gooley@sunc7.cs.uiuc.edu (Markian "Party Mineral" Gooley) (04/24/91)
A neophyte's question: Are there any laptops with a full-sized screen and keyboard that also have long battery life? What I'd like is something that can run for more than the standard 3-4 hours and let me do text editing or a little light programming; a hard disk wouldn't be necessary but a floppy drive would help. The "toy" machines that are more handhelds than laptops simply won't do, although they seem to have good battery life. (By the way, what *is* it that eats so much power on these machines? The display? The CPU?) Mark. gooley@cs.uiuc.edu
mheyda@heyda.austin.ibm.com (Michael Heyda) (04/25/91)
Try Aris Corp. They are located in Chicago as a matter of fact. They make(?) a laptop that is a 286/12 with a 20MB hard disk, 2400 baud modem/9600 send fax, and VGA display. For all this (modem included) they want $1,895. An excellent deal if they ever get the machine past FCC Class B requirments. All the laptop makers seem to be waiting in line at the FCC. I was going to buy an Aris but they didn't come out in December like they said, then they didn't come out in February like they said. So, I bought a DataWorld NB320, a 386SX/20. I still think that the Aris is a great deal because they toss in a lot of nice extras. For example, the ROM BIOS is modem updgradeable. When Aris comes out with a new ROM BIOS you give them a call on your modem and they send you the new BIOS over the modem. They also have modem diagnostics tools. As far as the battery life.... Aris claims 10 hours on "C" size batteries! Mike
tnaa7@isuvax.iastate.edu (Steven M. Knapp) (05/07/91)
In article <28159B49.6904@ibma0.cs.uiuc.edu>, gooley@sunc7.cs.uiuc.edu (Markian "Party Mineral" Gooley) writes: >A neophyte's question: > >Are there any laptops with a full-sized screen and keyboard that >also have long battery life? What I'd like is something that can >run for more than the standard 3-4 hours and let me do text editing >or a little light programming; a hard disk wouldn't be necessary but >a floppy drive would help. The "toy" machines that are more handhelds >than laptops simply won't do, although they seem to have good battery >life. (By the way, what *is* it that eats so much power on these >machines? The display? The CPU?) > The original T1000 will meet simple needs..and it is real cheep! Or get another laptop w/ a few extra B-packs.......My T1000SE w/ one spare pack is good for over 4 hours...and switching batteries is real easy....it turns itself off when the battery is through, I relpace the pack, and then I turn it back on again...back right where I left off.. I know hard disks and lighted displays take alot of power.... sTEVE