by Chuck Horowitz
Information Week’s Alyson Behr put three notebook computers through InfoWeek’s Lab for testing: the Digital HighNote VP745, the Micron Transport XKE and the NEC Versa 5080X. The machines all have as basics: a Tillamook 233MHz MMX Pentium processor, at l east 32MB of RAM, a 2.1 Gigabyte or larger hard drive and at least a 13 inch screen. Although she liked the other machines for different reasons, her winner was the Micron as the best value. Digital is at 800-722-9332 or www.digital.com, Micron is at 800-964-2766 or www.micronpc.com and NEC is at 888-863-2669 or www.necnow.com .
Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc. (Cypress, CA) makes the Pedion ultra-slim notebook computer. This machine is 0.7 inches high and weighs 3.1 pounds. The unit has a 233MHz MMX Pentium (Intel’s Tillamook) processor, a 12.1 inch TFT screen powered by a 128 XD graphics processor, 64MB of RAM, a 1.0 Gigabyte hard drive, two Type II PC Card slots, SoundBlaster Pro, a IrDA port, USB (Universal Serial Bus) port, a lithium-ion battery, Multimedia Pack (an optional expansion unit) with a floppy drive, a 20X CD-ROM drive, stereo speakers and al l the interface ports (Video, serial, parallel, keyboard, mouse, VSB and stereo line-in and line-out jacks). With the optional Multimedia Pack and battery, the unit is 2 inches thick and weighs 7.6 pounds. Contact them at 888-445-5250 or www.mitsubishi-mobile.com.
AMS Tech (Irwindale, CA) has the Rodéo 266MHz MMX Pentium processor machine with 64MB of RAM, 4MB of VRAM, 512KB of Level 2 cache, a 3.9 Gigabyte hard drive, a 14.1 inch TFT screen (1024 X 768 resolution at 16 million colors), two drive bays for removable 20X CD- ROM and floppy drives, a lithium-ion battery, a 4Mbps IrDA port, a 16-bit SoundBlaster Pro compatible sound system, stereo speakers, an external video connection, stacked Type II PC Card slots, a TouchPad pointing device and all of the standard ports. T he price for all of this is $4,500. AMS can be reached at 800-886-2671 or www.amstech.com.
Quantex Microsystems, Inc. (Somerset, NJ) has the H-1331 with a 266MHz MMX Pentium processor, IMM. (Intel Mobile Module) architecture, 64MB of RAM (expandable to 144MB), 512KB of Pipeline Burst cache, a 4 Gigabyte hard drive, a 13.3 inch SVGA active-matrix screen, a K56flex PCMCIA fax/modem, a 24X modular CD-ROM drive, PCI bus with 128-bit graphics accelerator, 16-bit stereo sound and speakers, a smart lithium-ion battery, a 2nd battery, a mini-docking station USB and fast IrDA ports and an integrated personal TouchPad. The unit also comes with Windows 95 or NT 4.0 Workstation, Office ‘97 Small Business Edition and a carrying case, all for only $3,599. Quantex can be contacted at 888-301-1144 or www.quantex.com.
AT&T (Basking Ridge, NJ) is offering a free download of Laptop Access software. This software allows on-line access from more than 150 countries. You can access the internet as well as your corporate resources using AT&T Direct Service (allows you to make ca lls to the US using the AT&T Calling Card). The software becomes active when you start Windows and automatically routes you to a dialog box. The box prompts you to indicate the country that you are calling from, the type of connection and any needed di aling prefixes. Then you click the start dialing button and you are on your way. Diskettes are available from AT&T at 888-428-8527 and on their web site at www.att.com.
For you really mobile people, I mean those of you who are not near a phone connection, Mobile Planet (Canoga Park, CA) has four PC Card 56Kbps Cellular Modems available. Simple Technology’s 56.6Kbps Cellular Modem is $159.95, New Media’s 56K NetSurfer Fax/Modem is $129.95, Apex Data’s Rapid Transit 56Kbps Mobile Plus Cellular Modem is $169.95 and Meg ahertz Cellular Modem is $209.95. Mobile Planet can be reached at 800-675-2638 or www.mplanet.com.
Altura Computer Systems (Colorado Springs, CO) also has a 266MHz MMX Pentium processor machine. Their unit has 32MB of RAM, a 2.5 Gigabyte hard drive, a 20X CD-ROM drive, a 13.3 inch XGA color screen and sells for $2,895. Altura can be contacted at 888-258-8720 or www.alturapc.com.
Check out Mobile Computing & Communications March edition for an interesting comparison report by Keith Kirkpatrick of 18 notebooks and the article by Tom Sullivan on 149 software packages for your PalmPilot.
Chuck Horowitz, a HAL-PC member, can be reached at 281/486-6043, BrisAssoc@aol.com or chuckh@hal-pc.org .
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.