October 1994 / BYTE Lab Product Report

31 No-Compromise Portables	Our exclusive benchmarks rank the highest-performing notebook and subnotebook computers for running Windows, DOS, and Macintosh applications - by Anthony J. Lennon
The Best High-Performance Notebooks Rankings Need a top-quality display and long battery life? Cost-conscious? Want one system for both the road and the office?	Not surprisingly, the two Pentium notebooks we tested ranked highest for flat-out speed.
Powerbook Update	The PowerBook 540c and the PowerBook Duo 280c ($5539 and $4299 in their test configurations, respectively) are the latest additions to Apple's portable line of computers.
486-Based Subnotebooks Ranking for Subnotebooks Considered For fast speed and small size When price matters	Although the Zenith Z-Lite 425L won top honors for best overall and low-cost, it faced some strong competitors in both categories.
Portable Printers Rankings for Portable Printers Considered Need fast, high-quality printing?	We reviewed eight portable printers for traveling businesspeople who need to create invoices, bills, or other short documents while on the road.
Printer Tests	Our printer performance tests evaluate the speed at which each printer produces five elements commonly found in standard documents: dense text, sparse text, bit-mapped text, graphics, and fonts.
Raising The Bar On Ease Of Use	Notebook designs continue to evolve with more functional, easier-to-use designs.
How We Tested	We assessed the performance of each notebook and subnotebook with BYTE's low-level benchmarks and with application and low-level Windows benchmarks developed by NSTL.
The $3868 Canon Notejet II 486c	The $3868 Canon Notejet II 486c is an intelligent solution for tho se who regularly need both a computer and a portable printer.
You can easily upgrade	You can easily upgrade the Panasonic CF-V21P notebook's LCD display (color, monochrome, or pen-type) by opening two latches, one located on each side of the display.
Adjustable legs on the Sager NP3656D	Adjustable legs on the Sager NP3656D (below) allow typing at a variety of keyboard angles.
An optional drive-bay adapter	An optional drive-bay adapter enables you to use the hard drive from the AST Ascentia 900N 4/75 CT10 in a standard desktop system.
The Compaq Contura	The Compaq Contura Aero 4/33c Model 170 subnotebook's optional external 1.44-MB floppy drive attaches to the system's Type II PCMCIA slot, precluding the use of an alternate PCMCIA device.
An AC adapter is optional	An AC adapter is optional ($45) with the Atlantic SlimWriter printer.
Roll Call Of Portables Tested

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