PowerBook Duo 230

The 230 was the faster Duo, a 68030 at 33MHz against the 210's 25, in the same magnesium-reinforced case with the same 9-inch monochrome passive-matrix screen and the same single docking connector. Roughly 30 percent more throughput for a modest premium. That mattered to anyone running System 7.1 with a stack of extensions loaded, which in 1992 was most people, and reviewers recommended the 230 to anyone using a Duo as their only machine rather than as a travel companion. Everything else was Duo. Astonishingly thin for the year, a keyboard and trackball fitted into a footprint nothing else matched, and total dependence on the Duo Dock or MiniDock for an external monitor, expansion, and in some configurations even ADB and serial ports. The trade press admired the engineering of getting a full 68030 logic board into that enclosure. They also noted the small imprecise trackball, expensive and awkward RAM upgrades, and the feeling of being charged twice for accessories you needed to make the machine complete. Consultants and journalists kept them for years. The 230 is the one collectors look for, since it caught the Duo idea at its peak before color screens and 68040s started pushing the thermal and battery limits harder than the design could take.