On the two Austin ultraportables, the Sceptre TS37 Subnotebook, and Gateway's Liberty
, you have to pull the external floppy drive off the parallel port if you want to connect a parallel-attached network adapter, printer, or external CD-ROM drive. The Compaq Contura Aero 4/33C Model 250 uses its PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) slot for its external floppy drive, which occupies a valuable expansion slot. The other ultraportables have ports dedicated for their external floppy drives.
Hewlett-Packard's OmniBook 600CT gets one of the best
usability ratings, but its mouse that pops out the side of the system is really annoying. The mouse attaches to the ultraportable via a plastic leash that not only proved restrictive when moving the cursor but also felt like it would break off with a quick
jerk.
Keeping Mouse on Short Leash Not Conducive to Productivity
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