The best and brightest: nine active-matrix color notebooks perfect for presentations or as primary systems - Hardware Review - includes summary and description of major types of color screen technologies - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, March, 1994 by Stephen W. Plain

UNTIL RECENTLY, COLOR NOTEBOOKS HAVE BROUGHT TO mind unrealistic price tags, extra heft, and crummy battery lives. But steady advances in technology have lessened the trade-offs, making stylish color offerings more affordable (though not cheap) and even practical. Today's color notebooks, powerful enough to be used as primary computers, also serve as impressive field assistants.

Color notebooks are most often classified by the screen technologies they use: active matrix, passive matrix, or dual-scan passive matrix (see "Screening Color Screens" ). The best of the three, the active-matrix screen, is the most challenging to manufacture and, as a result, often the most expensive; a notebook with an active-matrix display generally runs $1,500 to $2,000 over one with a passive display. The premium has come down quite a bit, however, making these units at least within reach. With their brilliance and responsiveness, active-matrix notebooks provide an impressive platform for presentations and are ideal for long hours of work in graphical environments. We look at nine popular active- matrix color notebooks for use on the road or in your ofrice. The street prices range from $3,000 to $5,300 for a deluxe model complete with multimedia capabilities.

A Closer Look Each system reviewed uses one of four powerful processors--the Intel 486SL/33, the 486DX2/50, the 486DX2/66, or the Motorola 68030/33. Most also come standard with 200MB hard-disk drives and 4MB of RAM, but a few have 8MB. Perhaps the most subjective qualities of any portable are the type of pointing device included and the keyboard layout. Five of the nine here use built-in trackballs and three use variations of the Microsoft BallPoint snap-on trackball. The IBM ThinkPad 750C's unique pressure-sensitive TrackPoint II, with the texture of a pencil eraser, sits in the middle of the keyboard and offers a convenient and comfortable way to point and click. Most of these notebooks come with PCMCIA slots, which are increasingly common in portables, to accommodate credit card-size peripherals, such as modems and network adapters. Three of the systems--the IBM ThinkPad 750C, the Toshiba T4700CT, and the Apple PowerBook 180c--have built-in stereo sound, a welcome feature for doing presentations on the road.

If you intend to use an active-matrix color notebook as your primary computer, consider the expansion options available. All but the Gateway 2000 and Apple models have optional docking stations. These provide features like standard ISA slots (the same expansion slots found inside most PCs), external device ports for monitors and the like, bays for harddisk and CD-ROM drives, and battery chargers. Some manufacturers also offer a less expensive port replicator, which doesn't provide slots and drive bays, but lets you connect to desktop peripherals (your external monitor or modem, for instance) in a snap.

How We Tested To measure the worst-case battery life while working in a graphical environment, we created a rundown test that simulates constant use with no power-conservation features enabled. To measure video performance, we used a test that produced a variety of GUI screens and graphics operations. Next, we timed the transfer of 20MB of data to each unit's freshly formatted hard disk from a desktop system. The time required to transfer the same data back was also noted. Finally, we ran an automated application test that performed numerous tasks such as file loading, navigational operations, spellchecking, search-and-replace operations, and printing to a laser printer.

A few systems stand out from the pack. The ThinkPad 750C and the T4700CT get high marks for overall quality, and built-in sound makes them well suited for presentations. We also found the NEC Versa 50EC to be an exceptionally flexible system with a brilliant display. The Austin 486DX2-66C is the best value in the bunch. And while Macintosh users don't have the same broad selection of choices, but the Apple PowerBook 180C will serve them adequately.

STEPHEN W. PLAN contributes regularly to a number of technology magazines and has worked extensively with PCs and printers.

Apple PowerBook 180c Rating: * *

The PowerBook 180c sports an impressively sharp active-matrix display. It also boasts the same ergonomic shape of other PowerBook models, including a comfortable keyboard, a generously sized wrist rest, and a large trackball. The 180c has ports for external stereo speakers and a microphone, as well as a built-in microphone and high-fidelity speaker.

Unlike other PowerBooks, which display up to a 640 by 400 resolution, the 180c is capable of 640 by 480. An external monitor adapter cable makes the 180c compatible with Macintosh 12- to 16- inch color monitors in either VGA or standard Mac mode. Also, inherent to Mac systems is the ability to use both the laptop's screen and the external monitor to create a virtual workspace the size of both.

The standard configuration includes 4MB of memory and a puny 80MB hard disk. The system can be expanded to only 14MB of RAM--well below the capacities of the Intel-based crowd. The PowerBook's battery life is known to have a short maximum capacity of only two hours.