Apple's Desktop Replacement

Equipped for the first time with a PowerPC chip, Apple's dockable Duo notebook can keep up with desktop Macs.

By G. Armour Van Horn

Given the price premium of a notebook/docking setup compared to an equivalent desktop PC, it's fair to ask how a docked notebook rates solely as a desktop system. In the case of Apple's PowerBook Duo 2300c/100 and its Duo Dock Plus docking station, the answer is "very well."

The 2300c/100 is Apple's PowerPC update to its 4.8-pound Duo notebook. It's built around a 100-MHz 603e, the low-power chip designed for portables.

Our test system came with a 1.1-GB hard disk and 20 MB of RAM, for around $4600. (The standard is 8 MB of RAM and a 750-MB drive.) The 9.5-inch, 640- by 480-pixel, acti ve-matrix color LCD is clear and bright, usable in most indoor environments and outside in the shade.

The Apple trackpad is smooth and accurate, once you learn to keep only one finger in contact with the pad. The PowerBook Duo 2300c/100 has no provision for PC Cards in any configuration, although Newer Technology (Wichita, KS, (800) 678-3726) has docking products that offer PC Card connections.

The Duo 2300's nickel-metal-hydride battery lasts two to four hours and recharges in as little as two hours.

The Duo Dock Plus completely encloses the 2300, so you add a standard Apple keyboard, the pointer of your choice, and a standard monitor. The dock's built-in floppy drive is on the side, and standard Macintosh ports are on the back. The Duo Dock Plus has two NuBus slots and can hold a single 1-inch-high, 3 1/2-inch SCSI hard drive.

You must first shut down the Duo before docking it (a cold dock); docking in sleep mode prevents connection to storage and network resources. When you inse rt the closed Duo in the front of the dock, a motorized mechanism pulls it firmly into place. When you turn the notebook back on, it automatically recognizes and handles the attached peripherals--as any Mac user would expect. Pressing a front-panel button ejects the notebook from the docking station, but only if you've properly shut down.

We ran the Duo 2300 with an Apple Multiscan 15 monitor, keyboard, mouse, CD-ROM drive, and an Apple auxiliary unit interface (AAUI) network connector; we had no problem accessing any resource on our local network.

Running the BYTEmark CPU test showed that the 100-MHz 603e gives roughly three-fourths the integer performance of a 100-MHz PowerPC 604. Now that the Duo runs the 603e chip, Apple's docking setup can keep pace with desktop Power Macs.

---

Product Information

PowerBook Duo 2300c/100...............$4499 to $4699
Duo Dock Plus.........................$ 969

Apple Comp
uter, Inc.
Cupertino, CA
Phone:    (800) 538-9696  ext. 525 or (408) 996-1010
Internet: 
http://www.apple.com

Circle 977 on Inquiry Card.

HotBYTEs
 - information on products covered or advertised in BYTE

---

Ratings

TECHNOLOGY      ***
IMPLEMENTATION  ****

***** Outstanding
**** Very Good
*** Good
** Fair
* Poor

---

PowerBook Duo a Dynamic Combination

photo_link (73 Kbytes)

Housed in the Duo Dock Pro, Apple's 4.8-pound PowerBook Duo 2300c/100 notebook becomes a credible desktop replacement.

---

G. Armour Van Horn is a production artist and consultant in electronic imaging and prepress. You can reach him at vanhorn@bix.com .