It lacked an ADB port and used a lower-quality passive matrix display than other contemporary offerings, both to reduce the price.

[2] Like the Duos and the PowerBook 100 before it, the 150 only had a single serial printer port, however, a third-party adapter was available for use in the optional modem slot.

[3] One interesting improvement was the display's resolution of 640x480 - an increase from the earlier PowerBook resolution of 640x400, and more in line with standard desktop monitors of the time.

Notably, this new logicboard design allowed this 100 series PowerBook to use more than 14 MB RAM for the first time.

It was also the first of the 100 series to include a lithium-ion backup battery to preserve RAM contents when the battery is replaced, as well as the first Macintosh ever to use less expensive and larger IDE drives (formatting required a unique software application limiting the selection of compatible drives).