tweten@AMES-NAS.ARPA (Dave Tweten) (08/14/85)
From: Keith Dale <kdale@minet-vhn-em.arpa> I am looking seriously into getting an HP110 laptop portable for personal use. 4) Should I consider any other laptop? DG/1, or Sharp 5000 for instance? I think you should at least look at the Grid Systems laptop. My wife brought a loaner home for the weekend (her employer has one on order). Very nice. It had sockets for ROM software, a 1.2 Mb diskette built in, removable rechargables, cigarette lighter plug, or step-down power supply/recharger. It also came with an outboard DS/DD 5.25" floppy drive, and a built-in modem. The loaner had LCD (none seem to be good), but her employer had ordered a gas discharge display.
Ghenis.pasa@XEROX.ARPA (08/15/85)
Also take a look at the Visual and Morrow lap-tops. They are both MS-DOS systems with the very nice feature of having built-in 5 1/4" drives instead of 3 1/2", for extra compatibility. The new models have back-lit LCD screens. Good luck.
peter@baylor.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (08/17/85)
> Also take a look at the Visual and Morrow lap-tops. They are both MS-DOS > systems with the very nice feature of having built-in 5 1/4" drives > instead of 3 1/2", for extra compatibility. The new models have back-lit > LCD screens. > Good luck. I looked for a 5.25" system, and gave up. I wouldn't give up my nice big reliable robust 3.5" drives for anything, now. For a portable machine, now that 3.5" drives are becoming popular, 5.25" drives are a dea loss. Beware, though. DG-1 and Kaypro 2000 use the same format on their 3.5" drives. HP uses something diffeerent. I don't know about the others but given HP's track record for (in) compatibility I'd avoid them. I also wouldn't want a backlit LCD screen. The new LCD screens are readable enough anyway, and can you say "power hog"? -- Peter da Silva (the mad Australian werewolf) UUCP: ...!shell!neuro1!{hyd-ptd,baylor,datafac}!peter MCI: PDASILVA; CIS: 70216,1076
jabusch@uiucdcsb.Uiuc.ARPA (08/22/85)
My office recently purchased a GridCase 2. It's a very nice machine, but exhorbitantly expensive for the individual. It has: Internal 3.5 inch 730Kb floppy drive RGB video output with DB-9 connector (just like standard IBM color monitor adapter, works very well) 512Kb RAM 8087 internal modem (Hayes compatible) serial port parallel port bus connector serial cable for PCMaster/PCSlave software use battery pack good for 4 to 6 hours AC adapter IBM-style keyboard plug to allow connection of standard IBM keyboard MS-DOS on ROM, takes all of 15 seconds to boot We also have on order the external base station, 5.25 inch floppy and 5.25 inch hard disk. My impression (if you're interested) is good. It's very nicely finished. Magnesium case, done with textured paint that withstands scratching pretty well. PCMaster/PCSlave software allows hookup to IBM PC-compatible, and gives the Grid the ability to use the IBM's disks, etc. Keyboard is not the greatest, but have yet to meet a portable that has a really nice one. All key functions have been mapped and work well, as near as I can tell. Disk drives are slow, due to the manner in which DOS sees them. Apparently, DOS is fooled into thinking that each disk is actually two of the usual 360Kb disks, and things are slowed down slightly. The display isn't bad for an LCD. Actually, it's easier to read than the Data General 1 that I've seen. The plasma screem, which is not yet available, would be far superior. Grid does allow upgrade to the plasma screen later for the price difference, from what the rep told me. I have used WordPerfect 4.0 (IBM PC version, not generic MS-DOS) on it, along with Crosstalk, PC-Write, Savvy PC, various public domain programs, AutoCAD 2.17, and Turbo Pascal. Have yet to experience difficulties, except that our Mouse Systems Mouse wouldn't work. Now for the bad news. The price for the system we have, which is approx. 20% below retail, is over $4500. By the time we finish, it will be in the $9000 range. Reason? The 10Mb hard disk costs $2200 retail. Not your average personal portable price range! But to add the hard disk and the 5.25" floppy, you have to get the base station, which connects to the Grid bus. Then the disk drives sit on top of it and connect through their chassis, without extra cabling. PCMaster/PCSlave works well, but is very slow. Have yet to do extensive testing, but the Grid seems well suited to travel and heavy use and it only weighs 12 pounds, by far easier to carry than the Compaq- type machines. <I'm not connected with Grid in any way.> John W. Jabusch