Little Problems Trip Up a Little Notebook

Michelle Campanale

Since last year's announcement of the Toshiba Libretto sub-notebook, vendors including Hitachi, Nimantics, and Mitsubishi have raced to provide higher-powered micro-laptops. Powered by a 133-MHz Pentium processor, the $1995 Mitsubishi Amity CN fits between the 120-MHz Pentium MMX Libretto 70CT and Nimantics' 150-MHz Pentium MMX Persona T-150.

The Amity CN can accommodate from 16 to 48 MB of system RAM and a 1.2-GB hard drive. Weighing a little over 2-1/2 pounds, the unit measures 9.3 inches wide by 6.7 inches deep by 1.34 inches tall. Its keyboard is well sized; each key is spaced 16 millimeters apart, making touch-typing bearable.

The system is not perfect, however. Take its point ing stick, which sits flush against the keyboard and is difficult to maneuver without hitting the keys next to it. I had to connect a standard PC/2 mouse to continue using the system, not a good situation for working on the road. I also found the 7.5-inch passive-matrix color display to be blotchy in areas.

I did like its external lithium-ion battery pack, which adds 7-1/2 hours of life, weighs about 1-1/2 pounds, and doubles as a carrying handle. It doesn't come standard, however; you'll have to shell out $383 for this feature and $300+ for a CD-ROM drive. An external floppy drive ships with the system.

This could be the perfect traveling companion, but problems with the pointing stick and screen are minuses for road warriors.

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Where to Find

Mitsubishi Amity CN........................$1995
Mitsubishi Electronics America
Cypress, CA
Phone:    888-445-5250
Phone:    714-220-2500
Internet: http://www.mitsubishi.com

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Not All is Well in Munchkin Land

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