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HP OmniBook light in weight, not performance

By Richard Morochove

First published February 20, 1997

Hewlett-Packard has long been one of the leaders in portable computing, so I looked forward to getting my hands on one of their latest, lightest notebooks, the OmniBook 800. If you’re looking for a powerful, yet portable, traveling computer, it’s a top choice. If you want something even smaller, the company has announced new palmtop computers that fit in your hand and weigh under a pound.

HP has two OmniBook notebook families, the lightweight 800 Series and the full-featured 5500 Series with models that tip the scales around 7 lbs. The principal difference: the 5500 Series includes a floppy diskette drive (swapable for a CD or second battery) built-in, while the drives are external devices in the 800 Series.

I evaluated the OmniBook 800CT (list price $5,253) based on a 133 MHz. Pentium processor, with a 10.4" active matrix display and a 1.44 gigabyte hard drive.. Another model, the OmniBook 800CS (list price $4,534) is based on a 100 MHz. Pentium and has a 10" passive matrix display and an 810 megabyte hard drive. Both come standard with 16 megabytes of EDO (extended data out) RAM, expandable to 48 megabytes and have 256 kilobyte level 2 cache.

This first thing I noticed is that the OmniBook 800 is one small and thin machine. You can hide it under a letter-size pad of paper and it’s just 1.57 inches (3.96 cm.) thick. Best of all, it weighs only 3.75 lbs. (1.7 kilos). I carried it around with me on my rounds and one computer company executive was astonished a notebook this small contained a Pentium processor.

Even though it’s small, the OmniBook keyboard is eminently usable, even by my fat fingers. All the most-used alpha-numeric keys are full-sized, while the function and cursor control keys are smaller.

This OmniBook continues the HP tradition of using a pop-up mouse as a pointing device. You pull this collapsible mouse on a stick out from the side of the computer. I’ve seen no other computer maker use anything like this. You’ll either love it or hate it. I felt both emotions, under different circumstances.

I found the stick mouse great on flat surfaces that provide some extra maneuvering space on the right side of the computer. However, if you try to operate it on your lap while traveling, as I did on a couple of plane trips, the jiggling movements common to air travel make it difficult to position your cursor properly in the 800 by 600 display.

The battery has a rated life of 3 hours. With the power management features turned on, I found HP’s rating rather conservative, unlike some other notebook makers. I used the notebook through most of a five hour flight and ended the trip with power to spare.

The notebook came configured to run Windows 3.1, but Windows 95 is also pre-loaded and it’s simple to switch the operating system.

The OmniBook comes complete with a thin external floppy disk drive, one battery pack, AC adapter, CD-ROM Support Utility disk and three-year worldwide warranty. The notebook is multimedia ready with stereo speakers and a microphone-in port. An optional external 4x CD-ROM is available.

The OmniBook 800 is close to perfect. However, I think HP should re-evaluate that mouse and consider replacing it with either a pointing stick mid-keyboard, similar to IBM and Toshiba notebooks, or a trackpad, used in certain Apple PowerBooks.

If you think 3.75 lbs. is too much to carry around all day, HP recently refreshed its line of popular palmtop PCs.

There’s a new version of the HP 200LX that comes with 4 megabytes of RAM, double the previous top capacity. The 200LX is designed to communicate with desktop computers that use DOS and Windows 3.1. The palmtop comes complete with applications such as a spreadsheet, personal information manager and calculator functions. List price is $841 and it ships later this month.

The company unveiled its first MS Windows CE-based handheld PCs at the Demo 97 conference in Indian Wells, Calif., earlier this week. Windows CE handhelds are designed to work best with desktop computers running Windows 95.

The HP 300LX comes with 2 megabytes of RAM and 5 megabytes of upgradable ROM. It weighs 15.6 oz. (442 g.) with batteries. The HP320LX enhanced model comes with 4 megabytes of RAM, a backlit display, CompactFlash card slot and a docking cradle.

Both models are based on the Hitachi SH-3 chip, running at 44 MHz. The handheld units feature a 640 by 240 (half-height, full-width VGA) display with what HP calls a Pen & Touch interface. With this display you’ll be able to view most Web pages without scrolling to the side.

The 300-series models will be available in Canada this spring. Pricing has not yet been determined. CW