15.4" or 13.3" ?

Question

I've been lurking this forum for awhile. Waiting to see how well the intel boxes get the bugs worked out. Looks like they are getting closer. Question - I'm having a bit of a problem deciding on the 15.4 vs the 13.3. It will mostly be used at home but I would like to use it on vacations, wifi hot spots occasionally, church, etc. Any comments on should I wait for the 13.3's ? I have not previously owned or used a laptop so your opinions would help.
Thanks,
tbusby

Answer 1

There isn't currently a 13.3 inch model of any Apple notebook. While some have rumored that one would come out, you should realize there will always be a new model out "soon" and the rumors are just that, not product specs. It's best to base your buying decisions on what you need, not what might come out.
As to size, the real determinant is what kind of computing you do. I personally had the original PowerBook G4 which was a 15" screen. I got the 12" PowerBook a few years ago because I didn't like the weight of the 15. However, the lack of screen real estate has really started bothering me with that model, such that I mostly work on one of my desktops. Even switching between my 23" cinema display at work & the 22" at home (1920v1600) makes me appreciate the extra pixels. Now, granted I do development work & video/audio editing, so my apps : XCode, Eclipse, Final Cut, Logic, love lots of pixels. If you do anything where an app has multiple palettes, you'll greatly appreciate the 15 or even the new 17 MacBook Pro. However, if your computing is limited to email, text documents & browsing, a 12" PowerBook, iBook or future similar sized Intel-based model would work fine.