Comments on: PC World is too harsh on the Macintosh Portable

By: Javier

Javier — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:26:25 +0000

Lead acid wasn’t standard at the time. Back then, all other laptops were designed around NiCad batteries.

A GUI wasn’t standard either. All other laptops were designed around DOS.

PC World thought the Macintosh used a toy operating system. Real computers used DOS. A couple years later, the magazine jumped on the Windows bandwagon. The Mac OS was crap, and Windows 3.0 was sliced bread. PC World was batting 1.000!

By: Bill DeVile

Bill DeVile — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 19:59:30 +0000

The Mac Portable did a great job for me on an environmental science exchange project in Egypt in 1991. Great battery life, as I had enough RAM to run a primary application and its data on a RAM disk. I had a model with a backlit screen, but the screen was very easy to read in bright sunlight.

Yes, it was heavy, but tough and very well constructed. I later bought a PowerBook 170 that was also used in an Egyptian science exchange project and donated the Mac Portable to a researcher at Alexandria University in Egypt — where it was still running well several years later.

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 19:42:14 +0000

Lead acid was standard fare for the time. Remember, this was 1989. This thing absolutely wiped the floor with it’s contemporary Toshiba competitors running DOS.

Isn’t this like dissing model-T Fords for not having air conditioning, anti-lock brakes, air bags, and satellite radio?

By: john

john — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 19:20:36 +0000

leave it to apple to be innovative…other than car batteries and the mac portable, where else is lead acid being used in this manner?

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 19:04:28 +0000

I gotta admit that one of the amazingly cool things about the Macintosh Portable was it’s battery life. Yes, lead-acid will do that (that’s why they’re used in cars), but you could get 12 hours of battery life out of the thing.

Actually, though, my favorite story is the woman I know who bought a Macintosh Portable instead of a PowerBook. She lived in New York City and liked the weight of the device. Someone could push her down, grab to the PowerBook, and run off. No one was going to run very fast carrying a Macintosh Portable… :^)

By: Michael Fischer

Michael Fischer — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 17:06:20 +0000

I read the PC World piece when it came out, and also thought way too harsh. Of course, I bought not one, but because I liked it so much, another for my wife on an around the world research trip. It was heavy if you were not in good shape, but ideal for fieldwork once you got it on site. Ran 6-8 hours on a charge, worked well outside in bright sunlight, and was fast for the time.

While I certainly like my MacBook Pro 17 a lot better, the portable was a lifesaver at the time.