HiNote sets the tone for big-screen laptops

Though computer-makers continue to upgrade the abilities of notebook PCs, the overly small input and output devices such as the keyboards, trackballs or touch pads, and screens, are drawbacks that prevent the machines from becoming true alternatives to desktop PCs.

Digital's new HiNote Ultra 2000 GTX 5166M notebook, featuring a full-size keyboard with wrist rest and a 14.1 inch thin-film transistor - or active matrix - screen, is one attempt to solve this dilemma.

The keys are as big as those of any standard desktop keyboards, while the large wrist rest (due to the large screen) is an ergonomic design that allows you to type comfortably.

This is an ideal multimedia platform. It combines an extra-large screen supporting resolutions of up to 1,024 x 768 in 64,000 colours, a Pentium 166 MHz MMX processor, two megabyte video Ram, and a 20x CD-Rom drive interchangeable with a 3.5-inch floppy drive.

Built into the HiNote is an ordinary pair of stereo speakers. But users can experience a three-speaker audio system for three-dimensional sound in the add-on multimedia dock. It offers you louder, clearer and more dynamic sound quality.

Also in the multimedia dock are a drive expansion bay for an extra CD-Rom or disk drive, two CardBus slots, a joystick port, a universal serial bus port and ports for NTSC/PAL output to support connection with a television set or bigger screen.