CIIPIUI
Things to consider when you buy
a laptop
By Donna Barron
You see people lugging them
through airports and clicking
away at them around campus
Once considered simply a tool
for writers, those neat looking
clamshell- type portables are
popular among all types of com
puter users
In the last 12-IK months, the
number of companies offering
laptops has increased enor
mously Hitachi. Mitsubishi and
Compaq, for example, all re
cently introduced laptop mod
els In addition, such estab
lished manufacturers as
Toshiba, NEC and Zenith con
tinue to announce new or en
hanced versions on almost a
daily basis As the variety and
pow er of laptops has increased,
many people have begun to
question whether they really
need to buy a full-sized portable
or desktop computer to fulfill
their computing needs
Laptops generally weigh in
somewhere between 9-14
pounds and are about 12 inches
square, although there are some
that are even smaller The pop
ular Toshiba T101K), for exam
ple, weighs only a little over 6
pounds A standard portable, on
the other hand, can weigh 35
pounds or more- not exactly
the kind of thing you'd want to
drag to a lecture hull with you
In addition, most laptops are
designed to run on rechargeable
nickel cadmium micadi batter
ies w hich means you can use
them just about anywhere, al
though generally not for more
than three or four hours at a
stretch
While laptops have always had
W r.ALH 'i'.llSA Qnrirwi
a size and weight advantage,
they often lacked the power and
storage capability of a portable
or desktop computer Laptop
users often had to put up with
small, notoriously hard-to-read.
LCD display screens ' if you've
ever tried to read your digital
watch in full sunlight, you'll get |
the picture', slow processor
speeds, limited memory and da
ta storage (some of the older
models didn't even have floppy
disk drives) and low-level, if
any. graphics capability But in
the past year or so that situa
tion has been changing
For a price, you can get a lap
top with the sume type of high
quality VGA (Video Graphics
Adapter! graphics that come
standard on IBM's PS/2 line of
desktop computers, 20
megabytes or more of built-in
hard disk storage capacity and
even the fast 8028b and super
fast 80380 processor speeds of
the most expensive desktop
computers
While a laptop would appear
to be an ideal solution for stu
dents (wouldn’t it be great to be
able to carry your computer
with you to the library or to
throw it into the overhead com
partment on a plane and take it
home to work on over the hole
days ’1 there are some definite
caveats to consider before you
start counting out your money
First and foremost is price
Being on the cutting edge of
technology is costly. While you
could probably buy a fully con
figured monochrome IBM-type
PC AT i8028ti' desktop comput
er with a 20 megabyte hard
drive for under $2,000, a com
parably equipped laptop might
easily run $4,000-$5,000
Many of the more powerful
laptops have gotten heavier and
are pushing 18-20 pounds In
addition, some companies have
traded increased power for the
freedom of battery operation
Since no battery will last more
than a short time when run
ning all the bells and whistles,
the companies have simply
made them AC-only units
The most reasonably priced
laptops fall into the $1,100—
$2,500 price range Price will
depend to a great extent on
whether you buy from a local
dealer, mail order catalogs or
newspaper advertisements
Mall order offers both better
prices and a better selection
Despite the current prolifer
ation of laptops, local computer
stores simply don't stock very
many of them Also, because lo
cal dealers are accustomed to
selling to business customers,
they generally don't discount
prices much A laptop is no eas
ier to run than a desktop com
puter so, unless you know quite
a bit about computers already,
you may really need that local
dealer to help you get up and
running
While the laptop's small
screen and cramped keyboard
are minor inconveniences you
can get used to, there are two
nuyor problems laptop owners
face The first is that—except
for the most expensive mod
els laptops have no expansion
capability Some laptops have
provision for adding a modem
but most have no place to put
add-in boards or optional inter
nal drives This means that
once you’ve bought your com
puter you may not be able to
change the graphics board, add
a facsimile device, hook up a
scanner or add an internal
hard drive
The second problem is that
laptops use 3.5-inch diskettes
for data storage, which are not
compatible with the majority of
existing IBM PC AT-type com
puters using 5.25-inch diskettes
This means you may not bo able
to swap diskettes with friends
and may find difficulty exchang
ing data between your laptop
and existing computers at your
school
Data transfer can be accom
plished via modem or through
such file transfer packages us
Brooklyn Bridge from White
Crane Software or Fast Wire II
from Kupp Brothers w hich allow
you to connect your laptop to a
desktop computer us*