Dave Andrews
High-end notebooks, which pack performance and multimedia capabilities in about a 7-pound package, are accounting for an increasing percentage of portable sales. This is due in part to a higher demand by businesses for desktop PC replacements. The increased demand for these diminutive powerhouses -- along with the appearance of 3.3-V Pentium chips and greater availability of 9.5- and 10.4-inch active-matrix displays--has led to a wave of notebook introductions in recent months. Meanwhile, vendors are tracking advances in battery, screen, storage, processor, and bus technologies as they prepare the next versions of their products.
High-end notebooks that sell for $4000 or more jumped from about 10 percent in 1993 to 25 percent in 1994 of the total number of portable units shipped in t
he U.S., according to Bruce Stephen, an analyst at International Data Corp. (Framingham, MA). ``We expect the premium products to hit and create a stir in Europe and Japan, too,'' Stephen says.
More and more companies are saying employees can have a desktop PC or a notebook PC, but not both. The high-end notebook lets mobile workers take their computing act on the road without sacrificing performance. When they return to the office, the notebook goes into a networked docking station with a full-size keyboard and display.
High-end notebooks such as Compaq's LTE Elite or Gateway 2000'a new ColorBook2 typically come with a 486DX4 or Pentium processor (or a 68040 processor if you own an Apple PowerBook), PCMCIA, a data/fax modem, and up to an 810-MB hard drive. Other features can include an integrated CD-ROM drive, infrared I/O, removable components (e.g., screens, floppy drives, and hard drives), sound and video I/O, and active-matrix or less expensive dual-scan passive-matrix screens. BYTE surveye
d a number of notebook vendors to gauge where this category is headed. Here are their predictions:
Displays:
The 10.4-inch screen will become the standard, and 9.4-inch active-matrix screens will migrate to value and midrange notebook lines. Look for 11-inch displays and wider availability of notebooks with better than 640- by 480-pixel resolution. NEC sells a model with 800- by 600-pixel SVGA resolution and another that supports up to 16 million colors. Bob Levin, director of product marketing for NEC Technologies' portable computer systems group (San Jose, CA), predicts the arrival of notebooks with 1024- by 768-pixel resolution sometime this year. The 800- by 600-pixel resolution should hold appeal for CAD/CAM, heavy-duty spreadsheet, and engineering applications.
Hard drives
: Users can select hard drives of up to 810 MB, but 21/2-inch 1-GB drives should be introduced early this year. Look for drives to get slimmer, migrating from 17 and 19 mm down to a height o
f 12 mm.
PCMCIA:
This has become a standard I/O interface for notebooks. Look for the first notebooks that implement the 32-bit PCMCIA (aka Card Bus) standard to be introduced in the fall.
Batteries:
High-end notebooks use either NiMH (nickel-metal-hydride) or the newer lithium-ion technology, but most vendors predict a migration to lithium-ion this year. It holds its charge better and delivers more power than NiMH.
PCI:
Look for PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) to emerge as more Pentium-based notebooks come on-line. Apple should also unveil its first PCI notebook this year.
Integrated CD-ROM:
Some units (e.g., the IBM ThinkPad 755CD) already have built-in CD-ROM drives, and other vendors will introduce them.
This year should see a continued series of balancing acts by engineers looking to add bigger screens while measuring the trade-off in battery life and weight. However, the compromises should be less obvious
as notebooks are introduced throughout the year. This means you'll have more full-featured computers with about the same size and weight to choose from the next time you upgrade your ``desktop'' computer.
NEW HIGH-END NOTEBOOKS
IBM ThinkPad 755CD
((800) 426-2968).
NEC Technologies Versa M Series
((800) 632-8377). High-resolution and true-color displays highlight NEC's Versa M family, available with a 75- or 100-MHz 486 processor and 9.5-inch active-matrix or dual-scan passive-matrix displays. True-color active-matrix models are capable of displaying 16 million colors at 640- by 480-pixel resolution, and high-resolution-color active-matrix models offer 800- by 600-pixel resolution with 256 colors.
Texas Instruments TravelMate 5000
((800) 848-3927). TI's 75-MHz Pentium notebook features PCI-bus architecture, NTSC, PAL, and SuperVideo out; built-in sound and speakers; dual lithium-ion battery packs; and a 10.4
-inch active-matrix screen.
Apple Computer PowerBook 540c and 520c
((800) 538-9696). Apple's 540c (active-matrix) and 520c (dual-scan passive-matrix) are now available with 500- and 320-MB hard drives, respectively. Apple says it will formally introduce its first PowerPC-based notebook this summer.
Hewlett-Packard OmniBook 4000 PC
((800) 752-0900). HP's first high-end notebook features either a 10.3-inch passive-matrix or 10.4-inch active-matrix screen.
Tadpole P1000 ((800) 232-6656)
. Tadpole now has a Pentium-based notebook with PCI-based graphics, built-in sound, SCSI, and PCMCIA.
Toshiba 4900CT ((714) 583-3000)
. The T4900CT, a 75-MHz Pentium-based notebook, ships with 8 to 40 MB of fast EDO RAM, which the company says eliminates the need for an L2 cache controller.
Epson ActionNote 800 series
((800) 374-7300 or (800) 289-3776). Epson's first multimedia-ready notebooks will include active- and passive-ma
trix models.
AST Research Ascentia 910N
((800) 876-4278). AST's 910N features an Intel 486DX4/75 processor and is the company's first notebook to use lithium-ion batteries.
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The IBM ThinkPad 755CD's lift-up keyboard lets you remove the CD-ROM drive and install a removable disk drive or a PCMCIA cartridge to add an additional card slot.
High-End Portables Take Off
