Codenamed "Hooper," the 3400 is Apple's long awaited high performance PowerBook destined to recapture the throne. Being the first PowerBook to couple Motorola's superior 603e PowerPC RISC chip with a full 64bit logic board, L2 cache, and accelerated video, the 3400 ushered in a whole new type of portable which could keep up with many desktop systems.
A 3400 uses the familiar bottom case similar to a 5300 series with a large 12.1" active matrix screen displaying 800x600 and 32,768 colors. Video out capabilities are built in and driven by 1MB of VRAM. Multimedia is taken rather seriously, as is evidenced by an integrated microphone, sound in/out ports, and four speakers.
All 3400's come with a minimum of 16MB RAM. There are two versions of the 3400c/180. One lacks a built-in 33.6 modem/10BASE-T Ethernet and 6x CD. The modem module uses one jack for phone (RJ-11) and Ethernet (RJ-45) connections. 3400's again attempt to use lithium-ion (LiIon) batteries.
The 3400's, along with the 1400's, are built to recapture the design excellence, innovation, reliability, and performance PowerBooks have been known for since the 100 series. The best PC laptop at the time of the 3400 is a Toshiba Pentium MMX at 166MHz. It is ugly, has a hot, powersucking 32 bit chip with a 64 bit crutch tacked on and runs a partially 32 bit OS. Or so I've heard.
Advantages
- Speed
- The 3400 is the fastest clocked portable of its time. It is the first PowerPC laptop to really use a PowerPC chip and include accelerated video hardware.
- Reliability
- Though unproven at the time of this writing, it has to be reliable or it's the last one.
- Service
- Though we all have horror stories, Apple service is among the best in the industry. Apple is one of the last major computer manufacturers to still offer free technical support, not only for new hardware, but often for old systems as well.
- Features
- The 3400 has many cutting edge features; ie expansion ports and bays, accelerated graphics, four-speaker sound, etc., not to mention incredible speed.
Drawbacks
- Price
- Cutting edge performance, design, features, and hype carry a heavy toll on the pocketbook. So sell the car.
- Video
- The video out port does not support multiple desktops, only video mirroring.
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