That’s a tough call. I’m a big fan of screen real estate, but at the same time, there are times when I wish I had a smaller laptop. The desks at our school are rather restrictive, and it can be tough to fit a 15″ laptop and the casebook on there at the same time.

At home I hook up my PowerBook to an external monitor to provide extra screen space. That can help with smaller laptops, if you go that route and have an old monitor lying around.

Thanks for joining the conversation. It’s great to hear from switchers.

Usually with Apple when a new piece of hardware comes out, the price remains about the same (or a bit less) for the replacement version, assuming it’s roughly the same machine. So for example, the base configuration of the original PowerBook G4 (2001) had a list price of $2,600. The PowerBook I bought in 2005 had a faster bus, more RAM, a bigger hard drive, etc., and had a base list price of $2,300.

There have long been rumors of a 12″ (or possibly smaller) MacBook in development, which could be the ideal student machine. I used to use a 12″ PowerBook and I love the size and portability. It would be great for use on the cramped classroom benches at our school. Alas, my wife now uses it, and prying it from her would not be good for my health. Anyway, this smaller MacBook wonder supposedly would run on flash memory, so it would boot up in… a flash. The latest rumor is that it will be shipping the second half of this year, which isn’t a very helpful estimate.

The standard MacBook is probably due for a replacement in June or July (again, take this and all guesses with a big grain of salt). Check out this guide, which shows the length of time between hardware revisions: http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#MacBook

If you have any other questions, just ask. Hope this was at least somewhat helpful.