Glory days of Apple portables

Four years ago, Apple sold the best notebook computers in the world. They were pricey, but people lined up to buy them because of their many unique and convenient features.

Then along came the PowerBook 5300 series, with is notoriously faulty power management and battery (earning it the nickname of "hibachi Mac" for its propensity to catch fire!) and clunky case, and Apple's PowerBook sales went into the tank.

In November of 1997, Apple started to fix the problems generated by the shockingly bad 5300 line, with its then new PowerBook G3. With its G3 PowerPC processor it set new performance standards, but it was still housed in a 5300ish clunky case. In May of last year, Apple fixed the case problem and goosed performance with a revamped line of G3 PowerBooks.

But even with those "WallStreet" G3 PowerBooks, complaints came in from customers that the darn things were just too heavy (approaching 8 pounds). As an answer to that complaint and to make the G3 PowerBooks more modular and reliable, Apple announced in May of this year the "Bronze" PowerBook G3s, named for their bronze-colored keyboards and trackpads. As a result, for the first time since the mid-1990's, Apple once again makes the best line of notebook computers you can buy. And thanks to value pricing, it does not take a lot of money to make that buy ($2,494 and up).

I recently tested (and am writing this column on) a 400MHz Bronze G3 PowerBook. It's a sweet machine. Weighing two pounds less than the WallStreet G3 and checking in with a half-inch less thickness than its predecessor, the new PowerBook G3 is still no subcompact lightweight, but it's less of a strain when toting it around the airport.

The soul of this new machine is either a 333MHz or 400MHz PowerPC CPU, which outperforms Pentium II portable processors running at the same or higher clock rates.

My test machine included 384MB of fast SDRAM, a 1MB backside cache (that helps the CPU use more of its rated speed -- kind of like having really good Michelin MVX tires on your sports car), 8MB of video SDRAM, an ATI Rage LT Pro graphics chipset (that decodes DVD movies and high-quality stereo sound), a 6GB hard drive, and a 14.1-inch active matrix TFT LCD display. The machine can also drive an external monitor or projector up making this PowerBook a good traveling companion for presentations.

You also get one PC Cardbus slot that can hold a Type I or Type II expansion card, but not the thicker Type III cards (like removable PC Cardbus hard disks, or the new Clik drive from Iomega), plus a 12.5mm high expansion bay that can hold the included CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, an extra Lithium-Ion battery, or third-party floppy (Apple does NOT include a floppy drive -- an unfortunate omission), Zip, and other removable media drives.

Like its predecessor, the Bronze G3 PowerBook also includes tiny stereo speakers for decent sound, plus built-in 10/100BaseT Ethernet networking, a 56Kbps v.90 modem, two USB ports (no standard serial or parallel port, however), a SCSI port, audio in and out ports, an S-Video out port, a VGA video outport, and an infrared port (IrDA). The machine lacks an Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) port, an old Apple standard for hooking up mice and keyboards.

The machine's keyboard is a bit spongier than I like, but still quite acceptable and it's full-sized. The trackpad and single mouse button are integrated into the wrist rest below the keyboard and offer a classic ergonomic design.

Apple claims that the 50-watt hour Lithium Ion battery can get up to 5 hours of run time (the unit can hold two batteries if you eschew a removable media drive), but my tests show that 4 hours is more like it. You will get far less, for example, if you are using CPU and video intensive tasks like watching DVD movies on that flight to Bora Bora.

Besides a thin-line power adapter brick and a satisfyingly long power cord, the G3's ship with a decent software bundle including Mac OS 8.6, Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.5, AppleWorks, Claris Organizer, Apple Internet Connection Kit, Apple Remote Access, PC Exchange (for ready and writing PC format files), Macintosh Easy Open, MacLinkPlus translators (for Macintosh Easy Open) with DataViz, PowerBook File Assistant, and the Apple Location Manager (which makes it easy to set the machine up in different environments).

The Bronze G3 PowerBooks are not revolutionary designs (unlike the cute new Apple iBook), but they show that PowerBook evolution is definitely back on the right track.