Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!psuvax1!psuvm!cunyvm!rffcc
From: RFFCC@CUNYVM (Ralph Frisch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: The Airis VH-286 laptop
Message-ID: <90287.140858RFFCC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Date: 14 Oct 90 18:08:58 GMT
Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center
Lines: 55

I was just about ready to purchase the Toshiba T1200XE laptop, when I
noticed the availability of the Airis 'Notebook' VH-286 in the
October 16, 1990 PC Magazine on page 109, in its cover story
"PORTABLE PCs".

         The Airis VH-286 has the most exciting specs: the price is
         $1,895 for 6-pound 12-MHz 286 with 2MB RAM, a 20MB hard
         disk (but no internal floppy disk drive), a backlit 11-inch
         VGA display, and a 2,400-bps modem. You can use either line
         current or a rechargeable battery, or you can drop in ten
         standard C-cell batteries for a claimed 12-hour battery life.
         Engineered in Chicago by a group of Zenith veterans, the
         Airis is planned strictly as a mail-order machine. It was
         to have shipped in spring, but financing problems (not
         uncommon to start-ups) pushed the schedule back to late
         summer or early fall.

In the October 1990 issue of PC Sources on page 31 the Airis VH-286 is
also highlighted. Here the specs are cited as follows:

         The 6-pound Airis system costs $1,899 ($2,049 with an
         optional 3.5-inch floppy drive) and is available from Airis
         only. It ships with 2MB of RAM (expandable to 4MB) and is
         based on a 12.5MHz 80C286 processor. Included in the base
         price are a 20MB hard disk drive and a 2,400bps Hayes-
         compatible modem. MS-DOS 4.01 and Traveling Software's
         LapLink come already installed on the hard disk. Finally,
         Airis guarantees parts and labor for two years on its sleek,
         black system.

With the single drawback of not having an internal floppy drive, the
Airis machine seems to be a much better value when compared with the
Toshiba T1200XE's street price of $2,000.

                              Airis VH-286          Toshiba T1200XE
RAM                           2MB (exp. to 5MB)     1M (exp. to 4MB)
3.5-inch 1.44MB floppy dr.    optional, external    standard
20MB hard disk                standard              standard
256K hardware disk cache      standard              not supplied
LCD display                   VGA                   Double Scan CGA
2,400bps internal modem       standard              optional
Rechargeable battery life     6 hours               3 hours
10 C-size alkaline batteries  12 hours              not available
Weight, without batteries     6 pounds              8 pounds
mouse port                    standard              not available
serial port                   standard              standard
parallel port                 standard              standard
DOS 4.01                      on the hard disk      in ROM
LapLink                       on the hard disk      not supplied
Telerom, (BIOS upd. by modem) standard              not available
(Some of the other specs not mentioned above are from the July 2,
 1990 issue of INFOWORLD article on page 21.)

Has anyone out there purchased this machine, and if yes, please post
your experience with it.