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Our reviewer finds a winner in his ongoing quest for a better in smaller notebook computer.
I KEEP SEARCHING FOR the "perfect" small notebook computer to carry when I travel, and over the past six months, I've tried out a number of machines: Compaq's Armada M300, Fujitsu's LifeBook B Series, IBM's new ThinkPad X20, Toshiba's Portege 3480CT and finally, a couple of ringers, NEC Computers Inc.'s MobilePro 780 and 880 (see "NEC's Small Wonders," top right).
All but the NECs are fullfledged Windows PCs that typically weigh between 3 and 4 lb. in their normal configuration. That's a basic requirement for this group. The catch: "Normal configuration" means no removable drives; CD-ROM (or DVD-ROM) and floppy disk drives are all external. For the LifeBook and Portege, these drives attach by proprietary cables with special connectors on each end. Also, these machines don't have all the standard attachment ports - serial, parallel, video out, Universal Serial Bus (USB), modem, network or mouse and keyboard - on board. Most rely on an external port replicator (usually cable-attached) or put the ports on one of the external disk drives. Both approaches happen to bug me, but you might like one or the other just fine.
Ports and removable drives aside, these are well-equipped machines, with plenty of RAM, big hard drives and high-quality active-matrix displays no larger than 12.1 in., making for very tiny packages indeed.
None of these machines has everything I'd like in one package, though one comes as close as I've seen.
Compaq
Armada M300
Compaq Computer Corp.
www.compaq.com
from $2,599
The Armada clips onto a separate base called a mobile expansion unit, which holds an external CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or floppy disk drive and uses the same power supply, making it a very handy, easily transported package. But the Armada's keyboard...