Sizing Up Small Computers

Sizing Up Small Computers

Portable computers are big in the market. Here’s what you get

Seems like everybody’s going mobile. According to PC Magazine, over a quarter of 1994’s overall PC sales were notebooks, and you can expect that number to expand at Malthusian rates from now on. With more and more people working away from the office – at home, on the road, in planes and trains, and other far-flung locations – portable computers are compact, convenient, and are getting so powerful that many people are beginning to use them as their primary computers. But other than the size difference, what’s to know about portable computers? We asked some of the editors of PC Magazine to give us the low-down on the downsized machines.

What’s the difference between portable and desktop computers? – Portables are smaller. It sounds like a ridiculously obvious point, but if you are talking components, that’s about the only difference between desktops and portables. You will, however, have to pay more for these components in miniature. While prices of portables are falling steadily, you’ll still pay about a third more for a portable (specifically, a notebook) than you would for a desktop. Why? It’s the price of design ingenuity. It takes some pretty fancy engineering to cram all those goodies into a compact package. The other difference is power. By and large turbo-powered computing always has the desktop market before it shrinks to portable sizes. In other words, don’t expect the same kinds of bells and whistles that you see on desktops now (CD-ROM drives or 1GB hard drives) to be standard fare on a portable until at least next year.

Old macs. The typical notebook serves up only about one-third the computing performance of a comparably priced desktop computer (The editors of PC Magazine, 1994). Source of the photo : CC-BY-SA-2.5-IT

What’s the difference between the PowerBook, laptop, notebook, or subnotebook?

Actually, it’s pretty straightforward. PowerBooks are made by MacIntosh; this is the company’s registered trademark for its line of portable computers which, different from PCs, are not based on Intel chips. Everything else is a PC of varying shape and weight. Laptops are the heaviest (7 pounds or more) and, while they enjoyed a period of popularity in the late 1980s, they’re outdated at this point; if you’re in the market for a laptop, your best bet is to check the classified section for second-hand sales.

The PC version of the PowerBook is generically known as the note-book, and it’s currently the most popular, practical class of portable. They’re slim, weigh less than seven pounds, and many have processing capabilities on a par with powerful desktop PCs. Subnotebooks are smaller versions of notebooks, about half their weight – great for assiduous notetakers and e-mail communicators, but because subnotebooks have such cramped keyboards and tiny screens, they’re not appropriate for people who write all the time. Any subs are definitely not right for budget-buyers, who will find better bargains in laptop and notebook computers.