Apple PowerBook Duo: The Laptop That Was Also a Desktop

In the early 1990's, there was an industry trend to make laptops smaller and lighter. These so-called subnotebooks often resulted in a compromise between portability and practicality. Apple's PowerBook Duo series, however, tried to do everything.

Sources (in order of appearance):
PC Magazine, April 14, 1992.
PC Magazine, September 28, 1993.
Computerworld, August 15, 1994.
MacUser, December 1992.
Macworld, December 1992.
Macworld, December 1993.
Macintosh Duo System Developer Note, November 1992.
The Apple Catalog, Spring 1993.
MacUser, November 1995.
The Apple Catalog, Fall 1993.
MacUser, December 1993.

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[ActionRetro]

My Aunt had a Duo when I was a kid. It felt like a computer from the future.

[Slaypl]

"a lot of potential buyers felt like they were getting nickeled and dimed by all the accessories' Oh Apple, you never change <3

[jakesyoutubezone]

Your videos are an unlikely source of peace and stability during these hectic times, just like I imagine you use these projects to lose yourself and escape your day-to-day concerns, the audience gets to follow you to that tinkerer's nirvana. Thank you for doing such a wonderful job on these videos.

[jasonhoch]

I still have my duo 2300c, along with the full duo dock. I bought it (lightly) used in the late 90s, and used it through middle and high school. It was a surprising powerhouse for the day…especially when in the dock. I boot it up every so often for nostalgia purposes, and to show people a docking-style laptop was around in the early 90s.

A few years ago, I put an SSD in it, and it made the battery last significantly longer. Yes, even my battery still holds a charge.

Definitely ahead of its time, and looks good next to my SE/30.

[HolowatyVlogs]

So happy my dad kept his Duo Dock and a handful of Duo laptops.

[jsirius]

I love the careful repair you did on the standoffs. Great video! It reminded me of my early teenage years when I would buy out the local thrift stores of their outdated computer hardware to mess with at home

[bjaarki]

Using the soldering iron to get the brass threads in was genius! Thoroughly enjoyed the vid

[elenchus]

one of my teachers had one of these setups and it genuinely inspired me to think differently about computers and form factors.

[wal]

Your vids are the best, great job! Also, I take no offense to the car stereo comment about wiring :-P

[MmntechCa]

"They weren't comfortable to use back at the office." Looks at the horrible keyboard and trackpad on my work provided HP ProBook. Yep, some things never change.

[pkneeyahx]

glad to see these machines brought back to life. I'm the guy who donated the external floppy and the duo mini dock to you. Hope they were of some use to you and your project. Great video. I had been curious as to when i'd see this powerbook duo vid. no wonder it took so long with the display issues. Nice work. I really love your closeup shots.

[RinoaL]

Thankfully you can still find a lot of this stuff for super cheap out in the wild. Just sad that it is getting harder to find.

[munnsie]

Great video, Colin! You perfectly portrayed the frustration of trying to find parts for these machines, let alone waiting for them, only for the part to be the wrong one. I have had that happen many times, it makes the repair itself seem like a quarter of the total effort involved. Your 3D printed parts were thoroughly impressive. It's hard to maintain and preserve plastic that is getting older and older, but with solutions like yours, we can try our best.

[kjamison]

Good on you for saving this!

I saved two of these from being thrown out and stored them carefully at work. Then I fell ill and when I returned to work they had been dumped.
They weren’t fast but they were a great talking point and that push button eject was amazing. Somewhere I still have the locking keys that physically locked it into the desk unit and disabled the switch that ejected the Duo.

[iceefrags]

18:02 "they mustve had experience installing car stereos too". I feel personally attacked lol

[VENM]

26 min in and I just realized this basically was the first switch and switch dock haha. I love the idea and the complexity to each part. Thanks for the great and informative video!

[vaprland]

I was a wholesale sales rep for Caribbean Computer Exports in the late 80s / early 90s. We had the exclusive distribution rights to Apple Computer products for all of the Caribbean, Central America and South America. Watching your refurb videos brings back many memories.

Apple products were so expensive because their authorized retailers earned a 40% margin on the sale at retail price. CCE was put out of business when CompUSA began selling in bulk into our region. The buyers would fly to Miami, purchase a container load of Apple gear, then ship it to their country, undercutting the prices we could offer.

Great channel, great content.

[jdatlas]

There's just something about "desktop replacement" machines from that era that fascinates me. Probably a mix of the immensely advanced and expensive technology combined with how rapidly it was totally obsoleted by even better things. This stuff is amazing.

[Kane-B]

Loved this video and the soldering iron tip is brilliant!

[questionablecommands]

25:24 Woooah. Serious nostalgia over that Netscape logo.