HP puts Pentiums in notebooks

Hewlett-Packard will introduce the long-awaited revamp of the 600 series of its OmniBook ultra-slim notebooks with new models that for the first time will feature Pentium processors.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor

Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.

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Brooke Crothers

Aug. 28, 1996 1:45 p.m. PT

Within the next few weeks, Hewlett-Packard (HWP) is expected to introduce the long-awaited revamp of the 600 series of its OmniBook ultra-slim notebook PCs with new models that will feature Pentium processors for the first time.

The new 800 series will sport larger screens compared to the regular 600 series, and bigger hard drives. The aging 600 series was limited to 486 DX4 processors, smallish screens, and relatively diminutive hard disk capacities.

"This is going to flat-out compete with the IBM 560 and the Toshiba Portege," said an industry source familiar with upcoming announcement. The IBM 560 and Toshiba Portege are ultra-slim, ultra-light notebooks but pack desktop-class computing power.

Nonetheless, one industry observer noted that the 800s are for the most part an evolutionary product for HP, and will face extremely stiff competition from more cutting-edge designs such as IBM's 560, a notebook that is ultra-light but comes with 12-inch class active-matrix screens.

New HP Omnibook 800 models will include at the high end the 800CT with a 133-MHz processor, 1.4GB hard drive, and 16MB of RAM with an expected street-price of about $4,650. The OmniBook 800CS will carry a 100-MHz Mobile Pentium processor, 810MB hard disk, 16MB of memory, and a 10-inch class LCD screen, for a street price of about $3,300.

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