How 12-inch iBook works for photoediting?

I've had my Apple 12'' iBook computer now for over 3 month and thought I'd write shortly on how it works for photoediting. When I was picking a new laptop I wanted something small and light yet powerful. After checking my options decided to order 12-inch iBook from Apple (my first Mac in fact). It comes with G4 1.2GHz processor, 256MB of memory and 30GB harddrive. I added 512MB memory and changed harddrive into 80GB. Overall it set me back around $1350.

It's great all around performer but for with some cons to be a tool for serious photographer. It's light enough so I don't have second thoughts wether to put it in my backpack or not. It has good battery life even if I'm doing serious photoediting. In most conditions screen is good and bright, of course direct sunshine kills it (as it kills probably every other LCD screen, no?). It doesn't get extremely hot and I'd say it works on the quiet side. Only 2-3 times when I've heard the vents rev up.

USB2.0 and Firewire ports come as standard on all iBooks, Bluetooth (optional) works great for syncing with my mobile. I didn't get the Combodrive that allows to write DVD-s but I'm pretty happy with CD-writer.

Biggest con is probably screen resolution. All iBooks come with 1024x768 and if you still want Mac portable but better resolution then you'll have to go with much more expensive 15-inch PowerBook. That said, perhaps coupling 12-inch screen with higer resolution is not so good idea if you want to keep your eyesight...

How fast is this thing? I usually have Safari (browser), Mail, Skype (netphone + IM), iView MediaPro (for managing my photos) and Photoshop CS open when I'm doing photo editing. Converting RAW file from Canon EOS 20D using Photoshop Camera RAW plug-in takes around 8-10 seconds. Default Shadow/Highlights to the same file takes 4 seconds. Unsharpening Mask 1-2 seconds. I'm pretty happy with those times as I rarely work with bigger files and don't see myself doing it in near future.

As for working with iView MediaPro (an excellent software to manage my 8000+ pictures) - once files are added to the library and thumbnails created then there's no visible delay when I open new folder, do a selection based on certain criteria and search through metadata of all those files is sub-second process.

All in all I'm very satisfied with my iBook so far. Great harddrive capacity (I am thinking about buying external drive for backup purposes), great speed at 768 MB of memory, good screen and really intuitive and beautiful operating system. Highly recommended.

If you've never used a Mac before and are afraid of the learning curve then my advice is - don't be. You'll certainly have to spend some time getting used to a bit different logic etc but if you have at least one friend who uses Mac and who can help answere your answeres then that's all you need.