Perfect for its designed use.
Written: Mar 29 '01 (Updated Apr 09 '01)
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Pros: subnotebook with a fullsize keyboard. Crisp color screen. Built-in "real" mouse. CDROM doubles as CDplayer.
Cons: Out of production. Mouse is hard to get used to.
The Bottom Line: Fantastic subnotebook for portability or as a limited-use PC. The hardware is dated, but plenty for Web, Email, and most office applications. Will work with most older games.
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| pshan's Full Review: Hewlett Packard OmniBook 800CT (F1714A) PC Noteboo... |
Let me start by saying that this machine is by no means the most feature-rich laptop I have ever used. It is a subnotebook machine, meaning that it is smaller than a full-size laptop. Others in this class include the IBM Thinkpad 500 and Toshiba Libretto (very tiny). It is a Pentium 133MMX, mine has 32MB RAM, 1.3GB hard disk, and has an external SCSI CDROM and floppy drive. It includes one Type III or two type II PCMCIA slots, but realistically only one. It has a serial, parallel, IrDA, and VGA port. It can attach to a docking station, but the one I have does not have a dock. Mine also does not have a floppy drive, having bought it used from an auction site.
The reason I bought this laptop was that I wanted a very small computer for use in my home LAN that could sit on my endtable. It did not have to have a lot of power, but had to have enough to surf the Web. I was using a Thinkpad 500, but it only had 12Meg RAM and 85MB hard drive, and a 640x480 monochrome screen. The processor was a 486SLC, which really wasn't a problem. But I needed a better machine. After searching the Web I settled on an HP 800CT. I had looked a the Libretto first, but they were too expensive. I wanted good, but cheap. I bought mine for $240. Kudo's to the place that sold it to me because they were efficient and didn't sell me a lemon.
This laptop is fantastic at what it does. The size is very compact, about an inch wider than the Thinkpad 500, but the same depth and height. The screen is very readable, and is an active matrix color screen, so graphics are fast (no ghosting effects on the mouse). The 32MB RAM and Pentium 133 are plenty of speed for my needs. The hard drive has more space than I need. And I have never seen a notebook computer, let alone a subnotebook, that has a built-in SCSI port on it. This notebook was designed remarkably well, with longevity in mind. The CDROM attaches to this SCSI port and behaves as expected for a SCSI device. It is an 8X drive, but is obviously old since it doesn't recognize CDRW discs, but does work with CDR's. The IrDA port is in the back and supports speeds up to 4Mbps. I haven't tried to sync up my pilot with this machine yet, but I will soon. Stay tuned.
In summary, I now have a good "console" PC that I can use as a control center for my house, or an always-ready web browser for when PBS or Discovery says "for more information, go to www.xxx.com and click on "widget" or more information". Of course, having a networked house helps a lot here too.
Since the 3Com Audrey has been discontinued, this machine will be my Audrey.
Update, 9 Apr 2001: Well, the hard drive died. No complaints, since I bought a used PC for a ridiculously low price. Bought another used HD (ST91080AG, Seagate 1.08G) for $29. Installed perfectly, and showed that HP REALLY designed this well. Two screws come out to loosen the keyboard, which exposes the hard drive, that is also screwed in with three screws, and has instructions on how to remove the drive! They new drive installed simply, even though the screw holes were in different places than the Toshiba drive that was in it. HP even designed that contingency into the laptop; there were rubber stoppers in the other holes. I moved the rubber stoppers to the open places and screwed the drive in. Installation went smoothly and the machine is up and running again.
I have also tried to get the IrDA port working with my Pilot. All the software is installed and says it's working, but I cannot get the HotSync software to wake up when I try to sync through the IrDA port. The IrDA port has very odd parameters (IRQ 10, Address 0x3000), but Win98 can deal with it. I dunno why it fails, perhaps because the port is bad. Apparently this is hard to get working under Linux too, as I found when looking for help on the Internet (there seems to be a big following of 800CT Linux users). This isn't a big deal for me, but would be nice to have. Overall, still pleased with the laptop.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 240
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium
Processor speed: Under 200
Screen Size: 10
RAM: 32
Hard Drive (GB): Under 4
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Epinions.com ID:
pshan
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Location: Northern Virginia, USA
Reviews written: 18
Trusted by: 4 members
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