Work anywhere! - includes related articles on cellular telephone terminology, portable options on the market and product resources - Cover Story

Home Office Computing, March, 1992 by Daniel Grotta, Sally Grotta

Laptops typically range in price from a little over $1,000 for some models, such as the Bondwell B-310SX, to nearly $5,000 for the color LCD Dell 325NC, to over $8,000 for other color units, such as the NEC ProSpeed 486SX/C. The average street price for a battery powered 386SX model with a 30MB hard-disk drive, such as the eight-pound Compaq LTE 386s/20 Model 30, is less than $4,000. In contrast, the heavier, recently discontinued 15-pound Dell 320LT, with a 20MB drive, retailed for $2,699.

Notebook. This is the hottest portable-computer category. As its name implies, these notebook-size systems, ranging between four and seven pounds, all work on battery power as well as AC, and are truly portable. On one hand, most notebooks are more fragile and less versatile than laptops; on the other hand, they can be used almost anywhere without sacrificing either IBM or Macintosh compatibility and performance. Most notebooks come equipped with a monochrome LCD display and an internal 3.5-inch floppy-disk drive (to save weight, the floppy drive is sometimes not built into the unit, as with the Macintosh PowerBook 100). Most notebooks feature a hard-disk drive, and many can accommodate a single peripheral board. Notebooks are ideal for people who already have a desktop computer and need a full-function portable.

A 386SX-based model is the most common type of notebook; it generally costs between $1,800 and $3,500. For example, the suggested retail price of the Epson NB3 with a 60MB drive is $2,899. The 386SX-based Dell NX20, at $1,899, and the Tandy 1800 HD, at $1,999, both sport a 20MB drive. A comparable Mac PowerBook 140, with a 40MB drive and 4MB of memory, carries a street price of about $2,900. If you can settle for a slower 286-based notebook (for example, if you don't need Windows), you can spend as little as $1,000. Pick and choose among such models as the Sharp 6220, Tandy 1100 HD, NEC 286F UltraLite, Compaq LTE286, or the Toshiba T1200XE--all with a 20MB drive. The comparable Mac PowerBook 100 sells for about $2,000 in stores.

Palmtop. These are the smallest portable computers that maintain varying degrees of IBM compatibility. Palmtops, weighing a pound or less and the size of a VCR tape or a pocket calculator, sacrifice power, convenience, and features in exchange for ultra-miniaturization. Some models, such as the Hewett-Packard 95LX, concentrate primarily on built-in, but downsized applicantions like Lotus 1-2-3. Other units, such as the Atari Portfolio, are designed to operate specially modified programs. Only one brand, the Poqet, is equipped to run almost any off-the-shelf IBM software.

Most palmtops have smaller-than-standard screens, use special credit-card size memory modules or RAM disks instead of disk drives, and can communicate with desktop IBM-type computers via a special cable or an optional external floppy-disk drive. While palmtops aren't for everyone, they're perfect second or third machines for farmers, real-estate agents, journalists, engineers, consultants, repairpersons, or anyone who works outdoors or at on-site locations and needs ultimate portability. The prices vary from less than $500 for a stripped-down brand to over $2,000 for a fully equipped system, most notably the Poqet.