Skinny on Notebooks

When it comes to portable computers this fall, thin is definitely in.

Last week, Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc. announced its deal with Hewlett-Packard to distribute a PC notebook that’s less than three-quarters of an inch thick and weighs 3.1 pounds. It will be one of the lightest and thinnest laptops on the market, according to analysts.

The computer, bearing the Mitsubishi Electric brand, will be shipped to retail outlets in Japan next month. The machine will be sold in North America and Europe under the Hewlett-Packard name by the first quarter of 1998. Retail prices have not been set for the notebook, Mitsubishi officials said.

“The first time I saw it, I thought it was a new notebook screen. Then I opened it up,” said Scott Hansen, department general manager for Mitsubishi’s Mobile Computing Division in Cypress.

But wait, there’s more, especially in the mini-notebook market. Smaller, lighter and generally less expensive, these minis are for people who don’t need a lot of the regular notebook’s built-in features.

“There’s something about skinny little computers that appeals to consumers,” said Gabrielle Mitchell, an online editor for Computer Retail Week in San Mateo. “But people seem to forget these little notebooks can get fat when you start adding a lot of peripherals, like external disk drives and modems.”

Earlier this year, Toshiba launched the mini-notebook Libretto 50CT, a $2,000 portable that weighs about 1.8 pounds.

Officials at Toshiba say the Libretto is being sold as a secondary portable computer for people to use while traveling. The manufacturer sees users working on the Libretto during the day and downloading data onto a conventional notebook at night.

P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com