Apple PowerBook 3400C (M5828F/A) Mac Notebook
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Nice for the price
Pros
Usable, nice (but small) screen, good speakers (for a laptop), wireless PC card works
Cons
Rather warm, somewhat slow, small hard drive
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
This laptop is great if you can get it for a low price. However, before buying it, consider looking at a PowerBook G3.
I purchased a 180MHz PowerBook 3400c at a surplus sale at a well-known college. I think that it has been a pretty good bargain for its price. PowerBook G3s sell for more than $700 on eBay, but my 3400c does many things just as well. It's very usable in Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, the applications I use most, and it seems just a bit slower than my Power Macintosh G4/450. I can also run programs like GoLive, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Photoshop, but it feels better to use these on my G4. However, in a pinch, the PowerBook would do for this. The Sims runs somewhat slowly, although playably, as long as I have Virtual Memory turned on.
The screen seems very bright, but is kind of small. It's 12.1 inches, 2 inches smaller than my brother's 14.1 inch screen, but seems brighter and whiter. This is a welcome relief from the dim screen of my PowerBook Duo 280c. It includes 4 speakers, the only laptop I know of to do this. This means that sound is reasonable, but it is missing some of the bass that is included in better speakers such as the speakers included in an iMac.
It is very nice to be able to free yourself from an ethernet wire. I have a Lucent Technologies WaveLAN Silver card I use with an AirPort base station, and its great to not be tied to my desk. In my home, I don't have air conditioning on the second floor, where my laptop is. With wireless internet I can go down to the first floor and work, and even work outside. Wireless internet is expensive, but it's worth the money.
There are a few problems with the 3400c. It gets rather warm on the bottom, making it inconvenient to use on your lap for long periods of time. Also, as I mentioned above, it is kind of slow in applications such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver. This can be somewhat cured using a program that allows me to control my desktop along with the wireless internet connection, but then I cannot use it more than 150 feet away from the base station. Also, after I install all these things on my hard drive, I can't fit much else.
The screen seems very bright, but is kind of small. It's 12.1 inches, 2 inches smaller than my brother's 14.1 inch screen, but seems brighter and whiter. This is a welcome relief from the dim screen of my PowerBook Duo 280c. It includes 4 speakers, the only laptop I know of to do this. This means that sound is reasonable, but it is missing some of the bass that is included in better speakers such as the speakers included in an iMac.
It is very nice to be able to free yourself from an ethernet wire. I have a Lucent Technologies WaveLAN Silver card I use with an AirPort base station, and its great to not be tied to my desk. In my home, I don't have air conditioning on the second floor, where my laptop is. With wireless internet I can go down to the first floor and work, and even work outside. Wireless internet is expensive, but it's worth the money.
There are a few problems with the 3400c. It gets rather warm on the bottom, making it inconvenient to use on your lap for long periods of time. Also, as I mentioned above, it is kind of slow in applications such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver. This can be somewhat cured using a program that allows me to control my desktop along with the wireless internet connection, but then I cannot use it more than 150 feet away from the base station. Also, after I install all these things on my hard drive, I can't fit much else.
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