Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!atk
From: atk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Alan T. Krantz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Subject: Re: Market Study for laptops and your input?
Message-ID: <16948@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 14 Feb 90 14:33:57 GMT
References: <1777@apt.UUCP> <15483@vlsisj.VLSI.COM>
Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU
Reply-To: atk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Alan T. Krantz)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 46

In article <15483@vlsisj.VLSI.COM> davidc@vlsisj.UUCP (David Chapman) writes:
>In article <1777@apt.UUCP> brian@apt.UUCP (Brian Litzinger) writes:
>]My company is about to commence a market study of laptop computers
>]for one of our clients.
>]Do the readers of this group wish to have an opportunity to offer
>]their opinions on laptops, their designs, and the features they'd
>]like to see in future laptop designs?
>]Or is it improper to use this forum for such a purpose?

I would like to see somthing on the low end. Fairly similar to the
Toshiba 1000SE but less expensive. I guess the following would be
close:

8086 (NEC V20) at 8mhz    (minimum processing speed)
single 1.4 hard disk      (this is enough disk space for wordprocessing)
one serial one parallel port
one ttl port              (maybe herc graphics - lots cheaper and better
			   on the eyes than vga/ega monitor)
640K			   (but a resume feature so software doesn't
			    have to be reloaded)
Nice lcd screen - WITH control to turn off the backlight -
this simple option will greatly prolong battery life.
(nice means similar to Toshiba 1000se or Compaqu ltd - but not nec
 grey tones or vga graphics - again herc would be fine if it
 significantly lowers the price).


 Oh - and weight should be 6-10 lbs. 

 I think this machine would be good for lawyers, non-tech college
 students and so forth. It should only cost around $600-$700. The
 640K could probably be 1meg and cost less using 1 meg chips. The
 8086/NEC v20 comes in cmos version and are fairly cheap. ttl support/
 monochrome graphics are a lot cheaper than vga. 1.4 meg hard disk
 is very important because many newer packages won't fit on .7 megs 
 (wordperfect, ...)

 Anyways - I spent about 6 months looking for such a machine and
 couldn't find it. Note that the ttl port is very big plus because than
 you can hook up the machine to an external monitor for pennies...


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