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From: pds@leviathan.cs.umd.edu (David Stotts)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: Zeos 386SX notebook
Message-ID: <29122@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 12 Jan 91 16:55:27 GMT
Sender: news@mimsy.umd.edu
Reply-To: pds@leviathan.cs.umd.edu (David Stotts)
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Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 51

I recently (last week) received shipment of a Zeos 386SX notebook.  I
was one of the first orders placed back in early November, about
two days after the company officially told their sales reps that
it was a real product.  So shipment has just begun.

It is a nice machine.  The box size is 12 wide x 10.5 deep x 2 high.
Weight is a bit under 7 pounds with battery in place.  Screen is
very readable, and is 10" diagonal (9.5" visible after the plastic frame
cuts off the margins).  Keyboard is very nice, with good travel on the
keys.  Floppy seems a bit noisy, but the hard drive is fairly quiet.
20M harddrive.  I ordered a 5M memory machine, and an internal modem.
They have a "package" such that if you order the memory and modem,
you can get an extra battery, charging stand, carrying case, and DOS
for about an extra $30 over the sum cost of the individual options.
So I paid $3200 for my configuration.  The $2300 price is available
as advertised, and you get a 386sx machine with floppy, 20M hard drive,
and 1M memory.  Not shabby for a good machine.  Individual options
prices: modem, $210; extra 2M memory: $300; second extra 2M: $249;
you cannot (they say... I am no hardware hacker) install your own
memory chips... you must buy and have them install their proprietary
memory modules (they say).  No bigger hard drive option for now.  No
fax/send/receive modem.

One gotcha: they are back ordered on modems.  They shipped my machine without
one, even though I ordered it.

The Zeos does not have a resume feature, which I discovered I had come to 
like in my Toshiba T1200.  It does have 1 serial and 1 parallel port,
and one keyboard port.  The AC power unit seems a bit heavy and large
in dimensions... estimate 1.5 pounds and maybe 8" x 3" x 2".  Much heavier 
and larger than the Toshiba unit.

In comparison, the Zeos machine is slightly larger in all dimensions,
including weight, than several competing products (mail order from
Northgate and Austin, for example).  It is also a 16Mhz processor
speed, as compared to most other ones making 20Mhz machines.  BUT, Zeos
is shipping, which, as far as I can tell, only DataWorld can now
match.  No one else (as of two weeks ago) could ship their 386
notebooks.

DataWorld has a nice looking similar product, and they are shipping
(all but the modems... they don't have them yet.).  I called and the
specs in the ad are wrong.  I had the sales rep measure a machine, and
the thickness is 2.15 " as opposed to the 2.5" in the ad.  Screen size
is also almost 9" diagonal instead of the 8" in the ad. Price is really
good: $2995 gets you 20Mhz 386sx, 4M, 20M hard drive, floppy, modem, etc...
It has a battery pack, but it will also run (in a pinch) on normal NiCad 
C cells, but for only about 1/2 hour.

Dave Stotts
Univ. of Maryland