Laptops Lead The Charge In Pc Sales
Sun Herald
Saturday October 14, 1989
PORTABLE and laptop computers are the fastest growing segment of the PC market. This year they look like taking about 13 per cent of the Australian market and sales just keep growing.
For business users, in particular, a portable PC can make a lot of sense.
If you have to take your work home, it's easy to toss the laptop into the office car. International airlines seem to have overcome their initial fears that emissions from laptops might interfere with navigation systems, and there's hardly a business class section these days without at least a couple of workaholics tapping away.
Sales reps, company auditors and consultants moving from client to client use laptops to tote their electronic tools of trade along with them.
Some portable computers never leave the office. They are ideal auxiliary machines which can be moved instantly from office to office or to a different floor as a need arises.
The new breed of portable PCs are every bit as sophisticated, fast and powerful as desktop models; their screens-once small, smudgy and tricky to read in some light conditions-are usually highly readable and in some cases have a resolution good enough for desktop publishing, boardroom presentations or other graphic applications.
But they can be costly little beasties. Many high-end laptop models now cost more than $10,000 and some new colour-screen models on the way could come in at double that price.
On the other hand, for users with simple needs, there are portable models as low as $1,000.
If you are in the market, here are a few items to check.
Power supply: Not all portables, strange as it may seem, are battery operated. Some models, notably from Chendai, Toshiba and Mitsubishi, have to be plugged into an AC power outlet just like a desktop model.
So if you want to operate from your car or an aircraft, do make sure you have a battery model.
If you want to do a lot of this kind of work, check the battery life: it can be anything from less than an hour to almost 20 hours.
Processor: Cheaper laptops are powered by the tried and true Intel 8088/8086 microchip. This is quite good enough for simple word processing, but its operating speed of 4.77mHz is agonisingly slow for more demanding, memory-intensive tasks like large spreadsheet calculations or applications using graphics.
COMFORTABLE
The most popular models on the market use a variation of the 80286 chip and run at 8-12mHz, a much more comfortable rate. Prices tend to be in the$3,000-$6,000 range.
Heavy-duty users with an eye to the future are now moving to the newer 80386 models, clocking in at 16mHz or better.
These tend to be very expensive: typically $8,000-$12,000. But most PC industry watchers believe the 386 chip will come into its own in the next year or so as the major personal computing platform for the 1990s and even on into the early years of the 21st century.
It's electronic horses-for-courses. If you simply want to bash out a few letters and memos, run a simple set of accounts, or handle some sales data entry on the move, paying this sort of a money would be overkill. A '286 or even an 8088 model will do all you want quite comfortably.
Screens: Some of the simpler machines have screens that can be hard to read at some angles or in some light situations. This may be bearable if you use the computer only occasionally, but unacceptable if you intend to put in long hours at the keyboard.
Liquid crystal displays with back-lighting are much better, especially if they use Macintosh-style black lettering on a grey/white screen, but the drain on batteries can be heavy.
Red, or orange-on-black gas plasma displays as used on the GRiD portable line and some Toshiba models, are still sharper and more brilliant, but impose a really punishing drain on power. Not surprisingly, these tend to be among the portables that have to be plugged into an AC outlet.
Perhaps the best solution yet has come from Apple Computer with its new Macintosh Portable: this uses a variation of the LCD technology known as active-matrix to achieve the same high-resolution graphics as the desktop Mac, yet still allows up to 12 hours' battery life.
Disc drives: An increasing number of laptops have inbuilt hard disc drives, usually of 20-megabyte capacity, though a few go to 40 megs. They make life easier, since both applications and data can be stored on the disc.
All but the simplest models have at least one floppy disc drive, usually the small 3.5in drives since these take up less room than the older 5.25in drives which are still more common on desktop machines.
MUCH SMALLER
What's coming next in portable computers? Colour screens and much smaller mono models are both on the way.
Mitsubishi, Sharp and NEC have all announced colour models, and Mitsubishi showed a colour prototype at the recent Canberra computer show, Auscom.
Prices when these models do reach the market are likely to be in the$15,000-20,000 range.
Notebook-sized PCs are just beginning to reach the Australian market. Already here is Atari's Pocket PC, literally small enough to be stowed in a good-sized suit pocket, and running for a claimed 6-8 weeks on three penlight batteries.
PICK YOUR PORTABLE
HERE is a guide to some portable personal computers:
BELOW $2,000
AMSTRAD PPC 640: A long-shaped 8086 portable which runs at a respectable 8mHz. This is the only laptop with a full-sized keyboard. The Amstrad has an in-built modem, two 3.5in floppy disc drives, and a suite of software programs. Weight with batteries is 6kg. Battery life: two to three hours. Price: $1,599.
CAMBRIDGE Z88: This is one of the lightest laptops, weighing less than 1kg. It slips into a briefcase easily, runs its own operating system with built-in word processing, spreadsheet, database and diary software and is compatible with popular Macintosh and MS-DOS programs. Files can be transferred to Mac or PC via cable, included in the price of $995 (PC) or $1,395 (Mac). Battery life: 20 hours.
TOSHIBA 1000: At 2.9kg, including batteries, the lightest full-sized laptop. With its 8088 chip running at 4.77mHz, this is an adequate performer for word processing or other simple tasks, especially where the data is to be transmitted to a desktop machine. Non-backlit display can be difficult to read in some conditions. Price $1,550. Battery life: about two hours.
$2,000 TO 5,000
NEC MULTISPEED EL: Mains or battery operated AT-compatible machine running at 8.6mHz, has clearly readable screen, 640kb memory, twin 3.5 floppy disc drives, weighs 5.2kg. Price: $3,655.
MITSUBISHI MP286L: Mains power-only model. Large, easily-read black-type-on-white display is especially suitable for word processing and spreadsheet operations. The 80286 chip runs at 12mHz. Weight: 6.6kg. Price: (with 20mb hard disc and one floppy drive) $4,995.
ZENITH MINISPORT: One of the first "notebook" PCs, measures 30cm by 25cm by 3cm, weighs only 2.6kg, yet contains 640 kilobytes of usable RAM, runs industry standard MS-DOS software, has a backlit tilt screen, an oddball 2in. disc drive (the discs cost $20 each and do not fit any other PC), connections for an internal modem, and an 80-key keyboard. Battery life: three hours claimed from rechargeables. Price: $3,339.
ABOVE $5,000
MACINTOSH PORTABLE: With 16mHz operation, the easy-to-use Mac graphics-based operating system, 10 hours battery life and excellent fast-responding active matrix LCD screen, the newly-introduced Mac has jumped in to become arguably the best all-round portable. SuperDrive 1.4-megabyte disc drive can read and write IBM discs as well as Mac's. But the Mac is weighty at a little under 6kg (7kg with optional 40mb hard disc) and pricey at$9,995 ($11,450 with the hard disc GridCase 1520). Intel 80286 chip runs a little slow at 10mHz. Battery life: just over an hour.
COMPAQ SLT/286: Briefcase-shaped SLT/286 features handy removable keyboard, 12mHZ processor, fast-responding hard disc, an outstanding high-resolution backlit screen with top-quality VGA graphics reproduction. Weight 5.5kg. Price: (with 20mb hard disc and one 3.5in floppy drive) $8,300.
© 1989 Sun Herald
Share This