mccreary@boulder.Colorado.EDU (MCCREARY SEAN) (12/10/90)
Does anyone have any information on Airis laptops? Other than the preview in BYTE and the company's brochure I have no info. If anyone actually has one, I am very curious about the putative performance numbers given in BYTE (are they actually that good?) and how readable the screen is. Also, does the keyboard have good tactile feedback. I called the company in mid-November, and they said the machine was not yet in production, but that they had an order backlog until February. If someone gets one soon, let us know about it! Sean McCreary
hocker1a@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU (Craig Gary) (12/17/90)
In article <1990Dec10.071125.25073@csn.org>, mccreary@boulder.Colorado.EDU (MCCREARY SEAN) writes: >Does anyone have any information on Airis laptops? Other than the >preview in BYTE and the company's brochure I have no info. If anyone >actually has one, I am very curious about the putative performance >numbers given in BYTE (are they actually that good?) and how readable >the screen is. Also, does the keyboard have good tactile feedback. >I called the company in mid-November, and they said the machine was not >yet in production, but that they had an order backlog until February. >If someone gets one soon, let us know about it! > > Sean McCreary That's interesting that they told you in mid-November that it was not yet in production. When I read about the Airis machine in BYTE back in August, I called them up and they said it was not due to go into production till mid-September. Instead of reserving an order, I decided to continue looking for a while because I was in no hurry at the time. In the latter part of September, I called them back to ask a few technical questions and they informed me that the date for beginning production had been moved to mid-October. Well by this time the ZEOS notebook was being advertised, so I spent sometime checking into that company. When I made a final call in the middle of October to Airis, I was told that production would not begin till mid-November (with an order backlog till the end of December). Well by this time warning bells are going off in my head, since I had already read that for monetary problems the original June shipping date had been moved to August, so these delays had been going on for a half a year. I really think the Airis machine is better than the Zeos 286 notebook on PAPER, but I already have had the ZEOS machine since the end of October and used it over Thanksgiving (on American Airlines) and am quite happy with it. It has no numeric coprocessor slot and not as long a battery life, but at least the FD is built into the machine ( ~7lbs.) and I know the company will still be around next year with full support. (However, I still don't have the modem because ZEOS didn't get all the paperwork for FCC approval through and done with till the end of November. I am supposed to get the modem card any day now.) -Craig Hocker ===================================\|/========================================== Dynamical Systems Group / | Craig Hocker Chemistry Department - ~ - | bitnet: hocker1@brandeis / |internet: hocker1@binah.cc.brandeis.edu ___n__/|__/|__/|__/|__/|__/|_ __/|\__ (129.64.1.3)