coxc0032@ucselx.sdsu.edu (David Tse) (06/19/91)
The latest Damark catalog has dropped the price on the Bondwell B200 laptop from $500 to $400, making me want to get one. Here is info on the catalog: 80C88 at 8MHz, 640K ram, 2 720k 3.5" floppy drives, 10.5" supertwist nonglare LCD screen at 640 x 200. 8 lbs, Ni-Cd battery up to 6 hrs, parallel port, RS232 serial port, RGBI port, 81 keys keyboard with 10 prog. fkeys. MS-DOS 3.3 and GW-BASIC. Once it says 1" high, but the dim. is 13" x 12.2"x 2.2". One year distributor's warranty. Carrying case for $40, extra battery $30. Now the questions: 1. How is this laptop overall in terms of general usage? anything bad about it? except it's low end performance? 2. How is the screen, does it have good contrast and looks good? I expect the CGA quality and half height aspect ratio. 3. How is the keyboard? is it ok? 4. Is it possible to install a hard drive ? internally, taken out one floppy? externally, with a hacked connector? Is there no expansion at all for control- lor? 5. Is it a 9 pin or a 25 pin serial port on the back? More on this later. 6. Is the battery a popular type that I can buy (I know battery quite well in general, so I don't expect to pay a lot for original replacement)? 7. Is Bondwell a good company for it's laptop? any bad things about them? What would the one year distributor's warranty cover? 8. Is the carrying case worth to have for the price? is it better to have a case? About question 5, there are two tiny modems on the same catalog for sale, with a female DB25 on one end, and probably the phone socket on the other, it's very small, AT command set, line-powered so no battery or AC hook-up needed, non-volitile ram, 90 days warranty. Two models: 1200 baud $30; 2400 baud $70. They look just like ones I've seen advertised on some laptop magazines, but without the label on the model shown on the picture in the catalog. They did not state the brand, but the price seems very good. Anyone has tried out these laptop modems? That's the reason I asked about the serial port to see if I need an adaptor for it. Thanks for reading, and hope it's good info for the pricing, I'll check this group for answers, but e-mail is also appreciated very much. sincerely, David Tse coxc0032@ucselx.sdsu.edu