kovar@popvax.harvard.edu (David C. Kovar) (12/28/89)
I purchased a Macintosh Portable about a week ago now and I thought I'd give some non-technical opinions on it. 1) The case is, in general, nice. It looks good, carries well, and holds the portable. Unfortunately, I have a number of problems with it. a) It's designed like an old typewriter case: the majority of the case hinges up. When you have the portable in your arms it's difficult to get the case to lie flat to put the portable in it. This design would make sense if it allowed you access to the ports on the back but it doesn't: you have to take the machine out of the case to connect anything to it. b) The large pocket in the top of the case is difficult to use. I certainly wouldn't be able to keep papers in it very easily. The smaller pocket for the charger, mouse, et al, tends to allow everything to fall out when you're after just one item. c) The case picks up an amazingly strong static charge. I have to be careful to discharge myself when lifting the portable out. 2) Subjectively, the machine is as fast as my SE. In other words, I don't notice that it is actually slower. I do notice the time it takes to spin up the disk after it's been put to sleep. 3) I'm quite pleased that I can haul my office around on my portable. All of my client information, documentation, billing, network tools, spreadsheets, etc are at hand wherever I go. Makes life a lot easier. 4) I'm not hampered, yet, by only 2MB of memory. System 7.0 will change that. And if I start doing development I may run into a lot of problems. 5) I adapted to the track ball quite rapidly. I would not want to do any drawing with it, but for day to day tasks its fine. 6) The screen also takes some getting used to, but once you do, it is also quite acceptable. Very sharp! You tend to get a bit of a "3-D" effect that you learn to ignore. It does require decent lighting, there is no doubt about that. 7) It's heavy, but not unbearably so. The handle and the strap on the case are comfortable (I wish they'd put backpack straps on it) so I can carry it a fair distance. I've sat with it on my lap for long periods with no problems. 8) They keyboard feels very good. Much better than the one on my SE/30. That's about it for the moment. I'm very pleased with the machine. I'm not sure I would have bought it without the academic discount, but for $5200 it's definitely worth it to me. -David C. Kovar Consultant ARPA: kovar@popvax.harvard.edu Eclectic Associates BITNET: corwin@harvarda.bitnet Ma Bell: 617-646-0428 MacNET: DKovar "It is easier to get forgiveness than permission." [All opinions expressed are my own. Noone else assumes responsibility for me.]
sas@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Scott Sutherland) (12/28/89)
In article <3495@husc6.harvard.edu> kovar@popvax.harvard.edu (David C. Kovar) writes: > > I purchased a Macintosh Portable about a week ago now and I thought I'd >give some non-technical opinions on it. > >1) The case is, in general, nice. It looks good, carries well, and holds > the portable. Unfortunately, I have a number of problems with it. > > a) It's designed like an old typewriter case: the majority of the case > hinges up. When you have the portable in your arms it's difficult > to get the case to lie flat to put the portable in it. This design > would make sense if it allowed you access to the ports on the back > but it doesn't: you have to take the machine out of the case to > connect anything to it. If you think it is hard to get the case to lay flat, put a spare battery in the top compartment, then it is REALLY hard. A good way to get around this is to insert and remove the portable from it's case while the case is standing up. I simply sit the case down on it's feet, unzip the zippers most of the way down the sides, and pull the machine up and out. To put it back, just do the reverse. Since the case is quite flexable, this works quite well. > 5) I adapted to the track ball quite rapidly. I would not want to do any > drawing with it, but for day to day tasks its fine. It is actually not bad for drawing either. I've only used my mouse once, and that was just to make sure it worked. > That's about it for the moment. I'm very pleased with the machine. I'm >not sure I would have bought it without the academic discount, but for >$5200 it's definitely worth it to me. My feelings exactly. --- Scott Sutherland sas@cis.ohio-state.edu Staff Software Developer The Ohio State University, Department of Dance My opinions, not OSU's