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From The Road Warrior Archive - Which Powerbook?

This year marks the 10th anniversary of The Road Warrior. It's amazing how time flies, and there's a great deal of profundity in mid 19th-Century journalist and Le Figaro editor Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr's French language aphorism - "Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose" ("the more it changes, the more it's the same thing"). For example, in 1998 I was shopping somewhat casually for a new laptop, and in 2008 I'm also casually shopping for a new laptop, or in the present Apple-approved vernacular, "notebook."

In my second-ever The Road Warrior column, I reviewed the potential candidates for my next PowerBook moving up from the PowerBook 5200 I was then using. Reading back the column nearly 10 years later, I'm interested to note that I was right about the Lombard's debut (it arrived at the Worldwide Developer's Conference in 1999), but wrong about another speed bump for the WallStreet PDQ, whose spec. remained the same from the PDQ revamp in September, 1998 until the end of production. I eventually did buy a 233 MHz PDQ PowerBook, which I suppose is an example of what Karr was referencing, since I still have it and it still works fine.

I'm also gratified to note that the system upgrade philosophy I advocated in '98 is not much changed today, although I hope no one bought a PowerBook G3 "Kanga" anticipating OS X support, because in the end the kanga (AKA PowerBook 3500) turned out to be the only G3 'Book not supported by any version of OS X.

Anyway, here's another cruise down memory lane from The Road Warrior Archive.

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Which Powerbook? (originally published December 21, 1998)

In the computer world it is all too easy to get so bedazzled by the latest and greatest that one's vision becomes clouded. Currently the latest and greatest PowerBooks are the G3 Series II "PDQ" models, and they are indeed fabulous machines.

However, it is profitable to ponder how short a time it has been since something else was the latest and fastest PowerBook, and how soon today's G3 "PDQs" will be yesterday's news. It seems incredible, but the grayscale display PowerBook 5300 I'm writing this column on was the fastest Powerbook model that had ever been built at the time I purchased it 25 months ago.

Unless you have *very* deep pockets, it is impossible to stay at the cutting edge of personal computer technology for more than a few months at the most. Even if you just bought a full-zoot G3/300 with a DVD-ROM kit, "Lombard" will debut in 1999 and the G3 Series will almost certainly be speed-bumped at least one more time for the latter part of its production life, which for Powerbooks from the 500 series on has averaged somewhere between a year and 18 months.

It used to be rule-of-thumb conventional wisdom that you needed to upgrade your computer at least every three years in order to remain reasonably current vis-a-vis support for the latest software. The Mac would usually carry you a bit farther than that. However, over the past 25 months (the lifespan of my PowerBook) we have witnessed a roughly 11-fold speed increase in Mac portables, plus the introduction of vastly larger monitor screens, CD-ROM support, and now DVD-ROM support, as well as various other bells and whistles that make one salivate to move up long before the requisite three years have elapsed.

Still, the obscene rate of computer depreciation, especially on high-end machines, makes early upgrading an absurdly expensive proposition. When you pay multi-thousands of dollars for a piece of equipment, having it become somewhat obsolete and lose 86 percent of its market value (PowerBook 5300ce) inside of three years is a bitter pill to swallow.

A more rational approach is to carefully consider how much computer you really need to perform the tasks you want it to. That doesn't mean that a new G3 necessarily wouldn't be your best choice - you may be able to put all that speed and the big display to good use, but one the basis of *need,* a lesser and cheaper 'Book might well be able to do the job for you. Feedback I received from readers responding to last week's column about the PowerBook 5300 indicates that I'm not the only one still getting excellent and useful service from these slow and "obsolete" machines.

"Hear, hear!" wrote Steven. "I too am a 5300 devotee'. I have had mine for over a year and I love it. My only complaint is that it is so solid, I cannot justify a new G3. Sigh."

PowerBook road warriors who have convinced themselves that they absolutely must have a G3 300 to do word processing and Web surfing on might find this letter from Joe Williams, who works at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, a bit of a reality-check.

Joe writes:

"Charles -- I read your column on the 5300 Revisited with great interest. I purchased a 5300cs about three years ago. (At the time, I wanted color, but I didn't want to shell out the big bucks for the c or ce model —$2700 was plenty for me.)

"Other than a broken mouse and monitor hinge problem (all fixed under warranty), I've used my machine faithfully every day at work at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. In fact, as I am writing this to you on my 5300 cs, I'm sitting on console supporting the current Shuttle mission. I can do pretty much everything with this machine in support of my role as a Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures Officer. I salivate over the new G3 PowerBooks, but since my 5300cs has served me faithfully, I'm going to wait a while before stepping up -- maybe another generation, possibly two."

Wow, I thought upon reading this. The poor old 5300 gets about as much respect as Rodney Dangerfield, but there it is out in the real world supporting the Space Shuttle mission to begin assembly of the International Space Station. Very cool!

"My division's Administrative Assistant is supportive of our use of
existing Macintoshes," says Joe. "Besides my PowerBook 5300, I use a Power Mac 7500/100 obtained from excess from the Air Force (which was getting rid of Macs in favor of Wintel boxes -- their loss was my gain!). I was also using a Mac IIfx, but replaced it recently with a PowerMac 7100/66. I host our group's website on the 7500, running Web Sharing and FMPro as information servers."

"Most of the information about PowerBooks I see elsewhere on the Web are G3-centric," Says Joe. "I was pleased to see your article on the 5300 series, and I wish there were more to be found. Many of us (as you know) continue to work hard with older PowerBooks, and squeezing that extra bit of performance is always good. I saw your note about using SpeedDoubler to improve your performance, and that has inspired me to get a copy for my machine."

Connectix will be pleased.

Indeed, I think most PowerBook users, including me, would have a hard time objectively justifying the *need* for a 'Book more powerful than a 3400c, which, as you may recall, was "the fastest laptop (not just PowerBook) ever built" just a little more than a year ago.

So is a 3400c what I recommend to prospective PowerBook buyers who ask my sage advice? Not necessarily. It really depends both on what you plan to do with the 'Book now, and what you might anticipate doing with it in the future. For some users, an old 100 series 'Book for a couple of hundred bucks might make perfectly good sense, if all you need it for is a bit of low end word processing, email, and a portable backup for your desktop machine.

Need more speed and features? The 500, 5300, and Duo series are very capable machines that sell for bargain prices.

If you want a bigger display and CD-ROM support, the rock-solid 1400 series is your minimum choice. It is a testament to the 1400's desirability, despite its relative slowness, that leftover, used, and refurbished 1400s sell for remarkably little less than 3400s. One reason for this phenomenon is that the 1400 can be souped up to G3 speed with a Newer Technology or Vimage upgrade daughtercard, while there is no practical upgrade path for the 3400c.

A sleeper is the cool little PowerBook 2400c subnotebook built for Apple by IBM Japan to very high quality standards. If you plan to lug your 'Book around a lot, this is the one for you. Some reviewers have complained about the 2400's undersized keyboard, but feedback from 2400 users affirms that once you get used to it, the 2400's scissors-action keys (same keyboard technology as on the G3 Series 'Books) work slickly and are quite satisfactory. The standard 2400c essentially gives you 3400c/180 performance in a subnotebook package, including a full set of PowerBook ports (unlike the Duos). Like the 1400, the 2400 will support a G3 processor upgrade. The 2400's downside includes no internal CD-ROM support, an external floppy-drive, and a relatively small 10.4" TFT display (the same as the 5300c and ce). There are still some leftover new 2400s available for under $1,500. Try SmallDog Electronics.

If you need more notebook power for a relatively modest price, the 3400c (used, refurb., and there are still a few leftover new ones around) is a lot of full-featured laptop for the money, including floppy and CD-ROM drives, stereo sound with a subwoofer, an expansion bay, a beautiful 12.1" TFT display (which has substantially more viewable area than the nominally 14" Trinitron on my desktop Mac), and more than enough speed for most of us.

The original G3/250 PowerBook that debuted in November 1997 was essentially a 3400 with a G3 motherboard, a bigger (5 Gig) hard drive, lightning speed, and a humongous price.

Which brings us to the operative conundrum of whether it makes sense to lay out the necessary cash to buy a new PowerBook G3 Series machine instead of an older leftover/refurb./used PowerBook. Of course, if money is no object this is a no-brainer. The G3 Series is the best and most desirable PowerBook ever. On the other hand, money *is* a pretty significant object for most of us.

The clincher for some might be Apple's new OS X operating system, tentatively scheduled to ship late next year. OS X will not officially support pre-G3 Macintoshes, which provides a compelling reason to pay more up front now for a machine that won't be left behind a year down the road..

Last week Apple dropped the price of G3 Series 'Books, which makes the purchase decision a little easier. Apple has, in my opinion tried to get way too much mileage out of the "PowerBook G3" nomenclature, much as Chrysler did a few years ago with their Le Baron nameplate, which they hung on everything from 4 cylinder hatchbacks to V-8 rear wheel drive junior luxury sedans, to sports coupes and convertibles. It was mighty confusing, and so is Apple's PowerBook G3 product line. It was one thing to move away from the opposite polar extreme Performa motif of having a different model name for each RAM or HD configuration, but a bit more distinction among the various G3 "Books would be welcome.

First there was the original, 3400c-derived PowerBook G3. Then came the "Main Street" and "Wall Street" PowerBook G3 Series 1, and most recently the "PDQ" PowerBook G3 Series 2.

My pick of the litter for value is the current low-end "PDQ" G3 233 with the same 12.1" TFT monitor as the 3400c, a 512k Level 2 backside cache, an internal 56k modem, 10Base-t Ethernet, a 20x CD-ROM drive, and 2 Gig HD, -- a relative bargain at $1,900 - $2,000 as I write this column. The floppy drive is optional on this model. This computer is essentially an iMac in a portable box, performance-wise.

Less desirable, but not a whole lot less costly (so far) is the discontinued low end "Main Street" G3 Series 1 233 with a 12.1" dual scan passive matrix (STN) display and no Level 2 cache, modem, or floppy drive. The dual-scan monitor is actually pretty good, the best of its type that I've seen, but it still looks dim, slow, and murky alongside the bright, fast, active matrix TFT screens.

Series 1 233s with TFT active matrix 13.3" or 14.1" displays but no Level 2 cache are also a bit lacklustre. That L2 cache really gooses the G3 chip's performance. (For a little perspective, though, even the cache-less 233 G3 is 50% faster than the 3400c/240).

If you want the ultimate in speed and an even bigger display, by all means go for a G3 Series I 250 or 292, or a Series II 266 or 300, all with 1 MB of Level 2 cache. However, unless you find a really exceptional deal, it's probably best to steer clear of the 13.3" display, which has had more than its share of reliability problems. Only 12.1" and 14.1" displays ship with the G3 Series II Powerbooks in 233 (+L2 cache), 266, and 300 Mhz configurations.

The 12.1" 233 Series II ships with 32 MB of RAM, and was supposed to be a limited production run of 6,500 units. However, there seems to be no shortage of these machines, and Apple recently restored them to their higher education pricelist at $1,999. A 233 MHz "PDQ" with a 14'1" display and floppy lists for $2,499.

Moving up, the "PDQ" 266 included 1 MB of L2 cache, the 14.1" display, floppy, 64MB of RAM, and a 4 Gig HD for $2,999. The top of the line "PDQ" 300 also has the 1MB cache and 64 MB of RAM, but an 8 Gig HD, and DVD-ROM kit is $4399.

I'm in the market for a replacement for this 5300, which will be taken over by my daughter when I upgrade. Right now I'm leaning toward a "PDQ" 233 12.1" machine. I'll let you know.

Charles W. Moore



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cmoore@macopinion.com

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