NEC may not be the biggest notebook vendor, but it will soon have the biggest screen.
The company said it will ship two new notebooks with 13.3-inch active matrix screens that match or exceed a 15-inch desktop monitor in viewing area. Currently, the largest notebook LCD screens shipping are limited to 12.1 inches, though Canon announced a model with a 13.3-inch screen that is only shipping in Japan.
The Versa 6200 series continues a trend in which desktop computers are being replaced with notebooks in corporate offices. For example, NEC says it will offer a 3GB hard drive for the Versa notebook by the end of the quarter. The new 6200 comes with a 2.1GB hard drive in addition to a 10X CD-ROM.
Performance will inch incrementally closer to desktop speeds with the availability of the 166-MHz Pentium processors with MMX and 32MB of EDO RAM in the new notebooks. MMX technology combined with other new fundmamental enhancements to the new Pentiums are claimed to enhance the performance of multimedia functions such as graphics and communications beyond current Pentium processing.
NEC also hopes to make increase its presence on desktops by offering Windows NT on the 6200NT, which is slated to ship in March. NT, though lacking power management features, has better network management capabilities than Windows 95, making connections to local area networks less of an issue when replacing desktop PCs with notebooks.
The company says that the 6200MX will ship in February with an estimated price of $6,399. No pricing was announced for the 6200NT.