Jon Pepper
Call it a reverse trend. For years, major PC manufacturers seemed bent on producing the smallest and lightest ``full-featured'' machines possible. The subnotebook category of portables that emerged, which typically comprises systems that weigh between 1.9 and 4.6 pounds and are about 8.75 inches wide, attracted the kind of excitement usually associated with a flashy new sports car.
But now reality is setting in: Small too often translated into products that were too flimsy or underpowered for all but the most minimal work. Subnotebooks often had compromises in screen size, number of PCMCIA slots, and storage capacity.
se $ Expect to see a new round of subnotebooks introduced this summer and fall that are more similar to their slightly larger brethren (e.g., with larger screens, more power, and even somewh
at larger size) or repositioned in the market as portable communications devices instead of as full-fledged desktop replacements.
A prime example of the first trend is the NEC Versa S series, which NEC is touting as a reduced-weight notebook rather than a subnotebook. The machine, which ranges in weight from 4.2 to 5 pounds depending on the choice of display (monochrome or TFT [thin-film transistor] color), is just about the standard notebook size: 10.8 inches wide and 8.3 inches deep. NEC includes a larger display (9.5 inches), more power (up to a 50-MHz 486DX2), and more disk space (up to 260 MB). Toshiba's new Portege T3600CT subnotebook offers similar improvements over the current T3400CT model.
AST is also upgrading its new Ascentia 500S subnotebook, with a keyboard that's 95 percent the size of the Ascentia notebook's keyboard. The Ascentia 500S is a system that will be positioned as a ``mobile companion'' for on-the-go professionals who need to communicate. It will be available only with
a passive-matrix display, partly because communications doesn't generally require active-matrix screens.
Zenith Data Systems is trying to cover both ends of the spectrum with a new color version of its Z-Lite subnotebook. The company has added larger hard drives (up to 340 MB), a standard 7.8-inch passive-matrix color LCD, and a 33-MHz Cyrix 486DLC processor. Zenith is complementing the tiny 4.3-pound machine with the Z-Star EX, which sports a faster processor (a 50-MHz 486DX2 from Cyrix), a larger keyboard, and many options in a traditional notebook-size package ranging in weight from 5.2 to 5.7 pounds.
Epson has discontinued its line of subnotebooks. Instead, the company is making its ActionNote notebook line lighter--but not smaller--to minimize compromises. A new line of ActionNote computers will have a 66-MHz Cyrix 486DX2 3-V processor and weigh about 4.9 pounds. Part of the weight savings was achieved through putting a 14.4-Kbps data/fax modem on-board and including just one PCMCIA Type II
slot instead of two.
And Gateway 2000, which helped pioneer the subnotebook market with its tiny HandBook line, has dropped prices on current models in anticipation of adding faster processors, and possibly color, in the same form factor. But Gateway is now marketing the HandBooks as super-portable communications tools. It appears that vendors are realizing that less is indeed less, after all.
Illustration: Graph: Subnotebooks: A Controversial But Growing Market
Although subnotebooks will probably represent only 13 percent of the total 1994 notebook/subnotebook sales in the U.S., IDC sees growth in the area, thanks in part to a further drop in prices of PCMCIA options, such as fax/data modems; growth in usage of E-mail; and increasing availability of color models.
Bigger and Better
