From MB to MBP..?

Question

Am debating moving from my 4 month old C2D Macbook to a MBP CD that is about 8 months old - it's gonna cost me about $700 for the priviledge but I have come to think that a/ the MB screen is a little too small for my tired eyes, and the way the edges of the MB are so sharp they're like holding your wrists over a barbed-wire fence - I've tested others and some are smoother and some are just as bad as mine.
Suffice to say, a MBP Core duo came onto the horizon when in fact I was just looking for a Powerbook G4 to get me through until Apple realise the design flaw on the Macbook and seriously smoothes out those edges. So, considering I'm not a massive power user, would it be like going for a Ferrari when a Saab will do? What's the attraction of the MBPs? I certainly like the bigger screen size but I've heard that Core Duos are hot, and that the keyboard isn't as good as the MB. The problem is I live in Japan so it's proving quite tough to find a Powerbook G4 that I know would be enough to fit my needs.
Any thoughts appreciated.

Answer 1

I don't know what you mean about the edges on the MB.. have used a few and can't say that anything particularly stood out as being bad in that respect.
frankly I think if the screen size is too small for you on your current machine, then the best option you have is to go for a current model MBP 15". you still get decent portability, and you don't have any of the possible risks associated with the superceded core duo series. of course, that's not to say that the current machines are perfect either..
as for holding out for rumored products.. meh.. sure, there may be another significant model around the corner, such as the much hoped for PB12" replacement. but one good thing about the intel move that apple made is that now speculation about what's around the corner is a lot easier to predict. before when macs used a CPU series exclusive only to macs, it was hard to know what might be coming. but with intel being in the picture, you just have to look at their roadmap, and you pretty much know what type of thing is likely to be served up next. not just in terms of CPU either, because the associated hardware and features are now more in line with what is standard in high-end PCs as well. I've seen a lot of people jump in and smugly say, well I'm holding off for the new santa rosa platform laptops cos they'll be the business, etc etc bla bla. but, that info is out there already. it's just another dual core 64bit capable CPU topping out at 2.4Ghz. I'm sure it'll have all sorts of other enhancements, and the machines themselves will prob ship with a bit more RAM, bigger hard drives, the usual stuff. but it's hardly going to ruin your life to have picked up a 2.33Ghz machine now, which has also proven itself to be a relatively safe bet reliability-wise, when the next ones come along.
another thing you hear a lot of is people saying, well I'll wait to buy a machine till they release machines to go with the OSX leopard update. I think a lot of this attitude comes from people either from the PC world, or people that deal with windows a lot. the whole vista thing has just created this big idea that it's risky to buy a machine when a new major OS is imminent, cos suddenly your hardware will be outdated and possibly unsupported. not only is this not true for macs, but it's almost the opposite.. it has been the case in the past with macs that certain models cannot work with a previous OS to the OS that was preloaded when they shipped. so for some users, this may actually be a huge, if temporary, disadvantage.. it's likely that not all software is going to be OSX 10.5 ready right from the launch date. so for many people, being able to stay on tiger is a big bonus, until their critical apps are good to go, and you may not be able to do that with a machine released after leopard is launched.
anyway, just food for thought...
as for battery life.. yes, I think every manufacturer gets their optimum specs for that from machines tested in vacuum chambers, with wifi, bluetooth, and basically everything turned off, no sound, the screen set to the minimum brightness just above off, and no apps running... you know, just like average day-to-day use..