The PowerBook Duo line provided users with an ultra-portable laptop computer and, when matched with the DuoDock, a full-powered desktop computer. The PowerBook Duo was bare-bones with no floppy diskette drive, network, ADB or SCSI ports. The only connections supplied were a modem, a single serial port and a proprietary DuoDock connector. Connecting to the DuoDock provided NuBus expansion slots, an FPU, level 2 cache, 1.44MB floppy diskette drive, a second SCSI hard disk drive and a host of standard desktop ports including SCSI and external monitor connections.

One of the smallest PowerBooks produced, the 270c offered impressive specs. A 33 MHz Motorola 68030 processor was complimented with a 68882 FPU, up to 32 MB RAM, a 240 MB SCSI hard disk drive and a crisp, responsive 8.4” active matrix color display.

The power adapter pioneered the folding tabs for winding cords that would reappear on Apple PowerBook G4s and iBook G4s years later. It also featured a detachable battery charger to power up extra NiMH batteries.

This machine features an 8 MB RAM expansion card (for a total of 12 MB RAM) and a 240 MB SCSI hard disk drive. It was purchased at Norvac Electronics. It boots into System 7.1 from the internal hard drive.