Belated Review
Written: Oct 31 '03
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Pros: Very well designed and powerful.
Cons: Quite a few compromises on the features.
The Bottom Line: One the used market, this is one of the better values of the day.
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| mjarve's Full Review: Apple PowerBook G3 14.1 in. (M7110LL/A) Mac Notebo... |
Apple has a long tradition of building high-quality, easy to use computers and accessories. At the time the time the first series of PowerBook G3 laptops came out they represented a fundamental shift in the way a laptop computer was perceived. Before the G3 series, laptops in general could not be considered for everyday use. Too many compromises were made in the design, sacrificing processing power for smaller size and less power consumption. The original PowerBook G3, code named “Kanga” was little more than a PowerBook 3400 (a less powerful model) with an upgraded processor. The models that followed it were quite different. The PowerBook G3 Series, code named “Wallstreet” featured a sophisticated design and layout that many still feel has yet to be matched. Encased in a sleek plastic enclosure, with rubber-coated aluminum panels, the PowerBook “Wallstreet” was as robust as it was stylish. After the initial “Wallstreet” PowerBooks, a second line came out, known as the “PowerBook G3 Series II”, “Wallstreet II”, or “PDQ”. This second series was identical to the first, except the 12.1” model now featured a 512KB lv. 2 cache (the first one had 0KB), and 64MB RAM was standard. Also, the floppy drive was optional (no longer standard). The model in particular that I am reviewing is the “PDQ” 266MHz version (series II), that was in the middle of the “PDQ” line up.
The Good
I bought this 266MHz laptop brand new for the king’s ransom price of $3499. It features a 14.1” Active Matrix TFT LCD display, which after some 5 years still displays colors crisply and without discoloration. It also features built-in 10MB/s SCSI, 10bT Ethernet, 16 bit sound I/O, VGA and S-Video output, 56K v.90 modem, 4.3GB HDD, 20x CDROM, and two auto-eject card bus (PCMCIA) slots. It also featured accelerated 3D graphics with a 4MB ATI Rage video chip, which was unusual for a laptop during that time. As I said before, this was a very well built, if not heavy laptop designed to handle the rigors of travel and everyday use. This truly was a “Desktop Replacement” machine. The SCSI port, virtually unheard of in laptops other than Apple’s allows for connection to a very wide assortment of external peripherals, such as hard drives, scanners, printers (yes, they made SCSI printers), CD burners, and very fast networks. Because of all the built-in features the two card bus slots were virtually unneeded. The battery, when new, lasted about 2.5-3 hours under normal use; pretty respectable. The keyboard was very comfortable to use, and could be used for everyday typing if needed. I purchased an external keyboard though, mostly to gain a dedicated keypad. The 266MHz G3 processor seemed about as quick as a 300-350MHz Pentium II at the time when doing similar tasks. 64MB RAM was generous at the time, but I quickly found I needed 128MB or more as software grew more advanced and less efficient. The internal expansion bays were very clever. Without the need to turn off the laptop, or even restart it, you could exchange the battery for a floppy drive, zip drive, LS-120, or any of the other 3.5-inch format drives available at the time. The CDROM bay could accommodate any of the previous drives as well as the standard 20x CDROM drive, optional 4x DVD drive, or even another battery. With two batteries, it has been said, you could get 5-7 hours of run time. Suffice it to say that the expansion bays on this laptop were extremely versatile.
The Bad
As with any piece of electronic equipment today, there were some caveats to the PowerBook G3. Apple recalled the power adaptor due to a potential for fire hazard. USB, which more and more was becoming a standard feature on PC laptops, was not even an option on the PowerBook. The 10bT networking port was dated even in 1998, and most other laptops that included integrated networking used a 10/100 system instead. The Series II G3 PowerBooks signaled the end of Apple bundling their laptops with a 3.5-inch floppy drive; it was only available as an optional feature at an extra price. The 4.3GB HDD was on the small side for laptops in this price range. You could usually expect on a 6.4 or 8.0GB HDD on PC laptops in the $3500 price range. Apple officially capped the RAM ceiling at 192MB, although as anyone who has tried will tell you, it can just as easily be upgraded to 512MB. The PowerBook G3 Series II was one of the last so-called “Old World ROM” machines, which means, in practical terms, that special considerations must be made if you are planning on installing OS X on these laptops. Speaking of upgrades, hardware upgrades for the G3 Series II were at times impractically expensive. I would still be using the stock 64MB RAM today did I not find out that generic PC laptop memory could be used.
The Ugly
Nothing on this laptop is so poorly designed or so badly executed that I could call it ugly.
One Sentence Summary
One of the most well designed laptops to date, even 5 years later.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3499
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor: PowerPC G3
Processor speed: 201-300
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): Under 4
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Epinions.com ID:
mjarve
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Reviews written: 5
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