Toshiba's little laptop is making big strides in long-life batteries

Article Abstract:

Toshiba's Portege 3440CT gets about twice the battery life available from the IBM ThinkPad 240 or the comparable Sony Vaio laptops. In tests, the battery beat the claimed 2.5 hours, providing a bit over three hours of battery life. In addition, Toshiba has a nifty accessory that extends the battery life to eight or nine hours. The accessory is the high-capacity battery slice, a thin base that snaps onto the bottom of the laptop. It contains a battery that effectively triples the laptop's battery life. In comparison with the IBM ThinkPad 240, the Toshiba's keyboard is not as good, and the ThinkPad has a full array of built-in ports. The ThinkPad 240 is also a bit smaller and lighter. However, the screen and the audio of the Toshiba are superior. The long battery life and power-management features of the Toshiba are what make it special.

Author: Mossberg, Walter S.
Japan, ELECTRONIC & OTHER ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT, Electrical & Electronic Equip, Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing, Electrical equipment and supplies industry, Electric equipment industry, Toshiba Corp., Toshiba Portege 3440CT (Pentium III-based notebook)

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Consumers now get two new choices in the $999 laptop

Article Abstract:

The Gateway Solo 1200 and the Sony Vaio SR33 are two new $999 laptops, both powered by Intel Celeron processors, and equipped with 128 megabytes of memory, a 10 gigabyte hard disk and an active-matrix screen. The Solo weighs just under 7 pounds and features a built-in CD-Rom drive, built-in floppy-disk drive, and has a variety of ports, including an Ethernet port and a modem. The Solo performed well in tests, but its drawbacks are a noisy fan and an unimpressive battery life, lasting 1 hour, 49 minutes when run at full throttle with power-saving functions off. Since this type of laptop is really meant to stay plugged in, however, it is a very attractive buy for the price. The Sony Vaio SR33 is a thin, 3-pound laptop, with an external CD-ROM, but no floppy. It performed well in tests, and was outstanding in its battery life, lasting 3 hours, 14 minutes in the same test that was conducted on the Solo. Downsides include unimpressive screen resolution, no Ethernet networking port and no port-replicator. The SR33 would be great for note-taking and e-mailing for the user who wants light weight and small size at a great price.

Author: Mossberg, Walter S.
Electronic Computer Manufacturing, Computers & Auxiliary Equip, Gateway Inc., GATE, Sony Corp., SNE, Gateway Solo 1200 (Laptop/portable computer), Sony Vaio SR33 (Laptop/portable computer)

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Now you can get a super-slim PC with a great keyboard

Article Abstract:

IBM's new ThinkPad 240 notebook computer is an improvment over previous IBM portable models, featuring a larger keyboard with generous spacing and an up-and-down feel much like bigger PCs. It comes with a sharp 10.4 inch active matrix screen, a 300 MHz Celeron processor, 64 megabytes of memory and a 6.4 gigabyte hard disk. The 240 also features built-in video-out, printer and serial connectors as well as a USB port, PC card slot and audio connections. At 2.9 pounds, the new ThinkPad costs about $2,000. The Sony VAIO Z505 laptop computer costs $2,500, has a 12-inch screen, weighs 3.5 pounds and no built-in ports other than a networking port and two multimedia connectors.

Author: Mossberg, Walter S.
Notebook computers, Notebook computer, Sony VAIO PCG-505 SuperSlim Notebook (Notebook computer)

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Subjects list: United States, Evaluation, Computer industry, Product/Service Evaluation, Product information, Laptop computers, Laptop/portable computer, Portable computers, IBM ThinkPad 240 (Pentium II-based notebook)
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