7/2/19
7:00 am

The Best Vintage Mac Designs

Apple has produced a lot of different Macs with odd and interesting designs since 1984. Take a look at some of the most interesting, coolest and weirdest vintage Macs from 1984-2002. While some were commercial failures, most containted innovations that we still see as features in Macs today. Included are the Macinotsh XL, the Mac Portable, the Twentieth Anniversary Mac, the G4 Cube, the Titanium PowerBook and more.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. On this episode let's talk about the best, the coolest, the weirdest vintage Mac designs, like this one.
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So when talking about vintage Macs and Mac design you really have to start with the original. The Mac from 1984. This set the stage for the whole first generation of Macs. It really was a very different design than computers of the time. The weirdest out of all the first generation of Macs definitely had to be this one. This looks like a Lisa, which was another computer developed by Apple at the same time that was a big failure. In fact it was such a failure that Apple was left with a bunch of hardware and they converted them to Macs and create the Macintosh XL. It was actually a Lisa using software emulation to become a Mac. This thing sold for $4,000 in 1985. It wasn't a huge hit but it allowed Apple to get rid of all this extra Lisa hardware.
Now out of all the first generation Macs this one is my favorite but probably because it was my first Mac. This was a Macintosh SE. It was 1987 and it was $2900. The school I went to, Drexel University, actually required all students to get one. This thing had two floppy drives. What you would usually do is put the operating system and one app on one floppy and then your data on another. So you'd boot-up from one floppy, have the app say a word processor you were going to use, then use that to edit files that were on the other floppy drive.
Now a lot of Apple's most interesting designs were also commercial failures. Take for instance the 1989 Macintosh Portable. This was pretty much a failure as a 16 lb portable computer that cost $7000 ($14000 in today's money.) But it did introduce features like LCD screen and the idea of a portably computer running on a battery. Apple was pretty early to this game and this was just the first in a long line of portably Macs many of which would be very successful.
The Mac portable was soon followed by the PowerBook series. My favorite out of all of those was the PowerBook 160 because this was my second Mac. I bought it in 1992 and it cost a little under $4000. It was interesting because it had a gray scale screen capable of sixteen different shades of gray. You could hook up an external monitor to it. It was actually really portable. I used to bring it to the school library. I remember being the first person there in the library to actually be working on a laptop computer.
Apple got pretty boring with their design in the mid 90's. But then in 1997 they came out with one of the weirdest Macs ever. This was the 20th anniversary Mac. It was an expensive machine, $7,500! But it got you this design unlike anything Apple produced before or since. It was actually a showcase to show what new technologies were coming up. So it had things like a color LCD screen, this built-in sound system. It had a built-in CD drive. You could tune in TV stations and FM stations with it. It also featured a trackpad as its main input device, not a mouse.
It was only a year later in 1998 that we got the iMac. The iMac was an extremely successful computer bringing the Mac back into the mainstream. The price was pretty reasonable. It was only $1300 for one of these. It was an all-in-one Mac just like the original. It's kind of funny because originally it was a very weird looking computer. But it was so popular that it became normal looking after a while. Now in 2019 if you see one around it's kind of weird looking again. Now I never had one of those original iMac. They were geared to consumers and I was using my Mac professionally.
So I was really happy when Apple adapted that design and came out with this version of the Power Mac G3. There was a beige box version of this computer first but eventually they came out with one called the Blue and White Power Mac G3. It was a really neat enclosure. As a matter of fact I like keeping it on top of my desk because I liked how it looked rather than hidden away underneath. There's also an All-in-One version of this. It basically looked like a beige iMac.
From 1997 to 2001 Apple produced a really cool looking set of MacBooks, the G3 MacBooks. They had interesting looking code names like Lumbar, Pismo, Wallstreet. They were this all black plastic design. Really neat. They felt really good to carry around. I owned one of these for years. It was a great portable computer.
Now no talk about vintage Macs is complete unless you mention the G4 Cube. It's basically a mid range Mac from 2000. The base model only cost about $1800. It kind of was a precursor to the MacMini. So perhaps my favorite Mac laptop of all time was this one. The G4 PowerBook made with titanium. It was plagued with issues. Titanium wasn't a great metal, as it turns out, for making laptops and they painted it. The paint wore off after time. The hinges on this thing were horrible and after a few years pretty much everybody that owned one the hinges broke or made it impossible to open and close. But the design set the stage for everything to come. From the titanium powerbook to today's MacBook Pro it's pretty much is a gentle evolution all the way from 2001 to today.
So let's finish up by talking about this one here. This is the G4 iMac. Originally known as simply the New iMac. It came out in 2002 and it had a design very different than the previous iMacs. It used a LCD screen here and had this handle here that made it easy to adjust and put the screen facing any direction that you want. Any angle you want and you could actually carry it by grabbing this. It had tons of ports. Very capable. It looked great and I can't bring myself to part with it even though I've given away or recycled Macs much newer than this one. I think I'll probably keep this one forever.
So which vintage Mac design is your favorite. Which ones did you own and which ones do you still have because you can't bring yourself to part with it. Let me know in the comments.

Comments: 16 Responses to “The Best Vintage Mac Designs”

William Bagnard

5 years ago

I still have my 2008 White MacBook running Snow Leopard. It was my first computer. It changed my life.

5 years ago

Still have a 12" G4 Powerbook. Bought it secondhand and used it for about 1,5 years. Lovely design, and because we were talking about older Apple products with some 14 year old nieces, I booted it 3 weeks ago. Still worked :)

I also have a G3 'Flower Power' iMac. My wife used it last month on a convention as a 'business card' in her market stall. It looped about 30 images, and worked perfectly for over 60 hours straight! Some nice comments about it too :)

Patrick

5 years ago

I still have a Mac 512Ke which I initially purchased just to get the ImageWriter printer that was part of the sale. It was being used by an older woman whose daughter gave it to her after finishing college. It included an external floppy disk drive and the original Apple carrying case. No kidding, these cases made the Macintosh fairly portable. There are also the original manuals and disks to operate the computer. It still boots up and reminds me of my early beginning with the Macintosh.

Gordon

5 years ago

I also have an iMac G4 with the floating screen. I use it to access all my old file formats by running OS 10.4 which gives me access to apps that run under System 9. I did lots of art drawings on Canvas and none of that will migrate to a newer OS. The G4 works great! I can also access old Appleworks/Clarisworks, MYM, etc., files. Upward compatibility is always a problem with Macintosh. So I keep several older machines around. Thanks for the memories!

Rick Quarles

5 years ago

One of my favorites was the mid-range Duo, the Duo 230. It was truly portable. I carried it back and forth to work for years. There was a dock with a larger hard drive and which supported a color monitor. I still had it (still working) until I moved to a smaller home. (I also had an Apple Ice, an Apple Iic, an Apple IIgs, a Mac SE (1988), a G3, a Quicksilver (which I bought to get the 23" flat screen monitor)). I currently have 4 Macs, two of which are in continuous use.

Dairrell

5 years ago

I still have my original Macintosh Classic, my blue clam shell laptop, my iMac G4 with the adjustable screen, a StyleWriter printer, and a 2006 MacBook Pro. My history goes like this from start to present: Macintosh Classic, Macintosh Classic II, Performa 6400, iMac G3 Bondi Blue and the blue clamshell laptop, iMac G3 Special Edition, iMac G4 (the "Lamp"), iMac G5 (white body) and 3 versions of the Aluminum iMacs, as well as 2 MacBook Pros. I currently have a 27" and a 21.5" iMacs.

James Hawthorne

5 years ago

I've owned many Apple Computers, the first being an Apple Iic. The one that I just can't let go of is the G4 iMac with the floating screen. Even though it can only go up to Mac OS 10.4, it still runs extremely well and I love playing a few of my classic games on the machine. The design is so unusual and iconic I just can't bear to part with the machine.

Laraine

5 years ago

My first Mac was a MacPlus (1 May 1986). When I had a B&W G3 (second-hand) I remember getting comments like, "Oh, I love your new computer" from my husband's friends (who all used Windows). My fondest Mac memory will always be the original Mac Pro design. I remember being puzzled that Apple moved away from it so I'm not surprised the new one is more like the original, which had only two flaws (for me): the sharp edges on the handles and its weight.

Carolyn

5 years ago

Oh my! Yes, the 2002 "upside down" bowl iMac is my favorite design, too! I saw the add in Time Magazine and had to to buy one. I'm now regretting that I didn't keep it.

Thank you for your Mac history lesson.

Gary

5 years ago

I still have an iMacG4; however, the on/off switch is broken and the Apple Store can not provide a new one. Where can a new switch be purchased?

Gary Rosenzweig

5 years ago

Gary: No idea. I'd see if there is a third-party Mac repair shop in your city. Or look for one on eBay.

Gary

5 years ago

Thank you for your prompt response and suggestions.

Rocky

5 years ago

I had 4 of those cantaloupe (Flower Power) Macs that I used for my bookstore for many years. They served us well until about 6 years ago when we made a complete overhaul to the stores POS system.

Lisa

5 years ago

I still have my 2002 "Flower Pot". When I brought it to the Apple Store to transfer the data to a new iMac, all of the young people who worked there swarmed around and took photos of it. Lol! It still works. It's sitting on a shelf in my study. However, how can I make use of it? I assumed after it couldn't be updated or run fast enough, it was not usable. Any suggestions?

Gary Rosenzweig

5 years ago

Lisa: Since taking it out of the box to make this episode, I've just had it sitting on a shelf looking pretty. Since it has those nice speakers, I'm tempted to put some music on it and boot it up every once in a while to play the music with the iTunes visualizer turned on.

Nick

5 years ago

Using a 2008 white MacBook here, running Snow Leopard, as my only laptop, for browsing and word processing mainly. Bought 2 years ago (when my Windows machine died) to see just how different a Mac is before deciding on a replacement. Still runs absolutely fine with just a battery replacement, which was easy to do. So I've not found the need to buy a newer machine, though I do fancy a new MacBook Air!

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The Best Vintage Mac Designs

Comments: 16 Responses to “The Best Vintage Mac Designs”

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