Compaq To Refresh Portables

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September 07, 1998 (12:00 AM EDT)

By Joe Wilcox,

Compaq will unveil this week a new portable, rebranding a model picked up in its acquisition of Digital Equipment and refreshing three of its other lines.

The centerpiece of the rollout is the lightweight Armada 3500. Weighing 4.4 pounds, measuring 1.3 inches, and having a magnesium alloy case, the slim notebook is in the same competitive space as the ThinkPad 560 from IBM. Houston-based Compaq (company profile) will offer two basic configurations, one with a 266-MHz Mobile Pentium II processor and the other with a 300-MHz Mobile Pentium II as soon as that chip is available.

The entry-level 266-MHz model will sell for $3,299 and comes with 32 megabytes of RAM, a 4.1-gigabyte hard drive, a 12.1-inch thin film transistor (TFT) display, and Windows 95. The price does not include a mobile expansion unit, which adds integrated AC adapter and sound; a DVD-ROM or 24X CD-ROM drive; or support for a hard, floppy, SuperDisk or Zip drive.

The magnesium alloy case will increase rapidly in use and not just for ultralight portables, said Chet Pribonic, vice president and general manager of the portable PC division at Compaq.

The vendor is negotiating with a second magnesium alloy supplier so it can use the material in more models, executives said.

Another big development for Compaq will be the rebranding of the Digital HiNote Ultra 2000 as the Armada 6500, the company said.

"It will really be positioned from Compaq very, very strongly with our resellers and our channels as a Digital transition product," said Mark Vena, Compaq's director of North America Mobile Products.

Unlike other Armadas, the 6500 is not compatible with Compaq's docking stations. But features such as built in Ethernet make the 6500 a unique and compelling offering, Vena said.

It will be well into next year before Compaq offers a 6500 compatible with other Armadas, said Pribonic.

The entry-level system will come with a 300-MHz Mobile Pentium II processor, 64 MB of RAM, a 6.4-GB hard drive, a 24X CD-ROM drive, a 56-kilobit-per-second modem, a 14.1-inch TFT display, and Win 95. The unit is priced at $4,999.

Compaq also is also expected to introduce the Mobile Pentium II processor to its Armada 1700 line. The refresh is a departure for Compaq, which typically has introduced Intel's new processors to its high-end systems and let them trickle down to the low-end units.

An entry-level Armada comes with a 233-MHz Mobile Pentium II processor, 32 MB of RAM, a 3.2-GB hard drive, a 56-Kbps modem, a 24X CD-ROM drive, a 12.1-inch dual scan color display, and Win 95. It is priced at $1,999.

"It's interesting how fast the $2,000 barrier has been broken on this, compared with the Pentium, which took an additional 10 or 12 months to follow," Pribonic said.

Compaq's value line accounts for 30 percent to 40 percent of overall portable volume, executives said.

The company also is refreshing the Armada 7400 and 7800 with Mobile Pentium II processors. The 7800 will pack a 300-MHz Mobile Pentium II chip, 64 MB of RAM, an 8-GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive, a 14.1-inch TFT display, and Win NT Workstation 4.0 for $5,559. DVD support under NT is delivered using proprietary drivers.

In the past 12 months, the NT portable volume doubled. "All our portables are supported under Windows 98, but the single OS issue is a big one for corporate customers," Vena said.