Laptops That Won’t Weigh You Down

The last place I want to be on a balmy summer day in Silicon Valley is stuck at my office. So, I grabbed my cell phone, notebook PC, wireless modem and pager and rode my bicycle to a nice air-conditioned restaurant to work on my column.

Admittedly, I’m not your typical PC user. But for a variety of reasons, millions of people are buying notebook computers. Some buy to use on trips. Others carry them back and forth between home and office. I know a number of people who prefer using a notebook PC because it allows them to always have all their data files with them.

Notebook PCs are generally a lot more expensive than desktop models, but a single portable machine can give you triple duty--at the office, at home and on the road.

Shopping for a notebook machine requires more thought than picking out a desktop unit because there are more variables and, once you have the machine, it’s harder to upgrade individual components. If you don’t like the keyboard or the pointing device on your desktop machine, for example, you can easily and cheaply replace it. With a notebook, you’re stuck with what you have.

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A lot of companies are now using touchpads as pointing devices. Some people like them, some hate them and some, including myself, grow to tolerate them. Some are better than others, but I have a hard time being accurate when trying to move the cursor to a precise location.

Personally, I prefer the pointing stick (IBM calls it TrackPoint) that looks like a pencil eraser and sticks up between the G, H and B keys. What’s important here is what you prefer. Before spending money on a notebook PC, spend at least half an hour playing with it to be sure you’re happy with the pointing device, keyboard and screen.

Most notebook PCs these days come with one or two PCMCIA slots that make it easy to plug in a credit-card-sized modem. Built-in audio is now pretty much standard, though you might still find some that don’t have it. Many of the larger portable units have built-in CD-ROM drives, but don’t expect that, or even a built-in floppy drive, if you opt for a lighter and smaller “sub-notebook” machine.

For me, the weight is the weightiest issue when it comes to notebooks. I like to have the machine with me as I go about my day, especially when I attend meetings or trade shows, where I need to take notes or write columns. Naturally, I seek out the lightest and smallest machine I can find, which is why I’m quite fond of the new Toshiba 300CT I recently borrowed.

At 3.8 pounds in its basic configuration, it’s among the lightest on the market. It’s also small: 10.3 inches wide, 7.6 inches long and 1.35 inches thick. The screen is just as wide (9.25 inches) as what you’ll find on most full-sized notebook PCs, but it’s not quite as long (5.25 inches).

To reduce the width of the machine, Toshiba also cut corners on the size of the keyboard by reducing the space between keys by about 5%. I’m a pretty fast touch typist and am usually the first to yell when confronted by a reduced-sized keyboard, but I have no complaints about this one. The keys themselves are full-sized and have the feel and resistance you get with a regular notebook. The unit has a pointing stick similar to the IBM TrackPoint.

Toshiba made one cut that does bother me. The serial and parallel ports, instead of being built-in, are on a small (4 ounces) adapter you plug into the machine. It reduces the size and weight of the basic unit, but it’s one more thing to carry around or, worse, forget to pack.

Like other sub-notebook machines, it has an external floppy disk drive and no built-in CD-ROM drive. For $479, you can purchase the Multimedia Port Replicator that adds a 10x CD-ROM drive and two stereo speakers. The device, which clips onto the bottom of the machine, weighs about 2 pounds and is two-thirds of an inch thick.

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Now the bad news. This small machine comes at a big price. Toshiba has only one version of the machine, selling for $3,495. It is well-equipped with a 133MHz MMX CPU, 32 megabytes of memory and a built-in 33.6 modem that can also function as an answering machine. Toshiba has plenty of less expensive notebook machines, but they’re bigger and heavier.

Compaq has a similar strategy with its Armada 4100 series, though Compaq gives you a lot more options, from a $1,150 entry-level unit all the way up to the $3,975 high-end system that I tested.

The Armada is something of a chameleon. It can weigh as little as 6 pounds or as much as 8, depending on how you configure it. When you unpack it, it weighs 6.25 pounds and comes with an internal floppy drive and a battery that slips inside the handle you use to carry the machine.

However, you can reduce the weight a bit by removing the handle battery and replacing the floppy drive with an internal battery. If you want a full-featured notebook machine, you plug in the optional CD-ROM expansion unit ($369) that converts the system into a full-fledged multimedia machine. Although quite a bit heavier than the Toshiba, it is, nevertheless, an attractive machine with a good keyboard, an excellent screen and a very innovative design.

I reviewed the IBM ThinkPad 560 a year ago and my only complaints about the 4.1-pound system were that it was too expensive and too hard to find. But they’re now in the stores, and IBM just lowered the entry price to $1,999, making it an affordable choice for anyone wanting a first-class sub-notebook machine. The sale price is for a system with only 8 megabytes of RAM, but $90 more upgrades it to 16 megabytes of memory.

The beauty of the ThinkPad 560 is that its keyboard and screen are full-sized, yet the machine itself is light and only 1.2 inches thick. I’ve been a fan of IBM keyboards ever since I owned an IBM Selectric typewriter in the ‘70s, and all ThinkPads, including this ultra-light one, have great keyboards.

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IBM has also cut the entry price of the ThinkPad 360 to $1,799. This 6.6-pound machine has an integrated floppy disk drive and, for an extra $300, comes with an integrated CD-ROM drive. The company’s high-end 760 models are now cheaper too, starting at $3,999.

Of course, there are plenty of standard full-featured notebook PCs on the market that come with built-in floppy and CD-ROM drives. These machines typically weigh about 7 to 9 pounds but have everything you need built in so you don’t have to fiddle with screws, connectors or cables. I hate the weight but enjoy the freedom of being able to quickly pick up a machine and move it without having to worry about whether it’s configured properly.

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Lawrence J. Magid can be reached via e-mail at magid@latimes.com. His Web page is at https://www.larrysworld.com