Taking your Mac on the road: Outbound Laptop System - Hardware Review - alternative to Apple Macintosh Portable from Outbound Systems Inc - evaluation

Home Office Computing, Feb, 1991 by Eric Taub

Plus-Two New innovative Phones Taking Your Mac On the Road Outbound Laptop System Rating: * * * ATA GLANCE: A smaller, lighter, and less expensive alternative to Apple's sophisticated and pricey Portable. Unit requires Mac Plus or SE (or possibly Classic) ROM chips. Works as stand-alone laptop, or connected to the Mac. DOCUMENTATION: Simple, clear, and well indexed. SETUP: Comes fully configured and ready to run. EASE OF USE: Could simply be a matter of getting used to the pointing device. VALUE: Excellent when compared with expensive Mac Portable and even-more-expensive Colby and DynaMac portables. However, very capable DOS-based laptops cost considerably less than the Outbound. Must purchase a Mac Plus or SE (or possibly Classic) if you haven't already. SUPPORT: From dealer or from Outbound's 800 number. Outbound support staff knowledgeable, prompt, and helpful. LIST PRICE: $2,999 for one-floppy model; $3,999 for 40MB internal hard-disk model. (You must provide your own Plus, SE or possibly a Classic.) Includes Microsoft Mouse. STREET PRICE RANGE: $2,600-$2,999 for one-floppy model; $3,600-$3,999 for 40MB model. MANUFACTURER: Outbound Systems, Inc., 4840 Pearl East Circle, Boulder, CO 80301; (303) 786-9200, (800) 444-4607 MICROPROCESSOR: Motorola 68000 15 MHz MEMORY: 1MB, expandable to 4MB DISK DRIVES: 1.4MB FDHD floppy-disk drive with 4MB silicon drive, which can be expanded to as much as 16MB using 4MB SIMMS; or 40MB internal hard-disk drive. (There is only enough internal room for a single drive.) PORTS: 15-pin proprietary, one AppleTalk, one RS232 serial, host adapter/expansion port AVAILABLE EXPANSION SLOTS: None SOFTWARE INCLUDED: Outbound system software and Superclock 3.9 DISPLAY: 640 by 400 backlit supertwist LCD BATTERY: Uses standard camcorder batteries with maximum charge of two to three hours; about five hours to charge fully. Life: three hours. DIMENSIONS: 12.3 by 7.8 by 3.6 inches WEIGHT: 9.3 lbs. (with hard-disk drive), including battery WARRANTY: One year, parts and labor OPTIONS: Carrying case, $119; external FDHD floppy-disk drive, $349; SCSI adapter, $149 TERMS TO KNOW: Silicon drive-functions as an ultrafast RAM drive, acts like an internal hard-disk drive This less expensive, more practical alternative to Apple's big, heavy, and expensive Portable comes close to answering most Mac users' prayers for a lightweight, tossin-your-briefcase Mac. Technically, the Outbound is an accessory to your own Mac Plus, SE, or possibly the Classic. Provide your own Mac, and your Outbound dealer will remove its ROM chips (read-only memory, wherein resides much of the information for the Mac's graphical interface) and install them in the flip-top Outbound.

Does this mean that the remnants of your original Mac must be consigned to the scrap heap? Not at all. A special cable allows you to dock your Outbound to your compact Mac, so that it can be driven by the Outbound's processor. When the Outbound's docked, you use your standard Plus, SE, or Classic keyboard, your mouse, and your monitor, with the option to use the Outbound's LCD as an additional monitor (Outbound keyboard or mouse need not be attached). While docked, the Outbound/ compact Mac works well, boosted by the fact that the Outbound's processor runs twice as fast as a vanilla Plus or SE's. The Outbound uses the memory and storage devices of both systems.

But the real fun of the Outbound comes when you detach it from its mother ship and take it off on its own. The Outbound can't match the Mac Portable's six-hour battery life. Fully charged, the Outbound can manage three hours on a charge at most. However, it uses standard camcorder batteries, which are less expensive and more readily available than laptop batteries. Or use the AC adapter (included) when an outlet is available.

The Outbound has a nifty detachable keyboard that uses an infrared link, so you don't need to plug the keyboard into the computer. Firing up the Outbound is simple. Hip down the stand at the back of the case, unsnap the keyboard, plop it down on your desktop, and you're in business. For true laptop operation, you can snap the keyboard into the CPU and thus move the computer around in one piece.

The Outbound uses a few tricks to achieve its small footprint. The keyboard has no numeric keypad or function keys, and the Outbound uses an Isopoint, a fat wire roller that slides from side to side and rolls up and down to move the Mac's pointer, and which you push to click or double-click. While the Isopoint is awkward (best bet: Use two hands), it does provide the Outbound with a cursor-control system that takes up very little real estate. If you use the Outbound on a desk, you can use the included Microsoft mouse.

Outbound has recently introduced an external floppy-disk drive (useful if you've purchased the floppyless internal hard-disk drive model) and, even better, an SCSI adapter, which allows the Outbound to connect to SCSI drives and other devices, or permits other Macintoshes to access the Outbound's memory as if it were an external drive.