Satellite 100CS: A reasonably-priced road warrior
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): In the past, I never had a really pressing need to buy a notebook, as I was always able to borrow one from friends when I needed one for just a couple of days. Also, I was not interested in investing in a notebook because its technology moves very fast and the price is usually almost twice that of a desktop machine with the same features and performance.
In other words, buying a notebook is an investment that requires a lot of strong justification, something that I had not been able to find. However, when I was about to leave on a 12-day trip to Down Under last month, I had no choice. Twelve days without a computer was unthinkable for me, so I decided I should have a notebook of my own.
After a quick browse through the list of popular branded notebooks that were available in Glodok at that time, I set my mind on a Toshiba Satellite 100CS (please keep in mind that the accompanying picture is not exactly the model that we have on the market here, though).
The Satellite 100CS's price seemed right for an entry-level Pentium machine -- there is hardly any point in buying a 486DX4- based PC nowadays -- and it had all the features that I would need for working away from my desk.
Features
The U.S.-assembled Satellite 100CS is based on a Pentium 75 MHz processor. Business insiders told me that this class of Pentium chip was already in the phase-out stage. The next entry- level for a notebook would be Pentium 100 MHz. In comparison, the highest that you can find in a notebook today is perhaps the Pentium 133 MHz, whereas in a desktop, you'll easily find the 166 MHz version. Well, notebooks always seem to be one step behind desktop PCs as far as CPU power is concerned.
The Satellite 100CS comes standard with 8 MB EDO RAM. Theoretically, this amount of memory is barely sufficient for a Windows 95 machine, but since I figured I would rarely run more than one application at a time I could defer buying additional RAM. And, frankly speaking, I have had no problem at all with the current configuration; Word Pro 96 runs decently, and basically, a word processor is all that most of us need while on the road.
With a diagonal dimension of 10.4", the screen real-estate is not bad, although it's no match for the 12.4" one that IBM ThinkPad 760CD has. The dual-scan LCD produces acceptable colors, although, needless to say, they don't compare with the brilliant colors you'd see in a TFT display. It also has a TrackPoint II pointing device.
The TrackPoint, called AccuPoint by Toshiba, takes some time to get used to, but it definitely beats using the awkwardly positioned trackball that we used to see in notebooks of about three years ago. The keyboard feels just right, too, although we might wish it would feel more like the IBM Butterfly's expanding keyboard.
Windows 95 is preinstalled but no application is included. It would be nice if Toshiba had followed the market trend by bundling an all-purpose integrated program such as Microsoft Works, which Compaq bundled with its Contura Aeros.
Pleasent
The hard disk has a 520 MB space on it and images of the original copy of Windows 95. Toshiba utilities and other software driver diskettes are also stored on it. If we need more space, we can reclaim the space occupied by the operating system and software by running the supplied utilities. The images will be copied to diskettes. I haven't done this yet, since it will certainly take a couple of hours to complete.
First of all, for somebody with less than perfect eyesight like me, a high-display refresh rate is a must. Satellite 100CS uses the Chips and Technology accelerator display interface, and the vertical refresh rate for the external display can be set as high as 75 Hz.
This gives me a pleasant, flicker free display each time I connect the notebook to an external monitor. In fact, the Display Control icon is already placed on the screen so we can change the refresh rate on the fly when moving from one external monitor to another.
The brightness of the LCD can also be set to a semi-brightness level, which I find the most comfortable level for my eyes. There is only one button that we can use to control the contrast of the display. The plastic case feels very sturdy, much more sturdy than most of the other notebooks I've seen. The LCD panel is attached to the CPU with two large and strong hinges.
The Satellite 100CS also comes with an integrated power adaptor, so we don't have to bother ourselves with the typical brick-like external power adaptor anymore. I think this is a feature that every notebook should have had a long, long time ago. It also comes with a three-meter power cord. This extra-long power cable might help a lot at times, especially if the power outlet in a hotel room is quite far from the desk.
My unit came with a Nickel-Metal Hydride battery. It has always given me more than two hours of power for each recharge, and recharging doesn't take very long. The system comes with an instant-resume feature; we could turn off the notebook and the system would create an electronic bookmark that it will store on the hard disk before it shuts down completely. When we press the Power button again, we will be back exactly where we left off. We can also use Windows 95's Suspend command to achieve the same effect.
Downside
As you already know, if you're looking for beautiful displays of colorful images, you shouldn't go with a dual scan LCD. No dual scan panel can deliver the gorgeous color range that an active matrix TFT panel can. However, on my unit there are noticeable streaks of white on all its four edges. This is common to most of the larger-sized LCD panels that I've seen, since the sources of light are positioned on the edges. Nevertheless, a colleague of mine has an LCD panel that's almost perfect; the brightness is equal from edge to edge.
There are noticeable horizontal streaks, too, when you have a window on the screen. In a conversation I recently had with some people in the notebook business, I learned that quite a few Toshiba owners took back their newly-bought notebooks because they were unhappy with this problem. I was told that the LCD was actually OK; it was the driver that Windows 95 used that created the problem.
Therefore, if you see these streaks on your notebook display, you might have to live with it for the rest of the notebook's life. Anyway, after a while, you'll get used to it and it won't bother you anymore. However, it is a good point to remember when you buy a new notebook.
Despite all the nice features it has, there is no sound capability in this notebook except for a tiny system speaker. Given that it would have caused Toshiba just a very negligible cost to build this capability into the system board, I wish this leading notebook maker had gone the extra mile to add it to this already feature-rich model. All I would have to add later on is an external CD-ROM player that hooks up to it via a PC card, and I would be able to listen to some multimedia stuff while on the road as well.
Notebook
However, the most serious complaint that I now have is that it takes some force to unplug the power cord from the rear of the notebook. I didn't have this problem in the beginning, and now I have to be really careful not to insert the jack too deep into its socket each time I want to use the notebook.
When I was scanning the market for the best price last month, Toshiba notebooks were difficult to find. However, if you had visited last week's Jakarta Computer Expo held in the Jakarta Convention Center, you'd have seen a lot of Toshiba notebooks around. And, as is the case with all computers, the price had already dropped slightly from the time I bought mine.
I paid Rp 5,250,000 for mine and it was the best price I could get at that time. Last week, at the exhibition, it was offered at Rp 5,125,000. However, since I am happy with it and it has helped make my trip more productive, the price drop doesn't matter after all.
If you happen to be screening the market for a reasonably- priced notebook with a decent performance and feature set, the Satellite 100CS is definitely one of the best alternatives you should look at.