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From: andrew@frip.WV.TEK.COM (Andrew Klossner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: Re: 386 Notebooks
Message-ID: <10958@orca.wv.tek.com>
Date: 3 Jun 91 20:18:15 GMT
References: <44027@netnews.upenn.edu> <23105@shlump.lkg.dec.com>
Sender: nobody@orca.wv.tek.com
Reply-To: andrew@frip.wv.tek.com
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville, Oregon
Lines: 47

I spent a few evenings studying 386 notebook computers.  Here are the
resulting notes.  The features that are important to me are, in no
particular order, size, weight, keyboard (good feel, inverted-T
cursors, unshifted PgUp/PdDn/Home/End/Ins/Del, shift keys where shift
keys go, and put the CONTROL key to the left of the A), resume mode,
display screen gray levels, two serial ports or one serial+one mouse
(so I can use my external 9600 baud modem), screen size, max RAM, disk
size, battery life.

Tandon:  an excellent machine in all respects except for the keyboard,
which is reported to be more compact than usual, mushy, and (show
stopper) they put the cursor-up key where the right-hand shift key
goes.  Two serial ports.

Dell:  another excellent machine.  One serial port, one mouse port.  My
only gripe is that they put CAPS LOCK where CONTROL goes.  I ordered a
Dell.  They claim over three hours of battery life, but I take that
with a grain of salt; it's likely closer to two.

Zeos:  no resume mode, a show stopper for me.  With two hours of
battery life, you've gotta have resume mode to get through the day, or
through an airplane trip.

Everex:  the same (Samsung) design as the Zeos, no resume mode.  An
impressive keyboard, though.  If keyboards matter at all to you, check
out the Everex before buying Zeos.

Compaq:  at this price, forget it.

IBM:  ditto.

TI/Sharp/CompuAdd:  the keyboard is mushy, there are no separate page
keys, and (show stopper) the battery doesn't recharge while the machine
is operating, and the battery has to cool down for an hour or two after
recharge before you can use it.  Bizarre.

Toshiba T2000SX:  only one serial port.  Key travel is short, but
acceptable.  The nickel hydrid battery would be a win.  The resume mode
is very sophisticated, so much so that it can get wedged if you do
anything fancy with the 386, like run QEMM or Windows.

Northgate:  I haven't seen a review, but the ads portray a very
impressive machine.  You can count on Northgate to get the keyboard
right.  Only one serial port, sigh.

  -=- Andrew Klossner  (andrew@frip.wv.tek.com)
                       (uunet!tektronix!frip.WV.TEK!andrew)