The history of new technology in laptops follows a familiar pattern: First, a feature is offered as an add-on, usually in the form of a PC Card. Then it is integrated into high-end models. As volumes rise and prices fall, it becomes standard throughout the product line. Modems followed this course and are now universally included in laptops. Built-in Ethernet, which makes for convenient office or home networking, has nearly completed the transition. Wireless local networking, known as Wi-Fi or 802.11b, has just begun the cycle, with most Windows-laptop makers including integrated wireless on some models. Apple Computer (AAPL
) laptops have offered it for some time.
A wireless LAN lets you work where you want, not just where there's a network jack. You can carry your laptop into a conference room or move it around a classroom and stay on the network. At home, you can get Web access anywhere without running cables. Building in wireless has some considerable advantages. It's more convenient, more reliable, and cheaper. Instead of awkwardly sticking out of the laptop, antennas are hidden away, usually inside the lid, a position that is, at least in theory, more efficient.
I looked at two high-end wireless notebooks, the OmniBook 6100 from Hewlett-Packard (HWP
) (www.hp.com/notebooks/) and a ThinkPad T23 from IBM (IBM
) (www.thinkpad.com). These are both impressive notebooks sporting Intel's newest 1.13 gigahertz Pentium III-M processor. To be honest, there's no detectable performance difference between these chips and the older 900 MHz Pentium III in typical notebook tasks. But the III-M runs cooler and draws less power. Both notebooks demonstrated impressive battery life: Running Windows 2000, I got a bit over three hours in the ThinkPad and well more than four in the HP, which sports a bigger, heavier battery.
Another novel feature of these deluxe laptops is their high-resolution 1400-by-1050 pixel displays. These are a mixed blessing. On the ThinkPad's 14.1-in. display, unless adjustments are made, icons and text are 27% smaller than on the same computer with a 1024-by-768 display. Depending on your eyes, it can be hard to read some Web pages and e-mail messages, where type size cannot be changed. Things are a bit better on the OmniBook's 15.1-in. display, but the result is a bigger notebook. The OmniBook has little chance of being usable in a coach airplane seat.
The wireless performance also varied widely between the two computers, which surprised me since they use the same Actiontec Electronics wireless hardware and software. The IBM, the apparent beneficiary of superior antenna design, was the clear winner, maintaining an 11-megabit-per-second connection in a marginal reception area where the HP was unable to link to a base station. In fact, the HP did not do as well as a laptop with an Agere Systems Orinoco PC Card.
ONE GLITCH. The wireless software could use improvement in both computers. Each requires you to enter an encryption key as a hexadecimal (base 16) number, which requires a complicated conversion if you want to work on a network that expects an ordinary character string as a key. IBM includes a handy program that makes it easy to set up and switch among network profiles so that you can easily move from your office to a high-speed hotel Net connection. But it handles only basic network settings, not the additional and confusing wireless setup, so you may have to struggle to get your laptop connected to the wireless service in an airport lounge.
The market for $3,500 laptops is obviously limited, but integrated wireless is already spreading downmarket. Compaq Computer (CPQ
) offers a novel wireless snap-on module as a $189 option on its new, ultralight Evo Notebook N-400c starting at $2,149. Wireless is growing rapidly in education, and most of the cheaper wireless models are aimed at the school market. Integrated wireless is a $159 option on Dell Computer's Inspiron 4100 models, which start as low as $1,199. And Apple offers built-in wireless as a $100 option in both its high-end PowerBook Titanium and its education-oriented iBook, which starts at $1,299.
About that software: A setup wizard to explain the steps and end the need for obscurities such as hexadecimal codes would go a long way toward making a great technology accessible.
Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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