New-tech Light Laptop Spells An End To The `briefcase From Hell'

The Age

Monday May 9, 1994

Charles Wright

THEY ARE not ordinary briefcases. They tend to gather in airport frequent-flyer lounges. They have many compartments, all of them stuffed to bursting point. They are very heavy. They are ... the briefcases from Hell.

Inside a briefcase from Hell, you'll find the usual array of urgent reports, spreadsheets, expense vouchers, nail clippers etc. You will also find a notebook computer, a battery charger, frequently a spare battery, modem and sundry cables. You may even find a portable printer. The accumulated weight is almost equivalent to that of a large block of concrete, or perhaps lead.

An owner of one of these things appears not to notice anything unusual about it. Probably because he is typing furiously, or conducting a conversation on a portable telephone, and is largely unaware of the material world. He is an electronics freak, a species that is known as a road warrior, or what we on `Computer Age' call the ``silicon samurai".

The silicon samurai will busy himself on his telephone, or on his laptop, several minutes after the final boarding call for his flight; he has become skilled at squeezing the maximum amount of time from every situation, and frequently crams 36 hours of activity into a 24- hour day.

When he has calculated that the departure lounge queue has just about cleared, he packs up, slings his briefcase over his shoulder, straightens, takes the load - and his stomach explodes in a massive double hernia.

Well, no - usually what happens is that his shoulder drops several inches under the weight of what is essentially a very heavy pendulum.

He staggers out the door, listing to port or starboard, occasionally caroming off a wall or another passenger.

When he gets on board, which is not in itself an insignificant feat, he deposits this briefcase with an exhausted grunt in the overhead luggage rack - on top of my hat.

Having spent several years carrying around one of these things myself, I tend to smile compassionately. I have become a much more understanding person since I entered the world of the sub-notebook computer, which during the past few months has been shrinking briefcases all around the world.

Recently I've been carrying around a Toshiba T3400CT, which in my opinion is the best of these machines. It is small, it is light - it is not cheap. The color version, which I've been using, has a street price of about $6500. But it is an exceptional piece of work, far in advance of its rivals.

The first thing you notice, apart from the reduced dimensions and the missing kilograms, is the clarity of the active matrix color screen, the small, lightweight external floppy drive, and the tiny battery charger, which drives a lightweight, new-technology, lithium-ion battery, which is about 30 per cent more efficient than a nickel-metal hydride battery, and takes about twice the number of charges.

You won't see the local bus video and the 32-bit graphics accelerator, but you will notice the boost they produce in Windows performance.

It is the Windows phenomenon that is driving the increasing trend towards color portables, despite the penalties in price, and - in pre- T3400 days - weight.

The T3400 is well set up for Windows, particularly if you choose (and I would recommend if you can afford it that you do choose) the 8MB memory upgrade card. You can expand the memory up to 20MB, which will shrink your wallet, too, but there is some evidence that 12MB is the optimum size for battery conservation.

I mostly avoid using Windows on laptops, because I find it drains the batteries more quickly, even with the advanced power-management options of Microsoft Windows, which you have to remember to invoke, after you've remembered to make duplicate copies of the pre-installed Windows software using the MDC program in the DOS directory. But even if you're a dedicated DOS user, this is an outstanding platform. Color makes everything more interesting, and easier on the eyes.

This computer was designed primarily as a second machine for someone who also has a desktop computer. Toshiba's bigger, more powerful notebooks are increasingly being bought as replacements for desktops.

You can attach a snap-on port replicator to the T3400, which allows you to quickly add an external keyboard, monitor (you get Super VGA output), printer, modem and mouse. But some users say it is all the computer they want, particularly if you upgrade the 120MB hard disk to 250MB, which you can do (although not through Toshiba).

There are a couple of negatives. The keyboard has been shrunk slightly, and while some users seem to have no difficulty with it, it may be a problem, initially, for the fast touch-typist.

I found I adjusted to it, although occasionally I hit the left arrow key instead of the shift key, or the top of the AccuPoint pressure- sensitive device, which looks like the tip of a pencil eraser inset into the centre of the keyboard. This mouse replacement, which has been a popular feature on IBM's ThinkPads, also takes a little practice, but I found it much more convenient than a conventional or a detachable mouse, and infinitely preferable to Compaq's screen-mounted trackball, which is virtually impossible for left-handers, and tiring for anyone who doesn't have a hand like a baseball mitt.

A more annoying keyboard problem I encountered was a sticky spacebar.

I frequently have to hit the spacebar two or three times to insert a space. I have more intermittent problems with some letter keys.

Toshiba has acknowledged that some early T3400 keyboards - mine came from an advanced production run - were faulty, causing some keystrokes to ``miss". It says that a hardware fix is being developed. (You get this sort of information from CompuServe's Toshiba forum, which is one of the many reasons you should think about signing up, particularly now you can access it far more cheaply through the Internet. The people at connect.com.au, where I have an account - charlesw(AT)interconnect.com.au - are about to release a script to automate connection through the CompuServe off-line reader, Ozcis.) In Australia, the local technical people initially believed the fault had been fixed by a new BIOS upgrade, which addresses the keyboard controller. They now expect the necessary hardware fix within a month or so.

Even if you don't have keyboard problems, however, you should make sure you get a copy of the new BIOS, which is version 1.3.

If you are having difficulties with a T3400 keyboard, write to or e- mail us at `Computer Age', and we'll take it up with Toshiba. If you are considering buying a new one - and you could do far worse - we suggest you do a pre-delivery keyboard check.