Good value in Tandy laptop

Home Office Computing, Dec, 1990 by Eva J. Blinder

Tandy 2800 HD

Rating: * * *

AT A GLANCE: 286-based laptop with sturdy keyboard and good entry-level software.

DOCUMENTATION: Brief but well-illustrated.

SETUP: Only the battery must be installed.

EASE OF USE: Excellent. Straightforward instructions, and on-line help included with software.

VALUE: Good.

SUPPORT: Available toll-free through area centers or through Tandy (no fee, but not toll-free).

LIST PRICE: $2,999

STREET PRICE RANGE: N/A

MANUFACTURER: Tandy Corp., 1800 One Tandy Center, Fort Worth, TX 76102; (817) 390-3011

MICROPROCESSOR: 80C286 (12/6 MHz)

MEMORY: 1MB (expandable to 2MB)

DISK DRIVES: 20MB hard-disk drive; 3.5-inch, 1.44MB floppy-disk drive

DISPLAY: EGA compatible, backlit supertwist LCD panel, 640 by 400 pixels

PORTS: One parallel, one serial, EGA

SOFTWARE INCLUDED: MS-DOS 3.3, DeskMate

OPTIONS: Internal 2400-bps modem ($199.95), 1MB memory expansion ($399.05), replacement battery ($49.95)

DIMENSIONS: 12.25 by 13.88 by 3.25 inches

WEIGHT: 12.5 pounds (including battery)

WARRANTY: One year

The Tandy 2800 HD is a well-designed, middle-of-the-road laptop with good features and documentation but limited expandability.

The keyboard has an audible click and good springback but a light touch nevertheless. It's well designed, with reasonably sized Enter and Backspace keys and 12 function keys. The screen is blue and fairly readable, although, as with almost any laptop display, you'll find yourself playing with color and contrast settings to find the best compromise. Unfortunately, the 2800 HD's power switch is a button on the left side of the case, situated in such a way that it could be pushed by mistake.

The hard-disk drive was supplied formatted and with MS-DOS 3.3 and Tandy's DeskMate user interface installed. DeskMate provides a DOS shell and a full set of desktop utilities, including an address book, a telephone dialer, a calendar, a minispreadsheet, a flat-file database, and a game. It will offer convenient integrated software features for some users, but it also takes up 2MB of precious space on the 20MB drive. It can be removed if desired. Documentation is clear and well presented. One particularly useful inclusion is a quick reference booklet for MS-DOS, small enough to take on your trips.

The battery for the 2800 came packed separately; I had to install it. The user's guide has explicit directions for doing this correctly. Unfortunately, the directions for removing the battery compartment cover were less clear. For a few tense moments I feared I'd be unable to get the cover off without permanently exposing the computer's innards. Once I figured it out, however, the actual installation was a snap.

It's worth noting that the math coprocessor socket is accessible by lifting up a flap inside the battery compartment, making installation very convenient.

The Tandy 2800 uses a power-management scheme designed to make the most out of a rapidly discharging laptop battery. The screen and the hard-disk drive shut down after a period of disuse, which the user can set using the system-setup routine. The Tandy setup utility allows you to specify different settings for shutting down the backlight and the display.