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From: ignatz@chinet.chi.il.us (Dave Ihnat)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops,comp.sys.zenith
Subject: Re: zenith 386 laptop closeout - is it a good deal?
Summary: Horror is relative.
Message-ID: <1990Jan13.065536.10569@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 13 Jan 90 06:55:36 GMT
References: <1990Jan11.004443.8795@chinet.chi.il.us> <7946@nigel.udel.EDU> <30731@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Sender: Dave Ihnat
Reply-To: ignatz@chinet.chi.il.us (Dave Ihnat)
Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX
Lines: 50

In article <30731@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> alex@cs.ucla.edu (Alex Quilici) writes:
>Well, here's a different opinion: stay away from Zenith laptops.  I
>bought a supersport 286 with a 40mb hard disk and an internal 2400 baud
>modem for around $3500 just over a year ago.  And, since then, it has
>been in the shop over half of the time.
>
>	(marvelously detailed horror story elided for the faint of CPU)
>
>Alex

Well, I've good news, and bad news.  I've owned three Zenith laptops--the old
Z-171 lunchbox, the Z-181 dual-floppy (early model), and just recently the
Supersport 20Mb.  In general, the machines have been--while not pushing the
edge of the PC performance envelope, either in size, speed, or weight--rock
solid.  I can't even begin to tell you how I've abused the Z-171 or
(especially!) the Z-181.  I'm a consultant.  I've carried these boxes into
and out of client sites and airports for over 4 years, total.  In all this
time, and with serious heavy development usage--these have been my DOS
development platforms--they've performed with no machine failures, and only
one modem loss (which ZDS fixed ASAP.)

The down side?  Zenith has been--and is--very overpriced.  Even allowing for
their tendency to overprice and then offer a 40% discount, they cost too much.
Also, their service and sales--at least in Chicago--is somewhat indifferent
if you're not a large company.  (I have to mention--they've been nice to me,
usually, but that's usually only after I bring up that I'm a consultant, and
gee, if you're not going to (get the part/look at my machine/etc.) for two
weeks, maybe I shouldn't recommend you to my clients...)

The laptops are rugged, in my experience.  I've had one client complain that
the Winchesters in the 286 machines were fragile; can't comment, as I've not
owned one.  But compatibility had been great, and the display beats hell out
of any of the competition.  Especially, they don't have the wierd aspect
ratio of some other laptops (won't name names, but the initials are T*****a.)

As for the sale on the 386, well...yes, Bull (formerly Honeywell Bull, part of
the Honeywell we all know and love, then sold to the Europeans--a French
concern, was it?) now owns Zenith Data Systems.  However, that's only part
of the reason you'll find the '386 on the discount market.  It *is* a 386, and
you can run Unix/Xenix on it--a portable USENET node!  BUT.  It eats hell out
of batteries--the Zenith boxes have never been economical of battery power,
and this is worse than you would wish; although it's not all Zenith's fault.
There just ain't a 803C86 chip yet.  Worse, though, I've got it on trust-
worthy report that it doesn't deal well with VGA.

The upshot?  Don't short Zenith. They've given me reliable, rugged laptops
to lug to client sites for the last 3-4 years.  No program has failed, and
I've been able to use their products for rugged, personal, portable
communication and development platforms for a long time.  What else should
a laptop be?