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ROAD WARRIORS, PICK YOUR WEAPONThere's a laptop for every exec and to suit every budgetWhen it comes to laptop computers, there really is no right size. Over the years, some versions have fattened into machines rivaling desktop PCs, while others have slimmed to mere featherweights. For its annual review of on-the-road PCs, BUSINESS WEEK turned to the Jack Kerouacs of the executive set to sort out the sheer variety. What we discovered is that laptops are a lot like cars: Some execs have a clear preference for the portable equivalent of a Cadillac. Others favor the visual counterpart of a red Ferrari. And then there are the road warriors who won't be happy until portables come in helium cases. (Remember hovercrafts?) While we wait for those wonders, here's how the land lies for everyone from power hogs to the exec who logs a cool 150,000-plus air miles a year. THE POWER USER. Adrian T. Dillon likes to keep his facts at his fingertips. As chief financial and planning officer at Eaton Corp., a $7 billion industrial-components maker, Dillon is often on the road visiting company investors and Wall Street analysts or one of Eaton's 150 factories around the globe. To stay on top of things, Dillon lugs the electronic equivalent of an office--a Compaq (CPQ) Armada 7800 that includes detailed financial histories, planning models, and economic models for each of the Cleveland company's three business units. As a senior executive involved with PCs since 1979, he uses a top-of-the-line machine that delivers performance and convenience above all. Weighing in excess of eight pounds with a second battery installed, this power-monger really lets you know who's boss. The 7800 comes with a built-in s-video adapter that allows Dillon to plug into large-screen TVs for PowerPoint presentations. It runs on a top-of-the-line Intel Mobile Pentium II microprocessor to slice through financial analyses. It has a hefty 64 megabytes of memory to store large models and a bay to plug in a second battery for international sojourns. ''I really do work And live with this machine,'' he explains. For power users such as Dillon, Cadillacs are the only way to travel. Other no-compromise models include the IBM (IBM) ThinkPad 770, Toshiba Tecra 8000, Hewlett-Packard (HWP) OmniBook 7100, and the NEC (NIPNY) Versa LX. All weigh more than eight pounds, have 13- or 14-inch displays, and a full 6 or 8 gigabytes of disk storage. This class of notebook usually comes with video-out ports that link directly to big-screen TVs for on-the-road tutorials. Of course, you had better be in a league to justify this executive luxury. You or your company will lay out $4,000 to 6,000 for such a laptop. And like Eaton's Dillon, you had better learn to appreciate weight lifting. ''I've been around and using these so long I feel like it's a treat to have something that's only seven or eight pounds,'' he laughs. For such executives, power portables can never have too many features. Take the Toshiba Tecra 8000, which can be ordered in 5,800 different configurations, including a choice of Windows 95, 98, or NT operating software, digital videodisk (DVD) for watching films on long flights, and a 56k modem. A version with Pentium II 300 MHz processor, 14.1-inch screen, and 8 gigabytes of disk runs about $4,400. If you want a laptop that truly replaces a desktop, try the the Dell (DELL) Inspiron 7000. You get a 15-in. screen, a 300 MHz Pentium II processor, 128 megabytes of RAM, and an 8-gigabyte hard drive--at a relatively modest $3,854. For a further $149, you can add a port replicator to provide one-touch connection to a printer, mouse, and other accessories. It works out to about 9 lb. and may be the next best thing to an office on the road. Ken J. Beraduce, chief information officer at consultant Cap Gemini America, also applauds the feature-rich flexibility of the Tecra 8000. Cap Gemini is stocking up on Tecra 8000s because they offer up to 8 gigabytes of disk storage and the ability to support videoconferencing. ''Depending on the job or client, there are some special tasks that only the Tecra [8000] does well,'' he says. THE PRESENTATION KING. Jerry A. Moon is the archetype of the traveling show producer--the guy in the airline seat pounding out a presentation to be delivered at his next stop. As director of worldwide marketing communications at Fisher-Rosemount, an Austin (Tex.) unit of Emerson Electric Co. (EMR), Moon uses a Dell Latitude XPi to keep track of ad budgets, develop creative content, and log volumes of E-mail. What matters most to him is the battery life that lets him complete a presentation at 35,000 feet. A devotee of PowerPoint presentations and Lotus Notes E-mail, he praises the Latitude's precise trackball and power management, which lets him quickly reactivate a job that has been suspended, say, for the descent to an airport. With its dual batteries, the Latitude runs for five to six hours without interruption. Dream machines for marketing gurus such as Moon are just now coming to the forefront. The industry term for these notebooks is ''thin-and-light''--meaning six pounds or less and about 1.5 inches thick. They resemble ultralights but have at least one internal drive bay, so they can do most of the chores of a desktop. Leading this class is a line-up of IBM ThinkPads running 300 MHz Mobile Pentium II. The archetype and market-leader is the ThinkPad 600. It weighs in at five pounds and rises just 1.4 in. off the airline tray. Toshiba offers the same Intel chip in its Satellite series mainstream portables, as well as in the top-of-the-line Tecra 8000. Several manufacturers, including Dell, Toshiba, and Gateway (GTW), sell Mobile Pentium II 300 Mhz notebooks for just $2,999. Hewlett-Packard Co.'s OmniBook 4150 is one of the better examples of these pint-size multimedia machines. The 6.6-lb. unit features a fast CD-ROM drive, a large, 14.1-inch screen, and an adapter for television output. For $4,299, you'll be able to get a top-of-the-line model with a 300-MHz Intel processor, desktop-quality accelerated graphics, 6.4 gigabytes of disk storage, in addition to 64 megabytes of memory. Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL) new PowerBook laptop is also succeeding in winning fans in many quarters. James Gower, chief executive of biotechnology startup Rigel Inc., uses his new G3 PowerBook as his primary computer and as his chief aide in making presentations. It's so reliable, he reports, that at meetings his financial presentations have gotten themselves moved up the queue as others fiddle with more complex, Windows-based PCs. Sony Corp. (SNE), meanwhile, has created a new class of ultraportable, with its introduction this summer of the Vaio 550G, a three-pound, $2,000 machine with a 200 MHz Pentium and 32 megabytes of memory. Although less than an inch thick, it's bigger than such mini-notebooks as the Toshiba Libretto, featuring a 10.5-in. display and a nearly full-size keyboard. (There's no floppy or CD-ROM drive.) Similar designs are on the market in Japan and should arrive in the U.S. early next year. THE ROAD WARRIOR. Jeffrey R. Hahn ticks off the three eternal requirements for laptops: smaller, faster, lighter. As second vice-president for information technology at the Aid Association for Lutherans, he's responsible for maintaining links between the financial-service firm's 1,800 field employees and the head office in Appleton, Wis. A hard sell from IBM recently persuaded him to move his whole sales force onto ThinkPad 600s. This computer ushers in a new modular design that IBM promises will be able to support high-performance chips coming from Intel without a major redesign. That means companies buying these machines won't be forced to junk add-in disk drives, batteries, or docking stations as future models appear. For Hahn, the design means he can plan faster replacements without having to ditch the spares and add-ins acquired for the ThinkPad 600. ''Our plan now is to purchase new portables every two years,'' down from three-year replacement, Hahn says. Power management is a big advantage here. IBM's portable runs for six hours with dual batteries installed. Similarly, IBM, HP, Compaq, and Dell have developed ultrafast battery rechargers that can bring a battery back to full life in 45 to 60 minutes, instead of several hours. Life on the road is full of trade-offs. How much should you pay for extra memory or a larger screen? Do you need a built-in AC adapter, or should you carry around an external device? How important is clock-speed (megahertz) on the microprocessor? Nobody can answer these questions for you. It's a matter of personal taste and needs. At auditor Ernst & Young, for example, all the executives don't see a need for more than 200 MHz on a notebook. ''The hunger for the fastest processor has pretty much abated,'' says Al Hershey, a partner in the firm's architecture-and-standards group. Intel, naturally, is pushing its 300 MHz Mobile Pentium IIs. But there's plenty of life in Intel's older line of Pentium MMX processors, according to Hershey. Where should you not skimp? Hard drives and main memory. For large applications and files, you need at least 4 gigabytes on the hard drive and 32 megabytes of memory. Dell now offers 64 megabytes as standard. And even that's not enough for users such as Cap Gemini. The company outfits its latest portables with either 96 or 128 megabytes so that staff on the move can quickly access large databases. Another word to the wise: Don't cut corners with video memory. For Web designers--or just avid Internet cruisers--a 4-megabyte complement of video RAM goes a long way toward speeding up screen updating. If a sharp display is what makes your motor run, consider NEC Computer System's thin-and-light Versa SX. This featherweight--just 5.2 pounds with a built-in CD-ROM--shares a set of common peripherals and accessories with its desktop replacement, the Versa LX. At just 1.3 inches high, it comes with dazzling 13.3- or 14.1-inch active-matrix display. Each new generation of notebooks comes with greater capability designed into the box. Even so, the need for accessories isn't going away. For example, if you frequently use a laptop to give presentations to more than three people at a time, you might consider carrying a projector. This will create an image big and bright enough for a fair-size meeting room. A good choice is InFocus Systems Inc.'s new projector, the LP425 ($4,600). It weighs 6.8 pounds, compared with 9.9 lb. for the slightly cheaper NEC LT80. Such fancy accessories won't do you any good if a hard knock cripples your notebook. Manufacturers are trying to spare you that with specially toughened cases. Panasonic's Toughbook 71, for $3,499, boasts a ''magnesium-cloistered'' case, a membrane-protected keyboard, and a shock-absorbing gel-padded disk drive. Gateway, Compaq, Toshiba, and Dell are offering their own versions of magnesium-alloy protection. A key item on many road warriors' wish lists is a truly useful wireless modem. For now, slow 9,600 baud speeds and frequent disconnects are keeping most laptop users firmly tethered to wireline phone connections or local area networks. The bottleneck: Wireless networks are still geared to accepting short-duration calls, not big data files. That situation isn't going to change overnight. But tethered or not, the latest crop of laptops is giving people their choice of roadsters--be they Cadillacs, Ferraris, or Volkswagen Beetles.
By Gary McWilliams in Houston, with Steve Wildstrom in Washington RELATED ITEMS
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Updated Nov. 5, 1998 by bwwebmaster
Copyright 1998, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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