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Texas Instruments has created a powerful series of multimedia-ready notebook computers in its TravelMate 4000M line. These 486-based computers let you take your presentations on the road, with full audio capability. The color units range in price from $2,499 to $4,899, plus $849 for a Portable CD-ROM Docking System that adds a double-speed CD-ROM drive and stereo. (These figures are TI's own estimated street prices.) The notebooks weigh 6.4 pounds, and the docking unit adds about another 4.3 pounds, which can be a bit tough on your arm.
All the units come with a PCMCIA Type III card slot that you can use for peripherals like a fax/modem or a network card. You also get a FAST SCSI II interface for daisy-chaining other types of peripherals, such as scanners, along with a 3.5-inch floppy drive, high-speed serial port, parallel port, 16-bit MIDI (Musical Instrument Device Interface) sound port, 16-bit Media Vision Jazz Sound Card, Super VGA external monitor port, an internal speaker, and microphone.
Built into all the units is 4MB of RAM, expandable to 20MB by using the special RAM expansion compartment. Simply unscrew the panel covering the compartment and insert a RAM card. The hard disk ranges in capacity from 200MB to 524MB.
The unit I reviewed came with a 200MB hard disk, a 25-MHz 486SX processor, and an active-matrix color screen, for a price of $3,399. (TI now includes faster 4865X and DX processors with the notebook for lower prices.) The screen is highly readable and shows the colors well, but it also looks a bit grainy when you view it up close. That may be because of the thin-film material used for the flat-panel display, which shows the pixels more than a desktop PC monitor would. The brightness control helps you adjust its visibility to varying lighting conditions.