pds@leviathan.cs.umd.edu (David Stotts) (11/08/90)
I have been looking at the Zeos 286 notebook as well, and in talking with the company I was told of their new notebook product: 386SX (16MHZ) with 80387 socket (the 286 does not accept an 80287) currently 20M internal hard disk (hoping to have 40-60 option soon) internal 1.44M 3.5" floppy 1M ram (expands to 3 or 5M total) 10" diagonal VGA backlit screen (32 gray levels) AC adapter serial, parallel ports 6.6 lbs (same case as the 286 notebook) 2" x ~11.5" x ~12.5" $2295 (286 notebook is $1995). 3M option: $349 5M option: $649 2400 bps internal modem: $215 intel 80387: ~$350 They are taking orders for this machine, but are not shipping until December sometime. Dave Stotts
pds@leviathan.cs.umd.edu (David Stotts) (01/13/91)
I recently (last week) received shipment of a Zeos 386SX notebook. I was one of the first orders placed back in early November, about two days after the company officially told their sales reps that it was a real product. So shipment has just begun. It is a nice machine. The box size is 12 wide x 10.5 deep x 2 high. Weight is a bit under 7 pounds with battery in place. Screen is very readable, and is 10" diagonal (9.5" visible after the plastic frame cuts off the margins). Keyboard is very nice, with good travel on the keys. Floppy seems a bit noisy, but the hard drive is fairly quiet. 20M harddrive. I ordered a 5M memory machine, and an internal modem. They have a "package" such that if you order the memory and modem, you can get an extra battery, charging stand, carrying case, and DOS for about an extra $30 over the sum cost of the individual options. So I paid $3200 for my configuration. The $2300 price is available as advertised, and you get a 386sx machine with floppy, 20M hard drive, and 1M memory. Not shabby for a good machine. Individual options prices: modem, $210; extra 2M memory: $300; second extra 2M: $249; you cannot (they say... I am no hardware hacker) install your own memory chips... you must buy and have them install their proprietary memory modules (they say). No bigger hard drive option for now. No fax/send/receive modem. One gotcha: they are back ordered on modems. They shipped my machine without one, even though I ordered it. The Zeos does not have a resume feature, which I discovered I had come to like in my Toshiba T1200. It does have 1 serial and 1 parallel port, and one keyboard port. The AC power unit seems a bit heavy and large in dimensions... estimate 1.5 pounds and maybe 8" x 3" x 2". Much heavier and larger than the Toshiba unit. In comparison, the Zeos machine is slightly larger in all dimensions, including weight, than several competing products (mail order from Northgate and Austin, for example). It is also a 16Mhz processor speed, as compared to most other ones making 20Mhz machines. BUT, Zeos is shipping, which, as far as I can tell, only DataWorld can now match. No one else (as of two weeks ago) could ship their 386 notebooks. DataWorld has a nice looking similar product, and they are shipping (all but the modems... they don't have them yet.). I called and the specs in the ad are wrong. I had the sales rep measure a machine, and the thickness is 2.15 " as opposed to the 2.5" in the ad. Screen size is also almost 9" diagonal instead of the 8" in the ad. Price is really good: $2995 gets you 20Mhz 386sx, 4M, 20M hard drive, floppy, modem, etc... It has a battery pack, but it will also run (in a pinch) on normal NiCad C cells, but for only about 1/2 hour. Dave Stotts Univ. of Maryland
john@karnak.cactus.org (John B. Meaders Jr.) (03/06/91)
I received my Zeos 386SX notebook today, exactly one week after ordering it.
They weren't kidding when they said immediate shipment. I will summarize my
package deal:
386SX notebook
3 Meg memory
1 extra battery
1 charge stand
1 carrying case
1 MS-DOS 4.01
The carrying cases are back ordered 2 weeks. The package price for this
with shipping comes out to about $2800. MS-DOS is installed if you order
it with the computer. I don't know if there is a package with 5 Meg of
memory but there probably is.
I am very impressed with this baby. It is very sexy looking (black, thin,
and light) :-) The display is awesome (I am used to the Tandy 1400 LT).
The hard disk is fast and quiet! I am very pleased. I highly recommend
Zeos.
--
John B. Meaders, Jr. 510 Manchester Ct., Hopewell, VA 23860
VoiceNet: 804-458-2983 UucpNet: ...!{sequoia,bigtex,ditka}!karnak!john
InterNet: john@karnak.cactus.org or john@karnak.sigma.com
"We're going to cut it off and then we're going to kill it" - GEN Colin Powellborsom@imokay.cmw.ltn.dec.com (Doug Borsom) (03/07/91)
What sorts of battery-saving features are supported by the Zeos 386SX? Screen shutdown? Disk shutdown? System shutdown? Resume feature? Thanks for any info.
beckman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Peter Beckman) (03/07/91)
I just called Zeos, I really want something larger than a 20Meg hard
drive. They have a nice trade-in package. If I buy a 20Meg now, when
their 40 & 60 Meg drives come out (2nd quarter), I can ship my
notebook back for a larger HD and I only pay the difference in price.
Kind of a nice deal. Basically they will open up your computer and
just put the 60Meg in your unit.
Here are the current prices/packages:
-Basic: $2295 1Meg RAM
-Nicer: $2795 3 Meg, DOS 4.01, Extra Battery & Charge Stand, Soft Case.
5 Days to get out the door.
-Super: $3195 5 Meg, DOS 4.01, Extra Battery & Charge Stand, Soft Case
2400 Baud Modem. 10 Days to get out the door.
These packages save some money if you plan on expanding, since memory
is REAL expensive. The 1st 2 Meg module (3 Meg total) is $349, the
second 2 Meg Module (5 Meg total (the max)) is $300. The modem is
some real money: $219. Maybe I should get the $69 Damark modem. It
doesn't even use any power.
To fill out the memory and get the modem is $868. Adding that to the
$2295 base price is $3163. So for $32 more you get all the perks.
The one thing I haven't enjoyed about Zeos is the phone salespeople.
I think they must get paid on commission. They bad-mouth the
competition, IBM (yet to be announced), AST, Toshiba, and Compaq.
The sales rep told me: "Nobody is shipping notebooks larger than
20Meg, except for Compaq, and their price is outrageous. You would
not believe how IBM is trying to get a look at our machines, They have
tried everything. Yea, Compaq & Toshiba hate us because our computers
are better and cost less."
Well, any Zeos owners care to describe their likes & dislikes of their
notebooks?
-Petejohn@karnak.cactus.org (John B. Meaders Jr.) (03/08/91)
I guess when I get back from Honduras I will have to ship my machine back
to get a 60MB drive (since 20MB can easily be filled). I will probably have
them add another 2MB to flesh me out to 5MB. I got the 2795 package (3Meg,
Dos, Case [backordered 2 weeks], extra battery, and external charge stand).
I like the machine, actually I love it. Did they say how much the 40 and 60
meg drives will be (ie what will upgrades cost)?
--
John B. Meaders, Jr. 510 Manchester Ct., Hopewell, VA 23860
VoiceNet: 804-458-2983 UucpNet: ...!{sequoia,bigtex,ditka}!karnak!john
InterNet: john@karnak.cactus.org or john@karnak.sigma.com
"We're going to cut it off and then we're going to kill it" - GEN Colin Powelljonathan@cs.pitt.edu (Jonathan Eunice) (03/17/91)
A few +s and -s of my Zeos 386:
GOOD:
Battery life - 2+ hours easy - turn screen to 1/2 power, turn battery-save
features to max (1 minute idle to screen shutdown, 3 minutes idle to
drive shutdown), and 2 battery packs will take you across the Atlantic
(if you also have dinner). Btw, this is with full speed on the CPU; turn
it to 1/2 speed and save more.
Screen - crisp, readable
Battery charger - works nicely, looks good, fits in case ok (though no special
place for it), and generally very convenient
Power transformer flexibility - works great on European and US power - no
converters necessary
Keyboard - not any better than competition, but BYTE panned the kbd, yet
it works/feels find for this touch-typist - arrow keys and
Home/End/Pg Up... work with Function key, and this seems convenient -
only problems are: easy to accidentally rest hand on Function key, and
space bar sometimes a little hard to hit
Upgrade policy - excellent upgrade policy to larger disks/memory/etc - ship
it back and pay only the difference in price - wonder, however, about
the upgrade turn-around time
BAD:
Default software - no sleep/resume mode - DOS costs extra (not in ROM etc) -
no battery watch software (though Travelling Software now supports
Zeos) - real area Zeos could improve upon
Power transformer size - huge - no place to put it in carrying case, though
it can be stuffed in outside "misc" pocket.
Disk drive size - 20 MB already filled - good news that 40/60 MB will be
available
Screen - (yes, I know it's also listed as a good thing) - even this backlit,
active matrix display is not nearly as good a real monitor, especially
for Windows
Modem - didn't buy one given no FAX capability - understand that it
will be available RSN
I am very pleased with the Zeos. It was cheap, yet seems well-designed,
functional, durable, etc. Combined with the upgrades becoming available,
it's a fantastic machine. Great price/performance.ayeh@sdcc13.ucsd.edu ({{{= Achilles =}}}) (03/18/91)
In article <JONATHAN.91Mar17022407@speedy.cs.pitt.edu> jonathan@cs.pitt.edu (Jonathan Eunice) writes: > >A few +s and -s of my Zeos 386: > >GOOD: > >Default software - no sleep/resume mode - DOS costs extra (not in ROM etc) - > no battery watch software (though Travelling Software now supports I always thought that Everex Tempo is the same thing as Sanyo/Zeos/Ogivar series because it has the same size and dimension. But according to Portable Office, the Everex Tempo has sleep mode(?resume mode) and it does not require using of fn key to access PageDown/PageUp/Home/End key. Can someone who has experience with Tempo tell me about the difference between Everex and Zeos? -Thanks in advance.
gwang@ncsa.uiuc.edu (George Wang) (03/18/91)
In article <JONATHAN.91Mar17022407@speedy.cs.pitt.edu> jonathan@cs.pitt.edu (Jonathan Eunice) writes: > >Modem - didn't buy one given no FAX capability - understand that it > will be available RSN > > Could you let me know which salesperson said that a FAX option will be available for the Zeos notebook? I've called Zeos tech support and they claim no such upgrade or modem exists... Someone earlier posted something about a FAX upgrade option but Zeos denies any such upgrade.. But Zeos could be denying the upgrade because they don't want everyone to return their modems in when they're still trying to fill backorders... Anyone know anything about this? Thanks George -- George Wang - Networking Development T T National Center for Supercomputing Applications | T | INTERNET: gwang@ncsa.uiuc.edu \_|_/ UUCP: gargoyle!igloo!gwang PH: (217) 244-4020 -
hardarso@weiss.cs.unc.edu (Kari Hardarson) (03/19/91)
I guess I am that someone that started the story on a Fax modem becoming available for the Zeos 386. All I know is that I talked to one of their tech reps over the phone (the 800 number), and he said that their modem supports low-speed fax transmissions but not receiving of faxes. He may not have been well-informed, that is entirely possible. Unfortunately I did not get his name or tape the conversation for that matter. -- Kari Hardarson | Twas brillig and the slithy toves 217 Jackson Circle | did gyre and gimble in the wabe... Chapel Hill, NC 27514 | (Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll)
ta-sav2@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Sean A Varah) (04/02/91)
Anyone seen the new Zeos 386sx notebook? I saw an ad for it at $2295.00.
Is it vaporware or what?
I'm about to buy a Sharp PC6220/TI 2000, and may opt for the
Zeos.
Thanks
Sean Varah
******************************************************************************
Sean Varah, Columbia University, MA Program in Music Composition
ta-sav2@cunixa.columbia.edu
******************************************************************************sje@bubba.ma30.bull.com (Steven J. Edwards) (04/02/91)
In article <1991Apr1.215141.13832@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> ta-sav2@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Sean A Varah) writes: > Anyone seen the new Zeos 386sx notebook? I saw an ad for it at $2295.00. > Is it vaporware or what? > I'm about to buy a Sharp PC6220/TI 2000, and may opt for the > Zeos. Several posters to this newsgroup, including myself, have purchased and received a Zeos 386 SX Notebook. It is definitely not vaporware. However, the company has (apparently) had some real problems with unexpectedly high demand and this has affected shipping dates. It took three weeks for my unit to arrive and it did not include either the carrying case accessory I'd ordered or a User's Manual. Other posters have also noted widespread backordering. It is a really nice unit. I an using mine to run Coherent (US$99 Unix clone) from Mark Williams and it's a very productive and fun machine. I checked about six different sets of reviews in the various trade magazines and scouted a few dealerships. The Zeos machine had the best price/performance ratio of all the battery powered 386 SX machines that had the minimal (to me) acceptable equipment (20 Meg HD, 1.44 Meg FD, VGA, standard ports, optional modem, and decent memory expandability [5 Meg RAM]). Although more massive (3 Kg) than the Sharp/TI/CompuAdd unit, it is considerably less fragile. There are now also some third party memory suppliers, so it's not absolutely necessary to pay US$695 for an extra 4 Meg RAM (1 Meg standard). == Steven J. Edwards Bull HN Information Systems Inc. == == (508) 294-3484 300 Concord Road MS 820A == == sje@bubba.ma30.bull.com Billerica, MA 01821 USA == "That Government which Governs the Least, Governs Best." -- Thomas Jefferson
john@karnak.cactus.org (John B. Meaders Jr.) (04/02/91)
In article <1991Apr1.215141.13832@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> ta-sav2@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Sean A Varah) writes: >Anyone seen the new Zeos 386sx notebook? I saw an ad for it at $2295.00. >Is it vaporware or what? > >I'm about to buy a Sharp PC6220/TI 2000, and may opt for the >Zeos. I have it. I ordered it on a Tuesday and received it the next Tuesday. -- John B. Meaders, Jr. 510 Manchester Ct., Hopewell, VA 23860 VoiceNet: 804-458-2983 UucpNet: ...!{sequoia,bigtex,ditka}!karnak!john InterNet: john@karnak.cactus.org or john@karnak.sigma.com "We're going to cut it off and then we're going to kill it" - GEN Colin Powell