1100FC                      Inexpensive, 6.5-pound laptop
Tandy Moves with Inexpensive Laptop
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Tandy moved into the low-end, no-frills laptop computer market
dominated by the Toshiba T1000 with an inexpensive 6.5-pound
1100FD laptop. It comes with an NEC V-20 microprocessor, 640K
bytes RAM, one 3.5-inch 720K-byte floppy-disk drive, a 9-inch
diagonal 80 by 25 non-backlit LCD display with 640 by 200
resolution, and a removable, rechargable NiCad battery that
averages 5 hours of computing between recharges.
 
Like other Tandy systems, the 1100FD comes with MS-DOS 3.3 and
Tandy's DeskMate DOS shell in ROM. The DeskMate applications in
ROM include Desktop, Text (an entry-level word processor), and a
90,000-word spelling checker. Tandy says it'll bundle additional
DeskMate utilities, such as Worksheet, Filer, Telecom, Calender,
Address Book, and PC-Link, on floppy disks with the 1100FD.
 
The 1100FD's clamshell design measures 12.1 x 2.4 x 9.8 inches,
roughly the same dimensions as Toshiba's T1000. Other features
include a battery-saving "standby" mode, parallel and serial
ports, one dedicated internal modem slot, and an 84-key keyboard.
Options include an internal 2400-bps modem and a replacement
battery.
 
Price: $999; modem, $199.95; battery, $29.95.
 
Contact: Tandy, 1700 One Tandy Center, Fort Worth, TX 76102,
(817) 390-3300.
 
                              --- Jeff Bertolucci
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
