Notebooks grow up - NEC Technologies' Versa 4050C, IBM's ThinkPad 365CD notebook computers - Hardware Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, Feb, 1996 by Rick Broida

What's the difference between a desktop PC and a notebook? That would have been a stupid question just a year or so ago, but it's a good one today. Manufacturers are starting to produce true double-duty PCs that blur the traditional differences between the workhorse you need in the office and the featherweight you need to take on a business trip. For a price, you can now buy a notebook that's powerful enough to serve as both a desktop fixture and traveling companion. But the market is not all sweetness and light so you have to shop carefully. The tested systems - NEC's Versa 4050C and IBM's ThinkPad 365CD are on the right path.

NEC Versa 4050C The Versa 4050C is the caviar of NEC's notebook line, with a price tag to match. Of course, it pulls doubleduty very nicely and new federal tax laws could cut the price almost in half The 4050C makes us willing to forget the less expensive Versa 2000D, which we deemed limited by a small hard drive and a too-short warranty. NEC corrects both problems with the 4050C, retains the features we coveted, and adds enticing new ones.

Inside the 6.6-pound Versa are a 90MHz Pentium CPU, 8MB of RAM, and a removable 810MB hard drive. This makes it a Windows 95 system built to run all the hot new business applications appearing on the market - everything from easy-to-use accounting systems to feature-rich desktop publishing all running at 32 bits for a smoother and easier-to-use operating environment. The removable double-speed CD-ROM drive is front-mounted and slides out easily if you want to replace it with a second battery or another hard drive. The Versa is just about anything you want it to be: a multimedia presentation system, desktop unit, notebook, and more.

The Versa's 10. 1-inch active-matrix screen is crisp and colorful, although not as rich as you'd like if you were using it mostly for presentations. For another $150, the Versa 4050H offers a slightly larger screen that's capable of 800 by 600 display resolution, far richer than that offered by our test model's 640 by 480 color resolution.

The Versa's ergonomic keyboard has a comfortable touchpad pointing device with a wrist rest. The system also comes with a PC Card slot and front and back infrared dataports that allow wireless data transfer between the Versa and other systems. Lithium batteries provide up to five hours of power. The Versa also comes with Windows for Workgroups or Win 95. Add the new three-year warranty to all this and the Versa's flaws seem minuscule compared with its abilities.

IBM ThinkPad 365CD Despite its many gifts, this ThinkPad suffers from a classic IBM notebook problem. It's a little expensive at $3,099 (list price). And the model we tested delivers a pokey 75MHz DX CPU with 8MB of RAM and a nonremovable 540MB hard drive. Part of the price inflation comes from the fact that the ThinkPad arrives with a 10.4-inch active-matrix screen and built-in multimedia hardware. The 16-bit audio comes through a single speaker and the double-speed CD-ROM drive is nonremovable. The ThinkPad is not as flexible as the Versa, but it has comparable features.

One of the ThinkPad's strengths can be found in its full-size keyboard that effectively maintains the layout of a standard desktop keyboard. If you've never struggled with a typical notebook keyboard, you simply can't imagine how productive this one can be. Your fingers will know where to fly immediately and they won't stumble as they might on a tinier notebook. The keypad uses IBM's pioneering, eraserhead-size TrackPoint device to move the mouse.

IBM bundles Lotus Organizer and FaxWorks in addition to start-up software for the Prodigy and CompuServe online services. And you can use the IBM On-line House Call utility that will dial the phone for you, hook your notebook up to online technical servicepeople, and allow then them to take control of whatever is on your screen so they can fix many of your problems remotely. (Maybe that accounts for some of the cost - and the value - of the ThinkPad.) The system can be ordered with Windows 95, OS/2 Warp, or Windows 3.11. The ThinkPad's nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery is installed under the popup keyboard. It has a 2.5-hour minimum guaranteed life between charges.

One thing we think you will like about the ThinkPad is its readiness to accept plugins. It has ports for parallel, serial, SVGA, mouse/keyboard, infrared data, docking station, PC Card, and even a MIDI/joystick for music and games. The one-year warranty and the price, however, still make it a mixed bag for business.