Area # 4532  U-LAPTOPS              02-03-94 16:12      Message # 12427
From    : GSK@KHAKI.ESD.SGI.COM
To      : ALL                                           
Subj    : Re: NEC Ultralite Versa

@SUBJECT:Re: NEC Ultralite Versa Series E Comments?                   
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
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From: gsk@khaki.esd.sgi.com (George S. Kong)
Subject: Re: NEC Ultralite Versa Series E Comments?
Message-ID: <naviqno@sgi.sgi.com>
Sender: gsk@khaki.esd.sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA
References: <19940201.01082868.ozyozy@delphi.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 1994 04:58:18 GMT
Lines: 68

> Has anyone seen/used/bought one of these?  If so,
> please comment/review!  Specifics are appreciated.

here's a (slightly edited) re-post of a review i posted a few
wks ago. i still think the versa e is the best full-featured
laptop available. (2nd choice would be the ibm 750C,
which i hear may actually be available soon).

George S. Kong,  Silicon Graphics, Inc.,  (415)390-3281  gsk@sgi.com

......................................................................

Subject: NEC Versa E series - review and answers to recent questions
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops

in answer to recent questions about the NEC Versa E series:

1) it is available now. i received my DX2/50 on 12/27/93,
   2 days after ordering it from pc's compleat, who have been
   a pleasure to deal with so far.
   (price $4499 for 4M/209M active color model. pc's compleat
   has a 30-day price guarantee: they'll refund the difference
   if you find a lower price.)

2) i find the trackball very usable: better than the ibm
   trackpoint. however, i prefer an external mouse to any
   integrated pointing device. when using the versa at my
   desk, i plug in a microsoft mouse. (caveat: two other
   guys in my group also bought versa e's recently, and
   they like the trackball less than i do.)

overall, i find the machine to be excellent in almost every way.
fast machine, truly amazing screen, good trackball and keyboard,
and nary a crash after a fair amount of messing around in both
dos and windows (unlike my abysmal experience with the gateway
handbook). removable everything, ability to replace floppy with
extra battery, and forthcoming $500 pen upgrade, internal
mini cdrom, and multimedia docking station are pluses.

battery life is reasonable but not great. i timed it twice:

1) working steadily in dos, with screen brightness turned down,
   and "highlight" mode turned on, i got 2.5 hrs. i find the
   screen very comfortable to use in this mode.

2) running in windows with hard drive and floppy drive running
   flat-out (installing software) and screen brightness at max,
   i got 1.25 hrs. this was, obviously, a "battery torture" test.

for a coast-to-coast flight, i'd want to have the second battery
installed in place of the floppy drive. also, i'm hoping that
when some of the emerging battery technologies become readily
available that nec will find a way to make them available for
my versa.

one other nit: the screen is not perfect, but nearly so.
it has three pixels whose blue components are stuck off and
two pixels whose red components are stuck off. for things as
small as a single pixel, your eyes are much more sensitive to
variations in luminance (which is dominated by green) than
variations in color. the only time i can even notice a missing
blue or red component from a single pixel is when i set the
background to solid red or solid blue and explicitly look
for the fault.

George S. Kong,  Silicon Graphics, Inc.,  (415)390-3281  gsk@sgi.com




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