From the history of Apple: The PowerBook G3 is coming

In the first half of May 1999, Apple introduced the third generation of its Powerbook product line laptops. The PowerBook G3 slimmed down by a respectable 29%, shed two kilograms of weight, and featured an all-new keyboard that eventually became one of its hallmarks.

Although the official name of the laptop was PowerBook G3, fans also nicknamed it either Lombard according to Apple's internal codename, or PowerBook G3 Bronze Keyboard. The lightweight apple laptop in dark colors and with a bronze keyboard quickly gained quite a lot of popularity in its time.

The PowerBook G3 was equipped with a powerful Apple PowerPC 750 (G3) processor, but it also had a slight reduction in the size of the L2 buffer, which meant that the notebook sometimes ran a bit slower. But what the PowerBook G3 really improved significantly compared to its predecessors was battery life. PowerBook G3 Lombard lasted five hours on a single charge. In addition, owners could add a second battery, doubling the computer's battery life on a single full charge to an incredible 10 hours.

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Apple PowerBook G3 500 Pismo

Apple PowerBook G3 500 Pismo

Apple's Upside Down Downside Up Logo (PowerBook G3 (Lombard) by Damian_Ward, via Flickr)

PowerBook G3 “Lombard” (Bronze Keyboard) (1999) (1)

The translucent keyboard that gave the laptop its common name was made of bronze-colored plastic, not metal. A DVD drive was supplied as an option on the 333 MHz model or as standard equipment on all 400 MHz versions. But that wasn't all. With the arrival of the Lombard model, PowerBooks also got USB ports. Thanks to these changes, Lombard has become a truly revolutionary laptop. The PowerBook G3 is also seen as the computer that definitively confirmed Apple's return back to the big names of the technology industry. Although a little later the new iBook came into the spotlight, the PowerBook G3 Lombard certainly did not disappoint, and at a price of 2499 dollars, its parameters far exceeded the competition's offer at the time.

The PowerBook G3 Lombard also offered 64 MB RAM, a 4 GB hard drive, ATI Rage LT Pro graphics with 8 MB SDRAM, and a 14,1″ color TFT display. It required Mac OS 8.6 or later, but could run any Apple operating system up to OS X 10.3.9.