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Notebook computers keep getting smaller, faster, better and cheaper. And they're doing it in very different wys.
IT'S HAPPENED again. Two years ago, I reviewed a small notebook, the Gateway FireAnt [Technology, April 19, 1999] and fell in love with it. Ever since, I've been looking for another notebook that combines the FireAnt's basic efficiency with more modern capabilities. Most machines have been too heavy or have lacked a built-in optical drive, or they've had a touchpad (I don't like touchpads), a lousy keyboard or some other fatal deficiency.
Now my search may be over. For this review, I looked at four new notebooks from Fujitsu, Sharp, Toshiba and Compaq. They all place a premium on being small without losing function. The Fujitsu LifeBook P is the smallest of the bunch, with an innovative wide-- format screen. The Sharp PC-UM10 is the thinnest laptop I've ever seen. The Compaq Evo N400c combines small size with simplified expansion via an add-on base. And the Toshiba Portege 4000 doesn't win in any single category, but as an overall package, it may be the perfect set of compromises.
Small Wonder
FUJITSU LIFEBOOK P: This is certainly a leading contender for the machine of my dreams. Fujitsu PC Corp.'s LifeBook P is a small package with a wide-format display, a built-in combination optical drive (DVD/CD-RW) and Windows XP Home Edition. It weighs less than 3.5 lb. and has a price tag of $1,499. Another model in this new series will come with 256MB of RAM and XP Professional.
With an 800-MHz Crusoe processor from Santa Clara, Calif-based Transmeta Corp. and 128MB memory, this machine is more than capable of meeting my needs. The 9-in.-wide (10.6-in. diagonal) wide-format screen has a 15-- to-9 height/width ratio and a 1,280- by-- 768-pixel resolution, and it's great for working with spreadsheets or graphics. This does make text very small at first, but the solution to that is simple. While using the Microsoft Works word processor, for example, I just set the viewing window to 200%. With this adjustment, and now that Microsoft has built its ClearType font-rendering technology into Windows XP, text on the display is astonishingly sharp and good-looking on this machine - easily the best I've seen outside of a lab.