June 7, 1993: Apple debuts the PowerBook 180c, a strong improve that brings a world of dazzling colours to the corporate’s laptop computer line.
The 180c’s massive enchancment over the grayscale PowerBook 180, which launched the earlier October, is its active-matrix, 256-color display screen. Such a display screen is one thing of a novelty for laptops within the early Nineties.
PowerBook 180c: An ideal moveable Mac
The PowerBook 180c was one in all the high-end fashions in Apple’s enormously profitable PowerBook 100 sequence. Launched in late 1991, the PowerBook shortly grew to become a staple of Apple’s product line. It additionally proved a well-deserved business and significant smash.
The PowerBook 180c wasn’t the primary shade PowerBook — it was crushed to that title by the PowerBook 165c — nevertheless it was the primary to supply high-quality shade. The PowerBook 165c’s 8.4-inch, passive-matrix shade show might seem dim if not seen head-on beneath excellent circumstances. The 180c, in the meantime, boasted a backlit, active-matrix show that offered high-quality shade from whichever angle you checked out it.
Briefly, this was the primary nice shade show on a Mac laptop computer. The 180c additionally featured a barely increased decision than the PowerBook 165c, being the primary PowerBook to natively run at 640×480 pixels, somewhat than the 165c’s 640×400.
PowerBook 180c specs
The PowerBook 180c additionally boasted spectacular specs. It got here with a zippy 33 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU and 6882 math coprocessor. It packed 4MB of RAM (expandable to 14MB utilizing a further RAM card). Regardless of its chunky case design, the laptop computer proved snug to make use of.
The laptop computer additionally featured a bunch of ports. You bought a plug for Apple Desktop Bus providers, two RS-422 serial ports, a SCSI port, microphone and speaker jacks — even a bay for a modem. As well as, customers might output to exterior screens utilizing a 256-color video connector. For all these causes and extra, the PowerBook 180c remained in nice demand for its complete lifespan.
… with a few downsides
Sadly, the PowerBook 180c suffered from two downsides. First, the show was barely smaller than the 10-inch show of the unique PowerBook 180 — and really a fraction smaller than the 9-inch PowerBook 165c. Most customers agreed that the smaller dimension was a good tradeoff for high-quality shade, nevertheless it nonetheless meant the pc’s show wasn’t superior to its predecessor in each single approach.
The larger drawback? Pathetic battery life. Operating each a 33 MHz CPU and shade graphics restricted how lengthy you can use the laptop computer on a single cost. In response to Apple’s personal figures, it lasted between one and two hours — however fairly intense utilization might minimize that right down to lower than an hour.
The PowerBook 180c value $3,719 for the fundamental mannequin, whereas the totally kitted-out model value $4,079. That’s between $8,230 and $9,030 in right this moment’s cash. Apple in the end discontinued the laptop computer in March 1994.
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