Rash's Judgment: The Most Personal Personal Computers
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
The fourth member of a growing list of tiny laptop computers made
its debut last week when Toshiba announced the new T1000SE. The
new Toshiba joins Compaq's LTE, Zenith's MinisPort, and NEC's
UltraLite. These four machines have created a genre of laptops
that will also fit into a briefcase while not causing you to list
while carrying them.
 
Unfortunately, when you start taking a closer look at the
notebook-size machines, it becomes clear that you have to make
some hard choices between weight, functionality, and cost.
Essentially, you can have any two of the three attributes, but
not the third. For that reason, if you have a machine that is
light and cheap, it will be short on capability. On the other
hand, if it's light and capable, it won't be cheap.
 
This interlinking of attributes is clearly shown by the notebook
computers now on the market. All weigh in at about 6 pounds, but
the one with the most capability, the Compaq LTE, strays over
that limit by three quarters of a pound. It's also quite
expensive, but you do get an excellent screen, a hard disk, and a
3.5-inch floppy drive. Zenith's MinisPort, on the other hand,
takes the middle ground. It's slightly under 6 pounds, but the
display is dimmer than it should be, and it has those unique
2-inch floppy drives. Toshiba shows the low-cost approach, but it
still weighs 6 pounds, and it's not very fast. NEC dumped
necessities including any disk drive to get light weight, and it
still ended up being pretty expensive.
 
What this means is that you're probably not going to find the
notebook computer that meets all your needs. In fact, you may
want to consider whether you want a notebook computer at all.
Your business may be better served by getting a larger laptop and
resigning yourself to carrying more weight. For an extra 5 or 6
pounds you will get higher speed, faster operation, and larger
disk drives. Many users will find it worth the extra weight, but
not all will.
 
As mentioned above, one of the advantages of the notebook-size
computers is they can be carried inside a briefcase. This means
that when you need to travel by air, and therefore are limited to
two pieces of carry-on luggage, you can meet these requirements
easily. With a larger machine, you will probably have to check
something, making for delays at the airport. And some people are
running on schedules that are too tight to allow the luxury of
waiting to see if one's luggage has been lost.
 
In fact, notebook computers will do nicely for people who have
very limited computing needs. It's not a great problem to load a
word processor and a communications program into the computer's
RAM disk. With the machines that have 3.5-inch drives built in,
it's even easier. The problem is that these machines are still
fairly slow, so using them will not be like using the
hard-disk-equipped machine at the office.
 
Since a notebook computer travels with you and may spend quite a
bit of time by your side, it is even more personal than a regular
personal computer. Choosing one means that you must examine your
requirements even more carefully than you might normally. A
notebook computer that is well-matched to your personal lifestyle
can turn that snowbound layover in Chicago into a very productive
opportunity. Or it can be a technological albatross hanging from
your sore shoulder. It all depends on how carefully you decide.
Alas, the perfect notebook computer is not here yet. But we have
a good selection of near-perfect models to choose from.
 
                              --- Wayne Rash
 
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