[Ti] 17-inch Wintel competition

[Rick Banuelos]

On Tuesday, July 1, 2003, at 10:31 AM, Peter Krug wrote:

> It seems that my LunchTrayDeluxe is no longer the only 17-inch  
> portable on the block:
>
> http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/pc/ 
> pc_cf_prodChassis.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1537960166.1057078350@@@@&BV_Eng 
> ineID=cccfadcijmhmkifcgfkceghdgngdgli.0&comm=ST&plin=Portables&pfam=Sat 
> ellite&pmod=P25
>
> That's one hell of a URL.  For $1k less ($2179), you get almost the  
> same specs as the 17-inch G4 PB.  No Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a instead  
> of g, the ability to put 2 GB RAM inside, 4 USB 2.0 ports, 40 fewer  
> pixels in width, 32 MB less on the video card, No bluetooth, SD slot  
> instead of PC card slot, no FW 800, whatever a 1-FIR port is, a 2.8  
> GHz P4 (not M?), 800 MHz bus and Windows XP Pro.  Plus a strange case  
> (is it really as thick as the picture implies) and a horrible website  
> to buy it from.



Not a shining computer compared to the 17"pb by most measures. 1/2 the  
VRAM, fewer, more non-standard features, and windows.

All that wrapped up into the following "highly portable" package  
(straight from the computer's spec sheet):

Physical Description
• Dimensions (LxWxH): 16.4” x 11.5” x 1.8”
• Weight: 9.9lbs
LED Indicators: Power, HDD, 2nd HDD (common with Module Bay
device), DVD/CDRW, DC-IN, Caps Lock, Arrow, Numeric, Main
Battery Charging Status, System Sleep/Suspend Status, SD Card,
Wireless Communication (right side)



Looks like just another "good enough" wintel monolith designed to look  
like an actual competitor to the real deal. It's crippled enough by its  
size and stupid features to make it as generic as anything else I've  
seen on that side of the computing world. Beyond that, the computer is  
said to have a *top* battery life of 2.0 hours.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not necessarily an Apple "honk", but posers  
suck, and this machine is a bad poser in the first place. If a computer  
weighs as much as a baby, it really has no portability at all. I'm not  
too fond of the 17" powerbook's size either, but a person could  
actually carry that thing if they needed to. "Hyper-threading"  
processors shouldn't weigh so much ;)


Rick