From: akm@getafix.cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal)
Subject: Re: Sager laptops
Organization: University of Oregon Computer and Information Sciences Dept.
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 17:34:51 GMT

In article <1992Nov5.154343.8320@timessqr.gc.cuny.edu> gra@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu writes:
>I've also noticed their ads. If you here anything about them I'd
>appreciate it if you could forward a copy to me.

Various people have asked about the Sager Machines, and my experience
with them.

I am very happy with mine. I posted a review a while back (around
May), but I'll post another now. I hope I remember everything.

My machine is an NP 925, 25 Mhz 386sxl, with 120 MB of disk, and 4 mb
of ram, (expandable to 8 mb), 64 grey scale LCD, 8.5" diagonal (they
call it 9", 6 lbs w/o battery, 7 lbs with battery. It has a vga out
(640x480, Chips and Technologies VGA chipset, works fine with windows,
which I use all the time. Also AMI bios with setup on ROM, Shadow
memory, which is great with 386Max (gives me all 4 megs to use). It
also has a keyboard port. I have used the machine with VGA and
keyboard plugged in, and am thinking of getting a switch so that I can
use one keyboard and monitor between two computers. That would mean
that my desk would be a lot less cluttered. Would still have two mice
though. Perhaps I need a cat?  Their newer machines support 200 MB
disks. This machine is faster than my desktop... (If you want to buy a
large, old 386DX desktop...)

As this is an SXL, it doesn't really have a suspend mode, but the
newer NP 933 (33Mhz DLX and other models do. They also have color
models, but I have no idea what their screens are like. THey have a
model that does 800x600 on the LCD display, that is an SL, which I
would have liked to have gotten, but I'd already bought the one that I
have. It does have power saving modes where the disk drive goes off,
LCD display goes off, and CPU slows down. You can control each of
these individually, or all together. I also suspsect that it turns off
the *keyboard* when its not used, but I don't have any documentation
on this. What happens is that the first keystroke is lost when you go
back after a while. Haven't asked them about this. It is a little
confusing, but if it is power saving, I don't mind. 

The AC charger is a trickle charger, which shuts off when it thinks
the battery is charged. They sent me two battery packs.

The machine has an innovative way of giving you options such as
modem, second serial port, fax, scanner, SCSI, ethernet etc. If
viewed, closed, from the top, the machine looks like this:

    ---------------------------------
    |              |                |
    |      A       |       B        |
    |              |                |
    ---------------------------------
    |                               |
    |                               |
    |                               |
    |                               |
    |                               |
    |                               |
    |                               |
    |                               |
    ---------------------------------

A and B are battery packs. You can replace one or both of the battery
packs with one or more function modules. I currently have only the
module that gives you an additional serial port, and a 5.25" disk
connector. I don't have a 5.25" disk.  I was planning to get the
ethernet module, but they told me that it was not compatible with
Lantastic. I liked the fact that they have always been up front with
me about everything. They also emphasize their 30 day money back
guarantee on everything.

The screen is good. I was not happy with it when I started using it,
but subsequently compared it with a Mac Powerbook 100, AST, and a
couple other lesser-known clones, this was a side-by side test, and it
was better than them under the lighting conditions available.

The machine is slightly heavy, made worse by carrying the AC adaptor
around. The battery packs last about 2.5 hours each, so I get about 5
hours. They claim a bit more, but, you know how that works... I tend
to have it on all the time. 

I've found the sales, support and tech people very friendly and
helpful. I had a glitch on my machine: it would not print, this was
possibly due to my own negligance, but I shipped it in, and within 8
days I got it back (including a long weekend). They replaced the
motherboard. Left my hard disk intact, for which I am eternally
grateful... 

I would not recommend the machine I have, because much better things
are now available from Sager, but would have no hesitation in
recommending Sager on the whole. Actually, for the price, it costs
now, the NP 925 is good value.

cheers,

kartik


-- 
If you quote my article remember to trim it down to the essentials.
Anant Kartik Mithal, 				akm@cs.uoregon.edu
Network Manager, Ph.D. Student			(503)346-3989
Comp. Science, U of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403  	(503)346-5373 (fax)