By BRIT HUME and T.R. REID
Before Windows 95 came along, with its heightened demands for storage, memory and speed, laptop computers were shrinking to the point where a full-blown PC could be found at less than 3 pounds, and the approximate dimensions of a hard-bound book. It has taken a few years for the technology to catch up, but we are almost there again.
PC users who want to travel very light now have three categories to choose from: palmtops, handhelds and mini-notebooks.
Palmtop PCs weigh just over half a pound and deliver some useful functions, including note-taking, e-mail, appointment books and contact lists. They can exchange data with your desktop computer but lack a keyboard, Web access and are simply not full-blown computers. At $300 to $400, such models as the 3-Com Palm III and the Everex Freestyle Executive have been highly popular.
In the next category are handheld PCs that weigh just under two pounds. Here, something approaching the functionality of a true laptop is available. Hewlett-Packard has pioneered in this market, and its 620LX is a marvel of miniaturization. Unlike the earlier 320LX, this model has a crisp color display and you get an idea of its power from the fact that it comes with 16 megabytes of memory standard, expandable to 26 megabytes.
It runs on a peppy 75-megahertz Hitachi microprocessor and uses Microsoft’s Windows CE operating system. Windows CE comes with a suite of slimmed-down applications that include “Pocket” editions of Microsoft’s Word, Excel, Outlook and Internet Explorer.
These programs do not pack the power of the full versions of these programs. The Web browser, for example, cannot handle Java, so some pages may not display properly. But they are real applications. In addition, there is a terminal program to drive your modem, along with a calculator and, yes, a solitaire game. HP also includes with the 620LX a fax program, and an expense account program that tracks business expenditures and can export its data to Intuit’s popular Quicken money manager.
There is a full QWERTY keyboard, but “full” means it has all the keys, not that they are full-size. No one contemplating buying this unit or any other in this category should do so without trying it out.
Most who have done so say it’s possible to touch type on the 620LX, but not without adjustment, and actually typing while in a moving vehicle, or even on a slightly bumpy plane ride, is likely to be tricky.
Mouse functions are handled by a touchscreen and stylus, which, like all other portable mouse substitutes, is far from perfect, but acceptable. Unlike the palmtops, the 620LX will not run on AA batteries, relying instead on a proprietary battery pack that HP says last 5.5 hours (don’t count on that much).
The unit costs about $900. There is no modem included, so count a PC card modem as an inevitable additional expense.
The HP 620LX now has competition from the NEC MobilePro 750, another color-screen two-pounder with a full QWERTY keyboard and Windows CE, with its set of “pocket” applications. The MobilePro 750, however, also comes with a 33.6-kbps built-in modem. It also has 16 megabytes of RAM, a set of mini-applications similar to those that come with the HP and a battery life estimated at eight hours. At $899, it would appear a bit better buy than the HP, and reviewers are claiming that you really can touch type on its keyboard.
This brings us to the mini-notebooks category and the three Toshiba Libretto models. First, there is the 1.85-pound 50CT, a book-size unit with a 75-megahertz Pentium processor and Windows 95 included. It has 16 megabytes of RAM expandable to 32, a 772-megabyte hard disk, a QWERTY keyboard, and a pointing device run by a little button next to the 6-inch screen.
The Libretto 50CT can be hard to find, and seems slow and underpowered for Windows 95. But at about $800, it is a bargain. There is now a more powerful 1.85-pound Libretto, the 70CT, with a 120-megahertz processor and a 1.6-gigabyte hard disk, but it costs $1,600 or more and there is still no modem included.
Finally, if money is no object, there is the top-of-the-line Libretto, the 100CT. It has a sharper resolution 7-inch screen, a 166-megahertz processor, 32 megabytes of RAM standard and a 2-gigabyte hard disk and yet it weighs in at just 2.35 pounds. It even has built-in sound. Alas, it sells for about $2,400.
T.R. Reid is London bureau chief of the Washington Post. Brit Hume is managing editor of Fox News in Washington. You can reach them in care of the Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St., Washington D.C. 20071-9200, or you can e-mail T.R. Reid at [email protected] and Brit Hume at [email protected].
