LAPTOPS

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HP Omnibook Laptops and Accessories

Portable or Laptops are very popular Unfortunately, they come in so many different flavors it is hard to know what you are really buying. Here are a few points to look for:

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  • Get a new laptop with a 3 year warranty. Laptops get abused. A 3 year warranty is a must for a prime machine. Refurbished laptops should also have at least a one warranty. Extended warranties are often available, but don't pay much for one. If the warranty is poor, don't buy it. Batteries only have a one year warranty because of the charging cycles.
  • Many manufacturers offer the same machine in a one year warranty version for a little less than the 3yr warranty machine. The cost difference is very small - certainly not worth the poor warranty coverage. Lately the trend is to offer the machine with a one or two year warranty and charge the customer extra for the three year. This might be OK, but bet your final price with the three year coverage. Only buy the three year machine.
  • Active or Passive, Dual Scan Display. Active screens are very nice to view but add $300-$500 to the price. Most new machines now ship with the active screens. Passive or dual scan models are found in the surplus channel quite a bit.
  • 10.4", 11", 12", 13", 14.4" with 640x480, 800x600, and now 1024x768 displays. 13" or 14.4" screens command a premium over the smaller screens.10.4" are reserved for the ultra portable units such as the HP800CT. Many companies, HP for example, offer the same machine electronics with 14.4" and 12" displays. The larger screens should be considered if you use the machine a lot without an external monitor. The 14.4" is really 14.4" too. Its viewable area is larger than any 15" CRT on the market.
  • Hard drive. Some machines have small disks that will fill up in a hurry. Office 95 and WIN95 take a total of 400MB. WIN95 applications are large. Period. Get at least 800MB for smaller machines and 2GB for higher end units. 4 to 8GB hard drives are not uncommon in premium boxes.
  • WIN95 and NT need RAM - a lot of it. You will need at least 16MB. 32MB or more will reduce the hard drive swapping and extend battery life and makes the machine faster. Laptops with 128MB or more are very common now. If it only has 8MB, make sure you can expand it at a low cost. Some companies will gouge you for proprietary RAM.
  • Battery Type and Run Time. Some laptops only last 1-1/2 hours. Others are as high as 6-7 hours. A lot of this range comes from the quality of the batteries and the size of the packs. HP, for example, has a removable floppy/CD bay which you can add a secondary battery pack. This real run time. You could travel coast to coast or run all day at a visiting company without a recharge!
  • CDROM. Is there one? Can you get one as an internal accessory? Can you get one at all? Just as your desktop PC needs one, your laptop needs a CD. WIN95 programs are just too big to load by large stacks of floppies anymore.
  • Pointing Device. Older laptops used a small trackball for the mouse. Manufacturers have gone away from this because of the space it took from the laptop electronics. The most common type is the track point. HP and Toshiba use this pointer. It looks and acts like a high tech, eraser head. It is hard to use if you have small hands. The HP 800CT uses a small sized conventional mouse that ejects from the side of the laptop. It is an interesting way to save space on an ultra portable box. It is hard to use in mid air but works great on a table top. Hitachi uses the track pad which is harder to use for some people, and you have to take your hand from the keyboard to use it. Neither is as good as the trackball, but you might have to try them both to find which is the most comfortable.

After you filter all of these variables to find your laptop, it is amazing that the HP, Toshiba, Hitachi, etc. are all very close in price for the same feature set.

HP Omnibook Family...these are some of the more popular units.

Add $170 for extra LiIon battery on HP2000 or 5700 notebooks.

HP's Premium Notebooks, Omnibook 3100, 4150, 6000, 7100 series

Please call for current pricing. As new models come out premium notebook pricing drops constantly!! The HP 4150 series replaces the Omnibook 3000 line and has the same threee year warranty. The 7100 line is the top of the heap for people that want to bring the entire desktop PC and server with them. It comes standard with a 14.4" screen, a track pad and track point mouse among other features.

The newest HP is the 6000 family. These come DVD players, P3 processors, 128 to 256MB of RAM, and a have a 14.1" active screen. These are very light, powerful, and won Laptop of the Year for 2001.

Get a new, Xircom 56K PCMCIA modem for only $100 with any Omnibook purchase while supplies last!

Add $115 for 32MB additonal RAM for all HP 2000,2100,3100, and 5700 models. The 2100, 3100, 4100, and 7100 use SDRAM.The HP4150 and 6000 use 100MHz SDRAM.

Additional HP laptop accessories:

Port Replicator, 2000, 5700............$180 ( cable extention only, no slots )

Port Replicator, model 3000...........$220 ( cable extention, USB ports, no slots)

Dock for HP800CT........................$call   click here for DOC info on for the HP800CT .

Full Docking station...$650 ( provides docking, 2 ISA, 1PCI Slots, SCSI-2 port, monitor stand)

Additional External LiIon battery for 5700/2000 (F1194B) ...........................$210

Additional External LiIon battery for 3000,2100,3100(F1383A) ...................$270

Motorola Mariner 33.6/10BT dual PCMCIA card ...................................... $149 ( very limited stock!!)

 REFURB SPECIALS!!

AE Systems often has laptops that are in great shape but may be a year old. These are usually lease returns. Please drop us a line for the current list.

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