Satellite 100CS: A reasonably-priced road warrior

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.