Two laptops compared: The Mac has been ahead in the laptop
market for longer than you may think.
I decided to compare two laptops, both from 1993 - one Mac and
one PC. The Mac is a PowerBook 180c,
and the PC is an IBM ThinkPad 360c.
The Mac features a 33 MHz 68030 processor; the PC features a 33
MHz Intel 80486SX processor (SX means that it does not have an FPU,
the PB 180c has a 68882 FPU). The Mac is running System 7.1. The
IBM is running Microsoft Windows 3.1 and IBM PC-DOS version 6.3
The IBM features a nice, sensitive, responsive keyboard that is
very comfortable to type on. The Mac features a slightly softer
feel keyboard, which makes typing slower.
The IBM has one of those little red joystick pointing devices
below the G and H keys. The Mac has a much superior trackball,
which has convenient buttons above and below the ball. Too bad both
buttons do the same thing.
The Mac comes with a 9" active matrix colour screen, and the PC
uses an 8.4".
The PowerBook uses one easily replaceable battery, which slides
out of the right side. The ThinkPad's battery is under the
keyboard, along with the removable hard drive and floppy
drive - something the Mac does not have.
The ThinkPad has 2 PCMCIA card slots, which can be used for a
modem or ethernet card. The Mac has no PCMCIA slots, but does have
a built in 33.6 modem (there were various speeds you could buy for
it; this 33.6 modem was a third party model, the standard was 14.4
or 28.8), and you can use a SCSI-to-ethernet adapter to connect it
to an ethernet network.
As for memory, both the PC and the Mac came with 4 MB of
RAM. The PowerBook has been upgraded to the maximum amount, 14 MB.
The IBM still has the original 4 MB, which must be upgraded
with a special IBM memory card.
What about future upgrades? Well, the Mac has pretty much
reached the limit of upgrading, 14 MB of RAM is the most it can
handle. However the hard drive can be replaced with a larger one.
Most 180c's came with 80 or 160 MB hard drives, however larger
drives aren't cheap.
The PC can be easily upgraded with a replacement hard drive (the
old one simply lifts out and the new one fits right in), RAM can be
installed using an IBM RAM card, and additional capabilities can be
added using PCMCIA cards. The Mac does not have PCMCIA slots, and
the hard drive is rather difficult to replace.
However, the 33 MHz 68030 PowerBook feels faster than the 33 MHz
'486 IBM ThinkPad. The 180c is also much more useful because System
7.1 is capable of running most software that the last OS that can
run on the PB 180c, Mac OS 7.6.1, is capable of.
Windows 3.1 doesn't run much beyond old versions of Internet
Explorer, Word 6, and a few old games. If you want to upgrade to
Windows 95, you will need to buy more RAM (at least 8 MB, and
more is better), and I will mention that Win95 doesn't run that
well on a 33 MHz '486 unless you have at least 20 MB of RAM.
The Mac has built in sound. Sound was optional on the ThinkPad,
and even if you had a sound card installed, there was no built in
speaker through which to play the sound - you had to plug in
external speakers or use headphones.
On the plus side, the ThinkPad is dockable, which means that you
can hook it up to a docking station with a larger monitor, CD-ROM
drive, second hard drive, and "real" keyboard and mouse.
The ThinkPad also has a better case than the Mac. There are
fewer parts to break off, the port door actually stays closed, and
the lid is not as easy to accidentally open - you must release two
latches, one on either side of the lid. There is only one on the
Mac.
The Mac comes out on top for pointing device, built in features
(modem, SCSI), speed, and greater usefulness in everyday tasks
(Internet, email, word processing). So that gives the Mac 4 points.
The IBM scores points in expandability, having a better keyboard,
and having a better case design. That gives it 3 points.
Why would you want to compare an old Mac laptop to an old PC
laptop? Well, it simply shows that the Mac has been ahead with
laptops not just since the G3 (if you
remember the steamroller ads), but even back in 1993!
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