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At 12:05 PM 10/3/96 EST, Guy W. Farrell wrote:
>> What's really to discuss anymore? Toshiba's are better than IBM going
>> across the entire line, going by benchmarks and I think user opinion for
folks
>> who've used both. They're rugged and equally reliable. IBM doesn't get
>> competitive with them until you get to the high-end machines.
>My office is rather unanimous in preference of the TP701 and TP560
>for light travel. Those are low end aren't they?
I have a hard time calling either of these machines "low end",
although IBM makes that easier with the 560 since they deemed it only worthy
of a 1 year warranty.
Regardless, I consider both of these machines "High End"
laptops--not because of their features (clearly, neither is as "full
featured" as the 760), but because of *other* features in their
design--namely size and weight with minimal to no compromise in features
(they lack only the cute stuff like flip-up keyboards and a spare "ultra
bay"--but in other ways they pretty much have all the stuff you'll want or
need).
At any rate, some of us would *never* trade our very light-weight
machines just to have a built-in floppy and CD-ROM, or even just stereo
speakers. I almost never need any of these things, so why carry around
twice as much weight? For that matter, when I *do* need them, I can still
have them--they're just not as neatly integrated into the chassis of the
machine.
At any rate, the "low end" machines were/are the 3XX series. The
High-Ends were the 7XX series, and the 5XX series were the sub-notebooks
(now with the 560, more properly termed "ultralights" since they have larger
screens and full keyboards).
The 701 was great because it was still a 7XX series with the full
3-year warranty, and was still considered a "high-end" notebook, though not
as full-featured as the 760's. Something that disappoints me with the 560
is the fact that they classified it in the 5XX line--giving it only a 1 year
warranty and sort of implying it is "cheap". That's unfortunate, because it
really is a great machine--and I think it deserves a 7XX classification with
the associated benefits.
But "cheap" or "low-end"? Certainly not. Both machines are really
great and simply serve a different kind of mission than their full-featured
cousins.
-------
Randy Whittle rwhittle@usa.net
USC Graduate School of Business http://www-scf.usc.edu/~whittle
"If you've been in the game for 30 minutes and still don't know who
is the patsy...*YOU* are the patsy." - Warren Buffet