The other day, I pulled mine out and thought to myself “It’s just TOO BIG”. First time those words have ever proceeded from out of my mouth…

So the other day, after lugging my gorgeous 17″ PowerBook G4 home from work again, I pulled it out to check emails at home. I hoisted it onto my lap and suddenly got this weird feeling: is this really meeting my needs?

Don’t get me wrong: the PB17 is one gorgeous, powerful piece of computing power. The screen—and its huge real estate—is amazing. It was always my dream of the perfect computer with absolutely everything I’d ever need in one, easy-to-carry, stylish package.

But the more I understand the things I actually do with my Mac as opposed to the things I wish I could do with my Mac, the more I realize that for me a 17″-er is overkill. If I were a video editor working with DV all day long, it would be perfect—but I’m not. If I constantly smithed huge spreadsheets with the need to see lots of data at once, it would be ideal—but I’m not. Even if I just was a constant multi-program multi-tasker it would be awesome—I’m (thankfully) not.

So I looked longingly at Eusebio’s 12″ PowerBook. I talked him into letting me borrow it for a couple of days after I’d been playing around with the “build your own”section of the Apple Online Store, and I must admit that it seemed to more adequately fit with what I actually do. I mostly appreciate the smaller, more portable format.

However, once again I’m on the horns of a dilemma: do I eBay the 17 right now and buy a decked-out 12, or do I wait for Macworld Expo in January to see if there’ll be anything groundbreaking? I’ll probably do the latter, though I might be able to do the switch and pocket a few hundred.

Sigh…