Rex Baldazo
A laptop can never be too fast nor weigh too little. Toshiba America Information Systems (Irvine, CA, (714) 583-3000) has applied both these lessons well in designing the
Portégé 610CT
.
Like the Dell Latitude XPi P90T (see "Impressive Battery Life in a Laptop Pentium PC," September BYTE, page 286), the Portégé 610CT uses Intel's low-power Pentium clocked at 90 MHz. The 610CT uses extended data out (EDO) RAM, which, in certain circumstances, can improve performance. However, on our BYTEmark native-mode tests (
see the chart
), the scores were just about on par for a normally aspirated 90-MHz Pentium. That's not to say the extra expense of EDO RAM is wasted, but our low-level
tests did not show a noticeable speedup.
The benefit of a low-power microprocessor was readily apparent in our Thumper II word processing battery-life test. The smaller 610CT bested its big brother, the T4900CT (4 hours and 25 minutes), running 5 hours unplugged.
Many of the pieces in the 610CT seem familiar -- almost ordinary: built-in 16-bit sound and a 9-1/2-inch color thin-film transistor (TFT) display. But this computer is more than the sum of its parts. Somehow, Toshiba has managed to put the equivalent of a full-featured desktop Pentium into an elegant package that weighs under 5 pounds.
This achievement is not without some sacrifices. The floppy drive is an external unit, as is the AC power brick. But the biggest drawback is the tiny keyboard. IBM's magnificent Butterfly keyboard (see "Incredible Expanding Keyboard," May BYTE) has simply set the bar higher, and the Portégé 610CT does not rise to the challenge. A cramped keyboard used to be a trade-off we would accept to
gain better portability. Now that someone has shown the world a better way, anything else seems like a step back.
Toshiba has once again delivered an amazing amount of power in a small form factor. Now if the company can just convince IBM to license the Butterfly keyboard, this could be the perfect traveling companion for the mobile professional.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Portégé 610CT
8 MB of RAM, 686-MB hard drive $4649
Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.
Irvine, CA
(800) 334-3445
(714) 583-3000
illustration_link (4 Kbytes)
photo_link (7 Kbytes)
The Incredible Shrinking Pentium
