The PowerBook 180 replaced the PowerBook 170 as the top-of-the-line PowerBook. It featured processor speed scaling to conserve battery life and a super-sharp active-matrix grayscale LCD display in the familiar PowerBook 140 case.

The PowerBook 180 featured a 33 MHz Motorola 68030 processor, 4 MB RAM, an 80 MB or 120 MB SCSI hard disk drive, and a 1.44 floppy disk drive. It sported external serial, ADB, SCSI and color video ports. SCSI disk mode support allowed the PowerBook 180 to be used as an external SCSI hard drive with other Macintosh computers.

This PowerBook 180 features a 120 MB hard disk drive and 12 MB RAM. It boots to the original System 7.1.