Another Duo 270c fan! Huzzah!
The 270c is a fabulous little 68k laptop, in my estimation, and is easily one of my favourites - and I have in addition and lying around here a 150, a 160, a 280c, a 540c, a 190'c' (mit active matrix from a 5300c transplanted), a 2300c, a 5300cs, a working 2400c, several Wallstreets in several states of dis/repair, a Pismo, and a 12" G4. The 270c stands out amongst all of these as especially well-conceived. They make, I think, really excellent writing machines.
Best features? Gem-like screen, far better than the later active matrix technologies found on PowerBook successors; it looks more like a CRT than an LCD, and at 640x480 resolution. Solid. Compact. It's a 68030 laptop that (exceptionally) takes up to 32MB of ram, meaning that, with memory settings done right and the right software, the hard drive does not need to spin up, or scarcely ever needs to do so. With Nisus Writer, which has a nifty feature allowing it to be run from ram, power saving techniques like a small ram disk for auto-saving, and the processor on reduced speed (one of the truly great features of the 68030 in a mobile device), you can extend wordprocessing use on a single battery charge for ages. In sunlight, you don't need backlighting (unique to this active matrix lcd): on a sunny day, I can get more than 4 hrs. on a charge – I have newish NiMh cells. (The battery is fairly easily and cheaply re-celled because it is neither 'intelligent' nor LiIon). It has a 68882 co-processor, for what that is worth (I believe that it accelerates some of the mathematical functions associated with QuickDraw GX, e.g., which I rather like). It's as robust and reliable a machine as I own.
The keyboard takes some getting used to, as we all know, but I have found mine good to work with; it is, for instance, very accurate to type on. (The Duo keyboards improve with use, though they always remain 'firm' to the touch.)
Lots might opt for the 280c, with its 33MHz 68LC040 and all that, but it is not nearly so versatile because in return for the extra power it outputs, it demands so much power input in the first place. The 2300c is even worse, draining the same battery as I have in the 270c in about half the time. I have a 270c/ System 7.5 with 24MB ram and Nisus 5 installed, and a 2300c/ MacOS 8.5 with 56MB ram and Word 2001 installed; both are running software that exceeds the usual demands made of their respective processors, but the 270c is much faster in that configuration than the ppc based machine, even though the latter is running at 3x the clock speed. I have a 55pp., 35,000 word document currently on my 270c, running in Nisus Writer 5, and it scrolls and so forth like lightning.
Cherish your little 270c. It's a classic.
