days.

My wife is shocked that I bought a computer with a smaller screen than hers--her iBook has a 14-inch screen. But I'm already really happy with the smaller form factor of my iBook. It doesn't take up much space and it's very easy to carry around. And it's noticeably faster than my old G4.

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Date published: 2/5/2005