By Jay Arcos
MacDirectory
New Media Director

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Powerbook 3400

A few weeks ago I went to visit MacDirectory's Love and Technical Support specialist, The Baroness, at her glamorous and filled-with-trophies apartment in New York City. The reason for my visit was to meet her new "cybertoy": the Apple PowerBook 3400. At first I was shocked by the prices of this "cybertoy," but after playing with the PowerBook 3400 for a few minutes, I realized it wasn't shock that I was feeling, it was jealousy!

First Impression

We took the PowerBook out of the box and plugged it in right away. This 7.2 lb beauty has a 12.1-in (diagonal) active-matrix color SVGA display, which in plain english translation means the screen is as big or even bigger than some of the desktop computers out there. Attached to the screen panel there are two built-in speakers and an additional two in the keyboard. This little thing is a multimedia wonder.

"These systems' multimedia capabilities allow mobile professionals not only to give presentations on the road or in the office, but also to create media-rich presentations--whenever and wherever they want", says Apple.

As a matter of fact you can just run the demo program to get your first impression on reliability and accuracy for playing video and sound files.

CPU

The PowerPC 603e processor comes in three different configurations: 180MHz/200MHz/240MHz. We tested the 180 MHz, and it is FAST! to the point that The Baroness doesn't want to go back to her Performa 6300 anymore.

"Sporting the fastest processor of any laptop on the market today, the speedy PowerBook 3400 leaves its PC competitors choking on its dust. ...", says Nikki Echler, "Power Lunch". MacAddict Magazine

Connectivity

If you buy a portable computer, most likely you want to get connectivity online and with a network.

Some of these models are shipped with a built-in 10BASE-T Ethernet, and 33.6-Kbps modem. But that wasn't the case here, so we did some research and found out that there are not many options for this machine yet. It may be that the PowerBook 3400 is too new, and it may also be that its particular configuration doesn't make it too compatible with some of the products out there for other PowerBooks. However, we tried one external modem and two PCI cards.

• External Supra Fax 28.8 on the Modem-Printer Port. This connection is pretty straight forward. The connections and set up times were very satisfactory, but it's not the most convenient because it forces you to carry around a modem in your bag.
• Dayna PCI CommuniCard at 33.6. Well, I'll try to skip the frustration that I experienced while trying to install the software for this card. At the time of this installation, Dayna had not released the installer that was compatible to the 3400. But the PCI card was compatible, so in other words the software was incompatible, but the hardware wasn't. After getting great support from Dayna, we figured out a way to install the card without the installer. Dayna PCI CommuniCard has worked perfectly, the connections are established in no time, and access times to the web are considerably higher than with a 28.8 external modem.
• Farallon ISDN PCI card. There are few things that I don't really find practical, and this product is one of them. You buy a portable computer because you need mobility, you need to take your computer on trips, to hotels, foreign countries, and so on, and you can still do that with the 3400, but if you get an ISDN card, you will need an ISDN line everywhere you go in order to get connected to the net. Of course this is not available in most domestic hotels nowadays, not to mention when you travel abroad. But this is not the only drawback. This card can connect you to the net at speeds of 230400 bps, but only when using computers with PCI ports that can handle bps levels up to 230400. The speed limit of the PCI port on the PowerBook 3400 is 57000, so no matter how much money you invest on ISDN connections and hardware, you still get a lot less speed than you are paying for.

The 3400 comes with a Printer-Modem Port, a port for built-in Ethernet/modem and two PCI slots. The printer-modem port and the internal modem port are the ones supporting connections of 115Kbps and higher.

Additional Features

• The desktop patterns are improved here, due to the new System Software 7.6 that comes installed with the computer.
• Password Security is also implemented here, in case you leave your PowerBook unattended and don't want others to mess up your things.
• Expansion bay for the floppy disk drive, CD-ROM drive, or third-party solutions such as a second hard disk drive, magneto-optical drive, or Zip drive.

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