The Wallstreet, Lombard, and Pismo models were praised for their straightforward upgrade options, not only for accessible drives and memory but also for their CPU daughtercards that could be detached from the logic boards.

This encouraged the aftermarket, including Sonnet, Powerlogix, Wegener Media, and others, to offer G3 CPU upgrades across various series.

In some instances, they even provided G4 upgrades, allowing these machines to rival or exceed the performance of Apple's contemporary 'G4 Titanium' PowerBooks of that era.

The G3 made the Kanga more than twice as fast as a 3400c,[1] and the improved graphics controller allowed it to refresh the screen 74 percent faster.

Nevertheless, many people chose to purchase a Kanga to continue using their interchangeable expansion bay modules, batteries, and other peripherals from the Powerbook 190, 5300 and 3400 models.

The machine was completely redesigned with a new case that was lighter and more rounded than the previous PowerBook G3; however, it was still an Old World ROM Macintosh.

The 13.3" display came with a quick-to-fail ribbon cable that was produced too short, leading to a swath of warranty repairs that led Apple to remove the 13.3" model from the lineup after the initial production run.

This change meant that CD and DVD recorders designed for Wintel machines could more easily be used in this computer, often at a price far less than those manufactured by Apple.

The 233 MHz machine was now equipped with a vastly improved TFT panel (compared to the passive matrix of the 12.1" Wallstreet I series), as well as a 512 KB backside cache allowing for far superior performance at the same 233 MHz, though it was equipped with 2 MB onboard VRAM compared to the 4 MB on the faster 14.1" models.

The 13.3" display was removed from the line, owing to both the falling production costs of the larger TFT and the near-guaranteed failure of the 13.3" models' ribbon cable through the hinge; it was produced slightly too short, and many failed soon after purchase.

The PowerBook G3 Series was Apple's first notebook offering that matched the build-to-order customization of the Power Mac G3 desktop line.

Graphics were provided by an ATi Rage LT Pro chipset on the PCI bus, to drive its 14.1-inch LCD at a maximum resolution of 1024×768.

[citation needed] More RAM (up to 512 MB), a greater hard drive (up to 128 GB), and CPU upgrades (up to a 433 MHz G4) are available for these PowerBooks.

Apple settled on fitting the Pismo board into the form factor of the previous Lombard G3 PowerBook, but with many improvements.

The PCI graphics used on the Lombard were updated to an AGP-connected ATi Rage Mobility 128, though the video memory was kept at 8 MB, and could not be upgraded, and the screen's resolution was the same as well.

[5] It was also the first PowerBook with AirPort networking as an official option (although it could be added to the earlier models via various third-party CardBus cards).

[a][6] [10] The PowerBook G3 was featured in many facets of popular culture from the late 1990s to the mid 2000s, including You've Got Mail, NewsRadio, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, House on Haunted Hill, Mission: Impossible, Disney's The Kid, Dark Angel, What Women Want, The West Wing, Friends, The Lone Gunmen, The Core, Duplex, Saw, Sex and the City,[12] How I Met Your Mother, Night at the Museum, Charmed, Everybody Loves Raymond, Stargate SG-1, That's So Raven and Angel.