Some Notebook PCs That Really Pull Their Weight

I spent most of last week at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas, where I carried a shoulder bag stuffed with a notebook computer, a cellular phone and a pocket organizer, among other things. No wonder my shoulder hurts.

But it could have been worse. The Gateway Solo 3100 (also called FireAnt) notebook PC I was carrying weighed just 4.9 pounds, noticeably lighter than full-sized notebooks that typically weigh about 8 pounds. There are even lighter notebooks on the market, but what I like about the 3100 is that it comes with just about everything you need to be productive on the road, including a built-in modem, an excellent keyboard, a decent-sized screen and a built-in DVD or CD-ROM drive. The floppy drive, which comes with the unit, is an external device, but these days I don’t have much need for a floppy drive when I’m on the road.

The machine’s internal 56K modem has a real phone jack on the back of the unit so I also didn’t have to worry about carrying a “dongle” to connect to a phone line or having to install and configure a PC card modem as you do with some sub-notebook PCs.

The 12.1-inch active matrix screen is smaller than what you can get with full-sized notebook PCs, but that can be an advantage to those of us who fly in coach. When I fly with a notebook PC with a larger screen, I live in fear that the person in front of me will lower the seat-back and crush the screen, which typically extends to the upper latch of the tray table. I sometimes wonder if those larger notebook PCs are designed by people who travel first class, where they have larger tray tables.

The machine I’m using comes with a DVD drive that can also be used to read CD-ROMs, which is often a necessity for installing software. There isn’t a lot of DVD software on the market, so for most people the only real application for the DVD is to be able to watch movies while traveling. That’s a nice feature, but playing a movie on the DVD drive sucks a lot of battery power and you’d be lucky to get two hours of use. Forget “Gone With the Wind” or “Titanic.” Even if you watch a short movie, by the time it’s over there won’t be any battery power left to do any work on the flight. Come to think of it, maybe that’s a plus.

My only complaint about the machine is that it has only one Type II PC card slot, which is occupied by the DVD decoder card. The good news is that you don’t need the PC slot for the built-in modem and you can still use the DVD drive for data and CD-ROMs (but not movies) with the card removed.

The Gateway 3100 starts at $2,099 for the model with a 233-megahertz Pentium with MMX, 32 megabytes of RAM, a 2-gigabyte hard drive and a CD-ROM drive, and goes up to $2,999 for the model with a 300-MHz Pentium II, 64mb of RAM, a 4gb hard drive and a DVD drive.

I’ve also had a chance to use the new Compaq Armada 3500, which weighs about 4 pounds and is only 1.3 inches thick. I was thinking of bringing it with me to Comdex until I realized that I would need to carry an expansion chassis in order to access the CD-ROM or optional DVD drive. Compaq, to its credit, made the expansion chassis relatively cheap ($199) and it cleverly attaches to the bottom of the machine, turning the ultra-light notebook PC into what is basically a full notebook system with terrific speakers. Prices range from $2,799 to $3,799.

Another worthy contender for those of us who travel light is IBM’s ThinkPad 600. I carried this 5-pound machine with me on my last couple of trips and was pretty happy with its excellent keyboard, screen, high-quality audio and reliability. Though light and thin, the machine is also rugged.

Like the Gateway, the ThinkPad 600 has an internal CD-ROM or optional DVD drive and comes with a choice of a 12.1-inch or 13.3-inch active matrix screen. There are a choice of models ranging from about $2,370 for a model with a 233 Pentium with MMX to a $4,360 system with a 300-MHz Pentium II.

None of these machines is as light or thin as the 1-inch-thick Sony Vaio or Toshiba’s 2.9-pound Portege 3010 CT. Toshiba’s new machine, which I saw at Comdex, has a very cool-looking magnesium alloy case and, considering its size, a reasonably comfortable keyboard. At $1,999 for a model with a 266-MHz Pentium with MMX, 32mb of RAM and a 4gb hard drive, it’s competitively priced.

If you want a budget-priced sub-notebook computer, check out the $999 NEC Ready 120LT from Packard Bell NEC. The machine, which weighs 3.6 pounds and is 1.4 inches thick, comes with 32mb of RAM, a 2.1gb hard drive and an external CD-ROM drive and floppy drive. It’s bundled with Microsoft Word, Works, Encarta, anti-virus software and Internet access. It has an 8.1-inch screen, which is considerably smaller than other sub-notebook PCs but adequate for basic tasks. The 200-MHz Cyrix Media GX processor, slower than what you’ll get on higher-cost machines, is also adequate. There is an internal 56K modem and a PC card slot for adding a peripheral.

My only disappointment is that, unlike other machines, it lacks a USB port, which is emerging as a new standard for connecting a scanner, digital camera and other peripheral devices.

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Lawrence J. Magid can be reached at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web page is at https://www.larrysworld.com or keyword LarryMagid on AOL.