Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!xanth!nic.MR.NET!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!astieber
From: astieber@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Anthony J Stieber)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Opinions on Amstrad PPC640 requested
Message-ID: <158@csd4.milw.wisc.edu>
Date: 30 Dec 88 04:15:54 GMT
References: <13035@cup.portal.com>
Sender: news@csd4.milw.wisc.edu
Reply-To: astieber@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Anthony J Stieber)
Followup-To: comp.sys.laptops
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Lines: 38

I just took a look at one of these Amstrads today. The LCD seemed to be less
readable than the one I have on my own Toshiba T1000, although the square
display has an aspect ration closer to that of a CRT. I found the squashed
display of my T1000 a problem at times.

The keyboard does NOT lock in position, rather it just flops into position. It
is nice to have to have full enhanced keyboard though, many laptops have a
semi-enhanced. The T1000 has seperate cursor control and an optional external
keypad, missing keys are embedded into the rest of the keyboard.

The Amstrad laptop is unique in using off the self batteries ( 8 'C' cells I
think), others use internal non-removable or proprietary battery packs.

There is a nice door which covers the ports (one of which is a full sized
25 pin serial port) in the back of the machine. When this door is closed and
keyboard is locked over the top of the machine there are no exposed switches,
knobs, or ports. The handle is nice solid block which juts from the right side
to protect the disk drives.

Overall the machine seems too big for casual laptop use, especially with the
keyboard having a non-locking hinge.

I have used LCD's on several machines, even the best of them (back-lit Zenith)
wasn't as good as a CRT. If you can get it, even a cheap composite monitor
would be better than an LCD.

As a microcomputer consultant I have known many people who had a machine that
had only 3.5" drives. All of these people have later regreted having just the
micro floppy drives (including me).  Be prepared for headaches.

I am cross posting this to comp.sys.laptops, and setting the followup
to the same group. 

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