PowerBook 500
v
PowerBook 190
v
PowerBook 5300

PRICES:

There's no point discussing relative prices here as they'll change as I write this and they're bound to differ considerably according to specification, condition and how much the owner thinks s/he can sting you for. But what we'll do is assume that the 500, 190 and 5300 you're looking at are roughly the same price - or let's say within $US50-100 of one another. More than $US100 is probably enough of difference to the price conscious to make them change their mind.

What you need to consider here is what you're getting for your money? Grayscale or colour? Passive or active matrix display? Low or high RAM quotient? Hard drive size? Dealer purchase with warranty or private sale? What extras come with the 'Book?

First of all, let's compare and contrast the main specs of our three antagonists here.
 

	500	190	5300
CPU	68LC040	68LC040	PowerPC 603e
MHz	25-33	33	100-117
Bus (MHz)	33	33	33
Internal HDD	SCSI	IDE	IDE
HDD std size	160-340 MB	500 MB	500-1.1GB
RAM std/max	4/36MB	4/40MB*	8/64*
Input device	Trackpad	Tappable t/pad	Trackpad
Display size	9.5"	9.5-10.4"	9.5-10.4"
Type	Passive/active	Passive/active	Passive/active
Gray/Colour	Both avail	Both avail	Both avail
Battery	2 NiMH	1 NiMH	1 NiMH
Floppy	Std	Std	Std
PCMCIA bay	Opt#	Std - 2	Std - 2
Ethernet	Std AAUI*	Opt PC card	Opt PC card
Modem	Opt internal (3)	Opt PC card	Opt PC card
SCSI disk mode	Std	Std	Std
IRTalk	n/a	Opt	Std
Sound out	16 bit	16 bit	16 bit
Sound in	16 bit	n/a	16 bit
Speakers	2 stereo	1 two-into-one	1 two-into-one

 

* PB190 models with 4MB soldered are upgradeable to 36MB only; 8MB models go to 40Mb. 5300 models have two different logic boards - one with 8MB and the other with 16MB soldered. The 8MB board has 512K of VRAM soldered; the 16MB board has 1MB of VRAM. This VRAM drives only the internal display and is completely separate from the external video.
# Optional PC card cage for the PB500 - but expensive and nearly unobtainable.
@ This is Apple's ethernet interface attachment, usually available used for about $10-15. Different versions of the AAUI allow you to connect to alternative ethernet interfaces, such as 10base2 or 10/100baseT.
~ The fastest internal PB500 modem is only 19,200bps. Faster external modems up to 56K may be used.

PERFORMANCE

Here we've got a number of processors and CPU types, ranging from 25MHz 68LC040s to a PowerPC 603ev running at 100MHz. While the numbers might be a fair way apart, don't be fooled by mere numbers alone (we'll leave that to the pentiUM crowd, who think MHz matters more than anything else; those guys'd buy a 700MHz 386 if intel brought one out. But that's another story).

A lot's going to depend on what software you have or are going to use. For users of older software, such as Word 5.1, Excel 4.0 or 5.0 and superseded versions of QuarkXPress or Photoshop (for example, Quark 3.1 or earlier; Photoshop 2 or 3), an 040 PowerBook is going to be little, if any, slower than a 5300. Older games are also likely to run better on an '040 PB (though you probably have a Mac Plus tucked away for that purpose).

Without Connectix's <http://connectix.com> SpeedDoubler, the 5300 benches much slower - maybe only IIci speed or one third the speed of a 500 or 190 in non-native mode. The performance is worst in OS 7.5x but, emulation improves in OS 8x. However, without SpeedDoubler, the 5300 is a lousy computer. With SpeedDoubler, its speed and 68K emulation outpaces the 500 and 190.

The 520 and 520c (25MHz) are slightly slower than the 190, while the 540 and 540c are slightly faster. This is due largely to the 540's faster SCSI-II hard drives which have far better disk access times than the 190's standard IBM IDE hard drive. You might not notice that much difference, but the 190/5300 IDE controller is not particularly speedy. In the 500, disk reads and writes are faster, resulting in faster copying and slightly faster application launches. Startup is faster on average as well.

Of course, if you want to run native software - or just newer software - the decision's a no-brainer. Only the 5300 can run Office 98, Communicator 4.5 or IE 4.5. Of course, you can upgrade the 500 and 190 to PowerPC - but we're talking pretty much factory-standard PowerBooks here. And that PPC upgrade for the 500/190 is going to come at a price.
 

DISPLAYS :

There are four different screens available on the 500 series, 2 on the 190 and 4 for the 5300, ranging from 9.5 to 10.4".

For the 500 (the much rarer Japan-only 550c aside), you're pretty much stuck with 9.5" display. The 520s both have passive-matrix displays, with the 520c's being colour. The 540s both offer active matrix with the 540 possessing the best grayscale display Apple ever put on a PowerBook: the 540's active screen can produce up to 64 levels of gray making it quite acceptable for web-based work. Of course, the top-of-the-line 540c's display is active matrix colour.

Both the 190 and the 5300 retain the 520's passive matrix 9.5" display which can produce up to 16 grays and which is acceptable for browsing and most general-purpose tasks. Interestingly, the base 5300 is the only factory PowerPC that isn't colour and even OS 8.6 and most modern applications support grayscale with few, if any, problems.

However, by far the best of these 'Books are the 190s and 5300s with 10.4" colour screens. In my subjective opinion, even the 540c's display looks washed out. As Byte magazine noted in their 1994 review, the 540c's display is of "middling" quality. The 190cs' screen is excellent for a passive matrix (the same one is used on the 5300cs). It displays 256 colours and is easy to read and use. However, for more colour-sensitive work, you'd be better off looking at the 5300c and 5300ce. Both of these displays are excellent quality, displaying thousands of colours. However, the 5300ce trumps the 5300c with an 800x600 SVGA screen. This makes for smaller text and icons, but gives you the bonus of more screen real estate.

So as far as display quality is concerned, the 5300c and 5300ce win this category hands down. But you wouldn't be doing too badly at all with a 190cs or 5300cs. But bear in mind that active displays use more battery power than passive ones and they place slightly higher demands upon the CPU. You will also have to take into account the higher asking price for colour PowerBooks. On the other hand, if you plan to use your 'Book as a portable desktop system, a 520, 540 or 5300 could make an ideal system with their built-in support for 8-bit (256) colour external video.
 

EXPANSION

The 500 series wowed the industry in 1994 with its outstanding complement of built-in features and expandability. With built in SCSI, serial, ethernet, optional modem and twin batteries, no PC portable came close to the 500. Moreover, the 500 offered an optional PC card cage, swappable with the left-hand battery, which connected to a 32-bit PDS connector.

The 190 and 5300 were much more conservative; the 2nd battery was gone and modems and ethernet became optional add-ons via the now-standard, twin-slot PC card module. However, they did provide an ATAPI-interfaced 3.5" expansion bay, in standard form occupied by the removable floppy drive. This paved the way for a number of expansion modules, including a Zip drive, internal power supply, a 2nd battery or a 230MB MO (magneto-optical) drive.

For networking, the 500's fast ethernet port (an AAUI port) is extremely convenient. It is also faster (though I can't tell the difference) than the 190/5300 PC card solution as the motherboard ethernet on the 500 is directly connected to a 32-bit bus. On the 190/5300, the PC card cage is connected to a 16-bit bus, thus slowing the data transfer rate. As far I know, the 500's circuitry will only support 10base2 or 10baseT ethernet (although it can connect to a 10/100baseT network), while a PC card for the 190/5300 can provide access to a 100baseT network as a specific PC card will have the necessary built-in circuitry.

A number of expansion bay drives exist for the 190/5300. These include VST's internal Zip drive; VST's internal hard drives (various capacities; 1.4 and 1.6GB are the most common); internal power supply; or Fujitsu's 230MB MO drive. All of these are interchangeable with 3400 and G3 ('Kanga') PowerBooks. But should you invest in these expensive peripherals? Maybe. If you plan on a 3400 or Kanga in the future, you can certainly reuse these components. 2nd hand, these modules are not that expensive. But at least they're available and that's not the case for the 500 series.
 

PROBLEM AREAS

The 190s and 5300s had their share of problems. Flawed logic boards, flakey trackpad buttons, screen cable connectors. However, most have now been through Apple's Repair Extension Programme (valid until 2002). Units that have been repaired have either an 'AA' after the serial number or 'B' if they were done at the factory before release. Other indicators are an ink date stamp inside the battery bay. However, if you have a problem after the REP, it will be Apple's option to decide whether the unit qualifies for further repair (it varies from country to country). If the unit hasn't been in for repairs, check with Apple quoting the serial number (all units qualify; 'Books with serial numbers xx605xx and below may have their logic boards replaced).

The main problem - apart from dead logic boards or broken internal power connectors - was really in the system software. As the Mac OS has improved, so has PowerBook stability. Avoid System 7.5x - it's slow and buggy. Originally, the 190/5300 came with 7.5.2 and this is lousy. Update to 7.5.3 (free 19 disk download) at least if you can't afford an OS release. You can also update that for free to 7.5.5 (3 disks). 7.6.1 is pretty good and fast. But I recommend 8.1 for its features and stability. OS 8.1 is also the last OS release the 190 can support. The 5300 can go further - to 8.5, 8.6 and 9.0. At present, some applications require OS 8.0 or later, while relatively few require 8.5 or 8.6. This will change though. Of course, if you want support for HFS+ drives, you must use 8.1 or later.

The 500, like the 190, also supports OS 8.1. However, PowerPC upgraded 500s can have OS 8.5 or even OS 9.0 installed by using a utility like 'Wish I were' to fool the installer into thinking it's a 5300 or something.

The 500 also has its share of problems. Most the damaged examples I've seen have had broken or cracked plastics on the lower screen bezel (the bit immediately below the display. It's fixed with glue easily enough, but offer a lower price to the vendor. Related to this is the possibility of loose screen hinges. It'll be obvious enough if this is the case.

500 batteries might also seem dead. But it ain't necessarily so. First try reconditioning the battery (ies) using VST's <http://www.vst.com> EMMpathy utility. It's a free download that may just rejuventate those 500 batteries.

The batteries can be another 500 negative. Seemingly everywhere except the US (and maybe Canada), 500 batteries are expensive (they are in Australia and correspondents have told me prices in Italy [and presumably the rest of Europe] are exhorbitant. By contrast, 190/5300 batteries may be only $US30 or so. But remember that if you have a PowerBook 3400 or Kanga-toting friend that their LiION batteries can't be used or charged in the 5300/190. But they can use your batteries. If you recondition, use Apple's free Battrery Recondition which comes with OS 7.5.2 and later. But despite the expense, the 500 wins the battery life war hands down. The twin batteries will provide at least twice the number of portable computing hours than the 190/5300. But of course they add to the overall weight of the 500 (@ 7.1lbs versus 5.9 for the 190/5300 grayscale and 6.2lbs for the colour models.

Now, as a fine point of interest, it's just possible (since we're talking about batteries) that you just *might* come across a 5300 or 190 with original - and I mean 'original' - system software. This was essentially a special version of OS 7.5.1 with a system enabler. Two points here: first, the original OS release was as buggy as hell and was only fixed by 7.5.2 with a new system enabler. Second, it also meant that the original batteries (LiION) were shipped. Sony made these batteries (badly) and two early 5300s caught fire (they were never in consumers' hands). Sony's fault remember. Lousy charging circuitry. Idiots. Anyway, I came across one of these oddities in Australia once. Sure enough, it was original and it hadn't melted. Wish Apple had provided LiIONs later for the 5300. While the 190 came with a standard NiMH, the 5300's LiION had cool charging lights on it, much like the ones on the Lombard's battery. Not that I bought it, but it was interesting to see this (almost) unique example of the model. With OS 7.5.2, Apple removed the ability of the 190/5300 to charge or use (or even recognise) LiION batteries. So if you do happen upon one of these, either put it in your Mac Museum (with a fire extinguisher) or organise an NiMH battery and a newer version of the Mac OS.

CONCLUSIONS

Well. Which one are you going to choose? Ultimately, it comes down to how you're going to put the 'Book to use. If you want a complete 'Book without having to buy any peripherals whatsoever, the 500 with an internal modem is the most obvious way to go. Whether dialling in or on an ethernet LAN, the 500 provides more than sufficient internet speed so long as you load it up with 20MB of RAM or more. Speakers? Built in. SCSI? No problem. LocalTalk? Yep. External video? Got that too. It was Apple's high-end notebook and, CD-ROM aside, lacks very little. And you can't beat the price.

But if you need a larger display, the 190/5300 is the answer (unless you're lucky enough to track down a 500c at the right price). The 5300c and 5300ce are the pick of the bunch, but the 5300cs and 5300 grayscale are cheaper and come almost as fully loaded as the higher-spec models (i.e. external video, sound in/out etc.).

Don't overlook the 190 either. Sure, its RAM capacity is only 36 or 40MB but 16 or 24 works just fine (the 190cs in my household started with 16MB and now has 24MB). Navigator 4.08 runs very well with 24MB RAM + RAMDoubler. The 10.4" 190cs colour display is excellent for a passive matrix. It'll run most recent software that isn't exclusively PowerPC and runs Quark 3.11 and Photoshop 4.01 just fine. Or even Word 6.0.1 and Excel 5.0 if you must (same goes for the 500s). But the 190cs' display is definitely superior.

The verdict? On the basis on all-in-one plug 'n' play connectivity: the 500. Tough choice. I'm a 5300c owner myself, but the 500 gets the nod because of its ethernet capability out of the box, twin batteries and everything else that opens and shuts. No brainer. Yes, my 5300 has a modem and ethernet, but these were extra-cost add ons. Plus an extra battery. Sure you'll have to pay for an AAUI for a 500, but that's peanuts. Which is why I nearly bought my partner a 540c (fully intended to do so). But the examples had a lot a cracked case problems, so I took the 190cs for $50 ($US32) more. But I've seen some refurb and/or mint condition 500s and they look great.

But of course, the choice is yours. Good hunting.