Low End Mac’s Chris Carson notes that nineteen years ago, Apple introduced the very first color PowerBook, the PowerBook 165c. Running a 33 MHz 68030 Processor, 4 MB RAM, and an 80 MB hard drive gave it the same level of performance as the PowerBook 180, which was the most powerful PowerBook at the time.
Carson recalls that for many users, the 165c gave people a reason to buy their first PowerBook, because it finally had color. But this luxury came at a price, since the PowerBook 165c had a passive matrix display, only one hour of rated battery life, and cost $3,400 (approximately $5,500 today when adjusted for inflation).
He says what he finds find most amazing is that when you consider how much these machines cost when they were new, it’s difficult to imagine how anyone could think that Macs are overpriced today.
The first PowerBook I ever got my hands on was a 165c. I was underwhelmed by the extremely murky passive matrix display and the miserable battery life, but still so smitten with the concept of a whole, functional computer being condensed into such a compact package that I can date my conversion from desktop guy to laptop guy from that encounter. I never had a 100-series PowerBook, although I admired the PowerBook 180c, which did have a nice display, but was way to expensive for my budget. I finally came on board with an end-of-life leftover PowerBook 5300 in 1996, and never really looked back.
For Chris Carson’s full commentary visit here:
http://bit.ly/z5uQ7u
