[SPARCbook] First Thoughts: Tadpole/RDI UltraBook

[Ken Hansen]

Big screen - check.

Fast CPU - check.

Large HD - check.

Plenty RAM - check.

Pointer - whoops.

Case - whoops.

3 Fans - whoops.

Battery life -N/A.

Weight - N/A.

And it only costs $10K (I made that up ;^)...

To me, there is something charming about the "old" sparcbooks,
if I wanted "absolute speed" I would go Intel Pentium, since that
is where the laptops go to "darn" fast (and only sip at the battery
to boot).

A machine that gives off enough heat to need two/three fans *can't*
be a battery miser. This baby probably dissipates more heat than my
Tecra 8000 PII/266 (which drops to PII/133 on batteries under
windows)...

I wonder where the win is for these units over intel-based laptops
running Solaris/Linux/other OS? If you don't need binary compatibility,
what reason is left?

Just curious...

Ken

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Bradford" <mrbill at mrbill.net>
To: <sparcbook at sunhelp.org>
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 4:47 PM
Subject: [SPARCbook] First Thoughts: Tadpole/RDI UltraBook


> Just got the Ultrabook review unit in.  First thoughts:
>
> Nice 14.1" 1024x768 LCD screen.  256 colors simultaneously.
> Creator3D framebuffer, 128mb RAM, 170mhz CPU, 10gig IDE HD.
> Based around a variant of the Sun Ultra AX OEM motherboard.
>
> - I hate the trackpad.  Always have hated trackpads; I'm using
>   a mechanical T5 mouse for eveverything.
> - Wouldnt really call this a "laptop" - more of a 'portable
>   workstation' - I havent tried to run it off batteries yet, but
>   the machine itself has 2 fans in back and the power supply even
>   has a fan.
> - WAY less sturdy than the SPARCbooks - this is a plastic shell, etc.
>
> On the other hand, I could probably use this as a primary/only machine if
I
> had to....