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From: saj@chinet.chi.il.us (Stephen Jacobs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: STacy questions
Summary: First impressions of my new Stacy
Keywords: good Stacy
Message-ID: <1990Sep21.143914.18145@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 21 Sep 90 14:39:14 GMT
References: <GOW.90Sep20165414@sakari.mrceg>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX
Lines: 33

In article <GOW.90Sep20165414@sakari.mrceg> gow@sakari.mrceg (Ed Gow) writes:
>Can anyone give me information about the STacy features and price plus

I JUST got a Stacy.  If it didn't win some design awards it should have.  It is
the best looking and solidest feeling laptop I've come across.  The one I have
is 1M of RAM and a 20M hard disk (furnished formatted and partitioned 4-6-10).
The ports are all covered, but most of the frequently used ones are under the
back swing-down cover rather than slide-offs (this is good).  The screen is
magnificent blue and white; by FAR the best LCD screen I've seen, and readable
from a huge range of angles.  The trackball is very good for moving the mouse,
but the button response is very different from on the ST (I'm tempted to say
it's bad, but in a week maybe I'll get used to it).  The main keyboard is very
good; the numeric pad is small, but there and usable.  I prefer the way the
function, arrow, etc. keys are on the Stacy to the way they are on the ST.
   The disk is apparently quick.  Something makes enough noise to be annoying
in a quiet room.  Autoboot on initial power-up is about a 50% proposition;
reset fixes that.  Keyboard warm and 'cold' boot are supported (I have some
indication that some status is preserved across a keyboard cold boot), as
well as the usual reset button warm boot.
   There are EXACTLY the same ports as on a regular ST, including mouse, 
joystick and monitor.  
   A couple criticisms: the power connector socket should be accessible on
a completely closed case, rather than being behind the back swing-down.  Some
of the slide-off panels are too hard to open (that's a tough one: on many
machines they fall off too easily).  Even though the machine simply doesn't
run on batteries, I wish there had been some provision for saving its state
across a loss of power, at least for a few minutes.
    I like it.  If you separated the screen from the system box, put the screen
on a pantograph arm (and made it a LITTLE brighter), and put the system box
in a drawer, you'd have a KILLER executive machine.
    After all this, I just don't know about prices.  I'd guess around $2000,
maybe a little less.  
                                       Steve J.