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On Wed, 11 Feb 1998 09:03:14 -1000, David Ross wrote: >>Well let me add that I'm dissatisfied with the keyboard as well, >>and state why. > > >>- It is flimsy. When opened, the only real places you can grab >>to pick the computer up is the front (too much torque - danger >>of dropping), the keyboard (flimsy, feels like it might break >>off), and the back near the screen (very thin decorative plastic >>material that cracked the first time I did this). > > >Solution: close the computer before picking up! I think picking up the 701 >by >its keyboard is a major source of trouble. (Reminds me of ex-US President >Johnson >and his beagles...) > >>- It sticks out. It gets in the way of XJack style PCMCIA modem >>cards. > > >XJack is *also* an idea better on paper than in practice - it seems to >interfere with >lots of stuff. > >>- It sticks out. It's fine if you use it on a desk. If you use >>it on a cluttered desk, > >...is where it shines. You can fit the floppy *under* the wings, so that >the whole system will >fit in a small space (like a sliding desk drawer shelf or airplane tray >table); with the 560, I never >know where to put the floppy drive when I need it. > Sometimes mine will just hang over the desk if there's no room. >>That means I end up worrying about little things like that a >>lot, which is enough to make me want a different (solid) form >>factor for my next laptop. > > >Overall I think the *physical* construction of the 701 (case strength et al) >is much >better than the 560. For example, I think my 560's last trip to EasyServ >was due >to a solder failure due to case flexure (the case will curve visibly if you >pick it up from >one side while open). > Now that's strange. But I'm sure that better machines, like the 755 or 355/360, had better case designs than the 701, IMHO. >>> As I said earlier, what hapened with the 701 was that it turned out >>> that people wanted bigger screens more than they wanted small form >>> factors. The 701 keyboard was seen as a way to reduce the form factor. > > >Yet HP continued to use the small-footprint/small screen form factor in >their 600/800, >and now the Libretto is all the rage. I'll bet that a 701 with a faster >processor, bigger HD, and >a pound shaved off the weight would sell well. > Hmmm, how would you take off that extra pound, besides a smaller battery, and smaller screen? > >>> The idea of using it on a full size notebook was, as far as I know, >>> never seriously considered > >My guess is that the 'thin' designers and the 'folding keyboard' designers >were two distinct, competing groups within IBM. > Just like the software and advertising groups. Unfortunately, we know this all too well! -- Paul Khoury <pkhoury@loop.com> http://pkhoury.dyn.ml.org (If you get an error, then the server is not online) Current system statistics: The Operating System/2 Version is 4.00 Revision 9.029 There are 22 Processes with 84 Threads. This machine's uptime is 1d 19h 36m 26s 632ms.