Power Computing's Wintel Notebook

Jason Krause

The day after Apple announced it was buying out Power Computing's Mac clone business, Power Computing representatives came by our office to show us the company's new Wintel notebook, the PowerTrip. It was a little surprising to see the biggest seller of Mac clones with a new Pentium laptop so soon after the announcement. Especially surprising because these are not only the first laptops Power Computing has ever made, they are also the first Wintel systems the company has ever produced.

The system I checked out has features for power users, like a13.3-inch active-matrix SVGA display, 2.1- or 4-GB removable hard drive, 56K modem, and up to 128 MB of RAM. Current models have the mobile 200- or 233-MHz Pentium with MMX and will offer compatibility with mob il e Pentium II processors when available. The systems range from $3299 to $3599 for 200-MHz configurations and $3599 to $4999 for 233-MHz.

The PowerTrip is a very functional machine. It has both a touchpad and a pointing device, which can be used interchangeably. Unfortunately, the touchpad is right in front of the spacebar, so it's easy to inadvertently move the cursor while typing. The laptop weighs 7.7 pounds. The case is rugged, with molded bumps to keep it from slipping out of your hand while carrying it. One design flaw: The door covering the ports on the back of the machine cannot be locked down when open and is susceptible to breaking.

We will never know how powerful the Mac PowerTrips might have been. But the world has gained another solid, high-end Windows laptop for less than $4000.

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Where to Find

PowerTrip Notebook....................$3,299-$3,599

Power Computing
Round
 Rock, TX
Phone:    512-388-6868
Internet: 
http://www.powercc.com

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Deserves Its PowerTrip

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