Macintosh Portable (1989) vs. MacBook Air (2009)
What a difference two decades make!By Harry McCracken | Sunday, September 20, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Today, September 20th, marks the twentieth anniversary of the first truly mobile Mac, the Macintosh Portable. (For 1980s computers, all the compact Macs were surprisingly portable–they even sported convenient handles–but they couldn’t run off batteries.) When you hear the Portable mentioned at all these days, it’s mostly to mock its size–rather hefty even by late 1980s standards and absurd today. But we’re celebrating its birthday with Benj Edwards’ revealing teardown.
Benj contrasts the Mac Portable to the iPhone and iPod Touch–which makes sense, since they’re both truly portable computers, ones that are vastly more powerful and less expensive than the Mac Portable. They aren’t, however, Macs. So here’s a quick comparison of the Portable with today’s most portable Mac, the MacBook Air. Like its 1989 ancestor, it’s been criticized for being compromised and pricey–especially the original early 2008 version. But can you imagine the dropping of jaws you would have witnessed if Apple fans of 1989 had been able to peek into the future and see the Air?
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The Macs
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Apple Macintosh Portable
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Apple MacBook Air
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Announced
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September 20th, 1989 (original version)
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January 15th, 2008 (original version)
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Beneficiary of Steve Jobs reality distortion field?
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No, he was at NeXT
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Yes
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PC rival
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Starting price
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$5799
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$1499
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Dimensions and weight
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15.25″ by 14.8″ by 4″; 16 pounds
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12.8″ by 8.94″ by .16-.76″; 3.0 pounds
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Fits inside manila envelope
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It would have to be the largest one the world has ever seen
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Unibody aluminum design?
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No (it would have involved a lot of aluminum)
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Yes
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CPU
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16-MHz Motorola 68HC000
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1.86-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
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RAM
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1MB of static RAM
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2GB of dynamic RAM
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Hard drive
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40MB (optional)
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120GB
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Screen size, technology, and resolution
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10″ active-matrix LCD with no backlighting; one-bit monochrome; 640 by 400
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13.3″, active-matrix LCD with LED backlighting and millions of colors; 1280 by 800
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Battery life
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Lead-acid battery provides 8-10 hours of dial-up productivity
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Lithium ion battery provides up to five hours of wireless productivity
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Pointing device
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Trackball; can be positioned to left or right of keyboard
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Multi-touch trackpad; fixed
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Numeric keypad
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Yes, can optionally replace trackball
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No
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Internal floppy drive
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1.44MB; option for second drive
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Optical drive
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None
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Ports
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Video (requires adapter), external disk drive, SCSI, ADB, LocalTalk (printer), LocalTalk (serial), audio out
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FireWire
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None–Apple was working on it when the Portable shipped, but didn’t finish until 1995
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None
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Reader for memory cards
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None, but nobody cared, since memory cards hadn’t been invented yet and nobody owned a digital camera
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Networking
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LocalTalk
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802.11 Draft-N Wi-Fi
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Bluetooth
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I’m sure they would have included it if it had been invented yet
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Bluetooth 2.0
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Internal dial-up modem
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Yes (optional)
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No (external model available)
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Webcam
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Not invented yet
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Yes
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Operating system
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System 6.0.4 (originally)
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Currently OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
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Bundled software
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HyperCard
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iLife
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Runs Windows
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There were DOS-compatibility products for Macs from early on, but I don’t recall any that let you run Windows on a Mac Portable.
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Yes, through Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop, and VMWare Fusion
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Splashy TV ads
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Chances of seeing someone using one on an airplane
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Virtually nil–it was just too flippin’ large
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Pretty high
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Sonntagslinks Says:
September 21st, 2009 at 2:14 am[…] TEXT: Featurevergleich: Macbook Air (2009) vs. Macintosh Portable (1989). […]
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Пресата presata.com» Blog Archive » The Macintosh Portable Gets Splayed Open For Its 20th Anniversary [Retromodo] Says:
September 21st, 2009 at 8:33 am[…] (and only two screws) to make it easy to take apart. Also worth a read is their fun look at the Macintosh Portable versus the MacBook Air. […]
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Macintosh Portable Turns 20, Gets Undressed In Front of Sexier iPod touch [Retromodo] | Gizmo Nerd Says:
September 21st, 2009 at 10:27 am[…] (and only two screws) to make it easy to take apart. Also worth a read is their fun look at the Macintosh Portable versus the MacBook Air. […]
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Macintosh Portable Turns 20, Gets Undressed In Front of Sexier iPod touch [Retromodo] | Consumer Electronics Newz Says:
September 21st, 2009 at 11:25 am[…] (and only two screws) to make it easy to take apart. Also worth a read is their fun look at the Macintosh Portable versus the MacBook Air. […]
September 21st, 2009 at 4:43 am
Correction: The Air debuted with micro DVI, not mini display port. http://guides.macrumors.com/MacBook_Air#Rev._A_.28January.2C_2008.29
September 21st, 2009 at 6:45 am
@kevin Probably my fault for being unclear, but the facts for the Air are the currents ones except where otherwise specified.
–Harry
September 21st, 2009 at 9:16 am
You want some fun, compare the processing power of a Mac SE to an iPhone.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Chances of seeing someone using one on an airplane
Virtually nil–it was just too flippin’ large
But don’t I remember seeing one on a space shuttle flight
December 6th, 2010 at 1:19 am
How to apply what you said to use it on an airplane., even thought the function is very strong.
January 2nd, 2011 at 8:05 pm
I for one can't wait until the Mac App STore opens on Jan. 6. I have the new macBook Air and I am sure it's going to have so many coop iPad like apps that it will take portable computeing to a whole new level.