PowerBook 190CS
Review

PowerBook 190CS
Estimated price: $1,999
Company: Apple Computers

Apple has come a long way with it’s new line of PowerBooks. Past models were extremely limited in performance and storage. The new PowerBooks, which include the 190, 5300, and Duo 2300, come with the same features you expect from the best desktop Macs.

The 190CS, the one I used for this review, comes with 8mb’s of RAM and a 500mb hard drive. You have the option of a gray scale or color dual-scan display, and the speedy Motorola 68LC040/66 processor. The 190 and the 5300 are essentially the same machine, except the 5300 comes with a 100mhz PowerPC processor and a considerably higher price tag. The 190 has excellent features, including PC card slots, an expansion bay, a full size keyboard, and an improved trackpad that is not even available on the 5300.

The 190 has excellent speed, more than enough for most portable computing requirements. If you’re working with many graphics and graphic intensive programs, you would probably need the power of the 5300. For this same reason the 190 does not have the active matrix display as an option. The dual scan color display is plenty unless you’re working with lots of graphics, or sales presentations, and then you would need the Power PC 5300, which does have the option of active matrix color. So unless you really need the power and graphics of the 5300, you can save yourself a lot of money and still get excellent performance with the 190.

The rest of the machine is almost exactly like the 5300. Three PC card slots give you room for a modem, Ethernet, or increased storage. The expansion bay that houses the floppy drive can be used for additional storage or an a/c adaptor. The full sized keyboard is identical to the 5300, and as a bonus to the 190 owners, the trackpad is actually more advanced than the one that comes with the 5300. You can select the option of tapping on the trackpad surface to click on things instead of reaching for the button underneath by your thumb.

None of the new PowerBooks come with the option for an internal CD ROM drive. If you have ever seen or used a notebook that has a CD ROM drive, you can understand why Apple left this option out. Laptops with CD’s are extremely heavy, some are even referred to as “bricks”, and would add a substantial amount to the price.

The PowerBook 190 includes ClarisWorks, and it’s mobility software bundle, which provides excellent tools for making your PowerBook easier to use. The availability of an upgrade option to Power PC insures you won’t be left behind if your need for speed increases. Once the upgrade to Power PC is made you have the option of upgrading to active matrix color as well, if you don’t mind shelling out $1,500.00 for this feature. As I understand it, even with the upgrade to Power PC, you still will not be able to run Copland, Apple’s next major operating system upgrade. (Although Apple has rumored that it will come out with an upgrade to system 7.5 that offers some of the look and feel of Copland.)

One of Apple’s biggest breakthrough with this new PowerBook is the price.
If you do your homework and shop around you can take home a new 190CS for less than $2,000.00, while the older PowerBook 540C with a 320mb hard drive and 4mb’s RAM lists for more! All in all the 190 offers excellent features at a very affordable price.

So I would certainly recommend the PowerBook 190, or 190CS, as a powerful, yet inexpensive, portable computing solution.