Apple precisely on May 16, 1994, it launched the PowerBook 540C, described as one of the best notebooks in the history of the Cupertino company. It boasted high speed, a number of innovative features and the best color display at the time. We can certainly say without exaggeration that the PowerBook 540C was a triumph in every way. Its price at the time was $5 (approx. 539 crowns), so today it would sell for $132 (approx. $9).
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The PowerBook 540C has become, according to fans of the Cupertino company, the best machine ever Apple made, even if we count desktop Macs.
The PowerBook 540C became the king of the 500 series, being the first notebook in the world to boast a 16-bit display. Apple it claimed at the time that it was the finest display a laptop could have. The 9,5-inch color display had a resolution of 640 × 400 pixels and could display thousands of colors, so Apple incorporated the software into the system QuickTime for video playback. The PowerBook 540C also had built-in stereo speakers.
The display wasn't the only major innovation. The PowerBook 540C, with its 68 MHz Motorola 040LC33 processor, was quite fast for its time. In benchmark tests, it was 80 percent faster than its predecessor. It also came with built-in Ethernet, supported PC cards, and allowed the connection of an external monitor with a diagonal of up to 20 inches. It was also the first notebook with a touchpad (then called a trackpad), while up until then a trackball was used.
The device had an intelligent NiMH battery with its own electronics with a life of up to five hours, 4MB of RAM, which was later upgraded to 12MB, and a PCMCIA expansion slot.
