| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : NOVEMBER 13, 2000 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| TECH BUYING GUIDE
Notebooks: Take It with You New laptops require fewer trade-offs  Time was, buying a notebook computer was all about compromise. You could have most of the features you wanted, but hauling the machine around the airport meant an almost mandatory trip to the chiropractor. Alternately, you could find a computer that was literally the size of a notebook, but the under-sized keyboard would trip up anyone with chubby fingers. If you chose to tread the middle ground, it seemed that the closer you got to the dream of a fully functional featherweight, the more cash you'd lay out for the machine.Today--well, the PC industry still isn't offering the perfect notebook yet. But it's a lot closer. Laptops now on the market can do virtually anything a desktop machine will, with far fewer compromises than even a year or two ago. There are still plenty of machines that do everything, but weigh in at a shoulder-busting eight pounds or more. There are also many that do almost everything, have superfast microprocessors, and barely top five pounds. At the other end of the scale, the ultralights are getting better and better, and if you're willing to forgo a CD-ROM or DVD drive when you travel, you can easily get by with a machine that weighs less than four pounds. SMALLER SPREAD. Sure, notebooks remain more expensive than similarly configured desktops. But sales of laptops and notebooks are growing at over 30% a year worldwide, compared to single-digit annual growth in desktops, according to researcher Dataquest Inc. That torrid pace has helped bring notebook prices down considerably. And if you start pricing desktops with flat-screen monitors--the same screens that most laptops feature these days--the difference shrinks dramatically. IBM ( IBM), for example, offers its NetVista X40i desktop with an 800 megahertz Pentium III chip, 128 megabytes of random access memory and a 20 gigabyte hard drive for $2,299. You can get a similarly configured laptop for just a few hundred dollars more--a small price to pay for mobility. Manufacturers realize that today's market for notebooks stretches all the way from corporate users who are willing to spend whatever it takes to consumers who simply want an inexpensive computer they can lug with them to the beach house. That means you now have a lot of choices--ranging from stripped-down machines that cost less than $1,000 all the way up to workhorses that rival the fastest desktops for nearly $5,000. That's just for Windows-based machines. Apple Computer Inc. ( AAPL) offers laptops ranging in price from $1,500 to $4,000. (See page 114 for more on Apple.) Believe it or not, some users actually need all the power and features offered in those high-end, heavyweight computers. These are folks who want the convenience of having a hard drive, a floppy, and a CD or DVD onboard at all times--in industry parlance, ''three-spindle'' machines. That means there's no hassle with hooking up external drives via cables or swapping drives in bays that serve a dual purpose.
Also in the heavyweight category, take a look at Gateway Inc.'s ( GTW) $3,874 model 9300xl deluxe which has an 800 MHz Pentium III microprocessor, a 20 GB hard drive, and a 15.7-inch screen--big enough to comfortably watch any movies you might pop into the computer's DVD drive. If you want an even bigger screen, you also can hook it up to your television, though it's probably easier to lay out $150 or so for a dedicated DVD player for your TV. A newer Sony, the 6.6-pound Vaio PCG-XG39, features a crystal clear, 14.1-inch screen, an 850 MHZ Pentium III chip, and an ultra-roomy 30 GB hard drive for $3,099. Packed with features but considerably lighter is the IBM ThinkPad T20. Siddharth Dasgupta, a researcher at California Institute of Technology and a part-time MBA student at the University of California at Los Angeles' Andersen School, had been a devotee of Dell Computer Corp. ( DELL) notebooks until he got his T20 through a school purchase program at Andersen. Today, in addition to using the $3,799 IBM for his course work at UCLA, he also puts together PowerPoint presentations and runs spreadsheets for Materials Research Source, a semiconductor startup he heads. And when he takes the ThinkPad home, he says, his 11-year-old daughter uses it to download MP3 files and create music CDs on an external drive. Best of all: The computer weighs less than five pounds but still manages to pack a 14.1-inch screen into a case just over an inch high. ''The screen is great, and the computer is very slim,'' Dasgupta says. Many users, though, balk at even five pounds dangling from their shoulders. For them, the weight saved is worth the hassle of hooking up the CD-ROM or DVD via a cable and not having the widest screen. Another key selling point for these frequent travelers: The smaller machines will fit comfortably on an airline seat-back tray, even in coach when the passenger in front of you reclines into your lap. Among the lightest--and smallest--of these machines is Fujitsu Ltd.'s ( FJTSY) B2175, which weighs in at a mere 2.71 pounds. This diminutive PC demands some serious trade-offs that not every user is likely to accept. For example, it has only a 10.4-inch screen--among the smallest available on notebooks today--and a cramped keyboard that may slow down touch typists. On the other hand, the Fujitsu's screen is sharp and bright, and it is touch-sensitive, making it easier to use for some graphics work and certain order-entry applications. It has a generous 15 GB hard drive. A 500 MHz Celeron processor makes it among the slowest of the new machines, but the price is a fairly modest $2,399. Slightly bigger is the Gateway Solo 3350, which features a 12.1-inch screen and a 600 MHz Pentium III processor for $2,199. Seval Oz loves hers. The vice-president for finance at UrbanMedia Inc., an upstart data- and voice-communications company in Palo Alto, Calif., Oz carries her Gateway with her throughout the day as she goes from meeting to meeting. With the machine linked to a wireless network in UrbanMedia's office, Oz can tap into Internet conference calls, send e-mail, and collaborate with colleagues in Palo Alto and at the company's sites in Georgia and other cities in California. ''My laptop is really indispensable to me as a communications tool,'' she says. Weighing just 3.65 pounds, the Gateway doesn't slow her down on her frequent business trips, and the trade-off of not having a built-in CD-ROM or DVD isn't a problem for her: ''It's vital for me to be able to carry my computer with me.'' Another machine that calls for trade-offs--but is likely to prove popular with those who do a lot of sprinting in airports--is Toshiba Corp.'s Portege 3480. While the keyboard is an inch-and- a-half narrower than those found on most laptops, the computer is less than an inch thick, weighs just 3.4 pounds, and offers a relatively speedy 600 MHz Pentium III chip for $2,499. For home users who don't want to spend a fortune on a computer, there are plenty of options as well. At the high end--machines that push the $2,000 price barrier--is Compaq Computer Corp.'s ( CPQ) Presario 1700. At 5.6 pounds, this PC won't weigh you down as much as some that cost far more, and with a 600 MHz Pentium III, it won't slow down your applications, either. The 1700 comes with a relatively generous 14.1-inch screen and a standard 64 megabytes of RAM, which you might want to upgrade to 128 MB if you plan to run the newer Windows 2000 operating system. A bit cheaper but also heavier is Hewlett-Packard Co.'s ( HWP) Pavilion Notebook N5150. At $1,849 in stores such as Best Buy Co. ( BBY), this machine offers a 13.3-inch screen but weighs in at a hefty 7.2 pounds. WinBook Computer Corp., an Internet and phone-order retailer, puts a speedier 800 MHz Pentium III chip and a 14.1-inch screen in its Si laptop but packs it into a 7.1-pound package. NASCAR driver Ernie Irvan bought a WinBook to take with him on the road while traveling with his family to races before he retired last year. ''It worked out perfectly because the kids could play games, we could do some statistics for the races, and you could watch movies and stuff on the big screen,'' Irvan says. If $2,000 still seems a tad rich for your mobile-computing needs, fear not. There are plenty of options in the $1,200 area and even some that dip below $1,000. This is the territory of smaller screens and slower Intel ( INTC) Celeron and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. ( AMD) processors. But most of these machines are plenty powerful to handle home-computing tasks. One word of caution: Many of the cheapest laptops use older screen technology called dual-scan, which isn't quite as sharp as the TFT screens found on virtually all machines that cost more than $1,500. Take, for example, IBM's $1,099 ThinkPad i Series 1200. This six-pound machine features a 500 MHz Mobile Celeron processor, 32 MB of RAM, and a 12.1-inch dual-scan screen. That's good enough for many applications, though users with a bit more cash may want to upgrade to the i Series 1250, which offers a TFT screen and a more robust 64 MBs of RAM for $1,399. Are any of these machines without compromise? Not really. No one has come up with a notebook computer that fits neatly into a briefcase, weighs less than a paperback book, has the features of a high-end desktop, and costs next to nothing. If that's your desire--dream on. There are, however, machines that can handle virtually anything mobile professionals and home users might want to do. It's just a matter of choosing which one and deciding how much cash you're willing to part with to get close to your dream. By David Rocks in New York _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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