199 battery module, and you have a 5-pound slim-line notebook. Two screws with D-ring loops make the handle attachment easy and secure.
Going the other way, you can attach the optional $399 CD-
ROM base and have an 8.2-pound multimedia notebook. The base holds a 4X CD-ROM drive, two more (larger) stereo speakers, and a bay for another battery. Remove the floppy drive, and the notebook can hold three lithium-ion batteries for a really long flight.
In any configuration, an Armada 4100 is bulkier than a HiNote Ultra II, but it's also more functional, holding floppy and CD-ROM drives simultaneously, for example. The Armada's magnesium-alloy frame gives it strength and conducts heat from the processor. Compared to Compaq's larger LTE 5000 series, the Armada 4100 notebooks lack the option of a full docking station with drive bays. They can, however, attach to a port-replication base (with or without the CD expansion unit) that has an Ethernet port.
Pricing is competitive, starting at $2599. I tested the high-end
Armada 4130T
, which costs $4599 and includes a 133-MHz Pentium, 16 MB of RAM on the system board, an 11.8-inch active-matrix color display, and a 1.08-MB hard drive (
the current maximum). With the CD-ROM expansion base and an extra battery, I was up to $5197. You can add up to 32 MB of additional RAM using two dual in-line memory module (DIMM) sockets. All models come with 256 KB of 9-nanosecond static RAM (SRAM) cache, a PCI bus, full video and audio ports, speakers and a microphone, an infrared port, and zoomed-video-enabled PC Card slots.
Displays are upgradable. Compaq designed the 4130T's 11.8-inch, 800- by 600-pixel active-matrix color display with a limited horizontal viewing angle, which is better for plane flights than conference rooms. Less expensive models can have 10.4- or 11.3-inch dual-scan displays. You get your choice of pointing devices. Armada 4100 notebooks come standard with a Cirque-type touchpad, but you can order it with a trackball and swap out one for the other.
The four programmable keys along the top left of the keyboard are surprisingly useful. A Compaq extension to the keyboard control panel lets you assign a program to each key, choos
ing from a list of all runnable programs. You can press a key to launch Explorer, for example.
Compaq adds some nice touches to the Windows 95 environment. A slick power management control panel offers many sensible options, like AC power management, that are easy to figure out and modify. Compaq's diagnostics program tells you more things about your computer than you'll ever want to know.
In performance
, the Armada 4130T ties the NEC Versa 6030H, the performance winner in this month's NSTL Hardware Lab Report. In design, Compaq has really hit a sweet spot. I expect the Armada to be both admired and copied.
Product Information
Armada 4130T...............................$5197
(estimated street price with
a mobile CD base with an
extra battery)
Compaq Computer Corp.
Houston, TX
Phone:
(800) 345-1518 or (713) 370-0670
Fax: (713) 514-1740
Internet:
http://www.compaq.com
Circle 1060 on Inquiry Card.
Notebook Under Construction
