Toshiba’s New Generation Portable
I’ve seen the future and, if you’re willing to pay the price, it’s here now. Toshiba’s new T4400SXC color notebook personal computer is an impressive machine: small, colorful and very powerful.
The Toshiba model is part of a new generation of portable PCs that features a flat panel color screen with an active matrix “thin-film-transistor” (TFT) liquid crystal display. The screen requires three transistors for each pixel, or dot, on the screen. On a 640-by-480 display, that adds up to 921,600 transistors. The transistors act as high-speed shutters blending red, green and blue light to create the desired color.
The new Toshiba features a 486SX central processing unit (CPU) running at 25 megahertz. It comes standard with four megabytes of RAM and either an 80- or 120-megabyte hard disk. The 80-megabyte model has a suggested retail price of $5,499. The 120-megabyte model costs $7,099. It weighs 7.75 pounds (with battery) and measures 11.7 inches wide by 8.3 inches deep by 2.3 inches high.
The screen, which can display up to 256 colors, is absolutely gorgeous. This is the first notebook PC I’ve used whose screen looks better than the one on my desktop. Once these screens become more affordable, we’ll start seeing them on desktop machines.
The screen is able to redraw images much faster than the standard LCD screens found in most notebook PCs. If you use a mouse to move the cursor quickly across the screen of a standard LCD, you’ll see a blur because the screen can’t keep up with the fast motion. You don’t have this problem with active matrix. Another advantage is that you can see the image from almost any viewing angle.
The active matrix displays are very expensive because of a low yield factor. If there are too many defective transistors, the screen cannot be used. Until a few months ago, factories had to reject about 80% of the screens. Now, about half the screens pass inspection, according to a Toshiba spokesman. Still, the screen I tested had one defective pixel--a common occurrence with these machines.
The prices--even after recent reductions on some models--are not necessarily for the budget-conscious. It’s great, however, for anyone who needs to make impressive desktop presentations while on the road. Plop it at someone’s desk, run your demo and watch the person’s eyes light up. They may or may not like what you have to say, but they’ll sure be impressed with the display.
Not just a pretty box, the new Toshiba model is also fast and powerful. Its 486 CPU scored a 54 on Symantec/Norton Computing Group’s SysInfo benchmark test. That’s 54 times the speed of IBM’s original PC. The hard disk, rated by Toshiba at 19 milliseconds, is able to transfer nearly 600 kilobytes of data per second, according to the SysInfo program.
Although not as roomy as desktop keyboards, the keys have normal spacing and a fairly good feel. There are 82 keys, including 12 dedicated function keys and eight cursor control keys.
Toshiba says that its removable nickel cadmium battery will run three hours after a 90-minute charge. I put the battery through a grueling automated test running Microsoft Word for Windows and saving a file every 15 seconds. The battery lasted almost 2 1/2 hours--pretty impressive considering the amount of disk access and the fact that Windows programs use a lot of energy because they light the entire screen with graphic images.
The machine comes with a serial port, a parallel port, a port for an external VGA monitor and a socket for a PS/2-style mouse. There is also a slot for an internal modem and another for adding up to 20 megabytes of memory. Another port allows you to plug in an optional standard keyboard or 17-key keypad. Finally, there is a place to connect the machine to Toshiba’s $999 Desk Station IV docking station that allows you to add additional hardware, including standard expansion cards.
For information about Toshiba products, call (800) 457-7777.
