Summary. This Bulletin discusses Zenith’s new family of five portables ranging from an 80C88-based system priced at $2,399 to a 386-based unit for $7,999. These products contain several “firsts” in technology. Zenith’s pricing for the line is a bit high, but the products look good enough to keep Zenith near the zenith of the portable PC market, which is becoming increasingly competitive with desktop systems in terms of performance and value.
Overview. Last week Zenith Data Systems announced its new portable family: The SupersPort, the SupersPort 286, and the TurbosPort 386. The SupersPort and the SupersPort 286 are available now, and the TurbosPort 386 is expected in 30 to 60 days. The existing Zenith portable line, the Z-181 and Z-183, will be phased out of retail channels by year-end 1988, but will continue to be manufactured for existing government contracts. The SupersPort is made by Mitsui in Japan; the others are manufactured at Zenith’s plant in Michigan.
All models sport full size 79-key keyboards, real-time clocks, serial, parallel, RGBI, drive, and 24-keypad ports, connector for external expansion unit, automatic battery-charging and flip-out handles. The TurbosPort’s keyboard is detachable. All support 5.25-inch external floppy drives and the sytems can be configured to boot from any one of four drives. The SupersPort can use either 26 or 48 watt/hour batteries. The 26 w/hr can be charged in only 2 hours.
Strengths. The Zenith portables have the following strengths compared to other portables on the market:
• Battery-powered. The TurbosPort 386 is the first battery-powered 386 machine available, and the SupersPort 286 is the first battery-powered 286 machine available from a major manu fac turer. Thus, these machines provide more power to users without access to an electrical outlet than has previously been possible. Also, the two low-end models give the user a choice of different battery packs, with the trade-off being lighter weight or longer operation.
• Page-White LCD. The "Page-White" LCD, which is only available on the TurbosPort 386, is reportedly superior to existing displays on current 386-based portables. The Page-White tech nologies include fluorescent backlighting, compensated STN (super-twist nematic) LCDs, and doublescan CGA text resolution. The result is a 20:1 contrast ratio. The screen also dis plays 8 levels of gray in place of color. Some analysts who have seen it rate it as the most readable LCD screen on the market (although there is still some flicker and uneven contrast.)
• Intelligent Power Management. The new line features "Intelligent Power Management" which monitors the allocation of power to various subsystems depending on the user's current operating mode. This feature can save battery life by lessening the power given to subsystems not needed frequently by the user. There is both an automatic and user-programmable mode.
• Zero wait state processor. Zenith's 286 and 386 portables use a zero wait state architecture, which can significantly improve performance. With this design, the 12-MHz SupersPort 286 not only becomes the first mainstream 286-based battery-powered portable, but it rivals the speed of the fastest 286-based desktop machines. The TurbosPort uses additional performance enhancements such as 1:1 disk interleaving, 16-bit video interface and “slushware,” Zenith’s term for transferring ROM firmware into RAM cache on bootup.
Weaknesses. The Zenith portables have the following weaknesses compared to other portables on the market:
• Expensive. The Zenith portables are high priced. For example, the TurbosPort 386 is priced the same as the Compaq Portable 386, even though the Compaq run at 20-MHz compared to the TurbosPort's 12-MHz. Furthermore, Compaq is thought to have the highest priced PCs. (However, the Zenith buyer gets 40% lower weight than the Compaq and battery-powered operation.)
• Heavy at low-end. The low-end Zenith portable, the SupersPort, weighs 12.25 to 14.86 pounds (depending on the battery used and whether it has a hard disk), which is heavier than laptops from other leading vendors. For example, Toshiba's low-end portable, the T1000, weighs 6.4 pounds (it has a single floppy). Toshiba's hard disk portable (which runs at a higher clock speed than the SupersPort) weighs only 11 pounds.
Distribution and service. Zenith will be pushing the sPort line thru it direct sales force, dealers, VARs and its company-owned HeathKit stores. Major chains signed up include BusinessLand, ComputerLand and The Computer Factory. The Zenith IQ (Insured Quality) service plan offers several choices including 48-hour repair turnaround and next-day replacement. Warranty is one year with walk-in, mail-in and telephone services available.
Market Share. Dataquest ranks Zenith in first place in 1987 true portable (battery-powered) units with a 25.3% share of the U.S. market (a preliminary total of 399,000 units). Zenith has a narrow lead over Toshiba at 22% with GRiD at 10.8%, NEC at 9.6% and Datavue at 8.3%.
Conclusion. The SupersPort 286 and the TurbosPort 386 leapfrog past the competition to become the high-end machine for people needing a battery-powered portable. The TurbosPort is especially attractive because of its Page-White display that reportedly gives CRT quality video. Both of these machines should experience success at the high-end of the market. However, the high price of these portables and their relatively heavy weight may limit their acceptance at the low-end of the market. Zenith may be conceding the low-end of the marketplace since Datavue, NEC, and Toshiba offer XT compatible laptops with the same performance as the SupersPort but with lower weight and price.
