Compaq M700/7700 dimensions Compaq, First Start

COVER FEATURE NOTEBOOK GROUP TEST

COMPAQ

ARMADA

M700/7700

The Compaq Armada M700/7700 belongs to the category of ultraportable notebooks. At first glance the M700 is worth the asking price for its robustness alone since aside from a few bits and pieces here and there its housing is made completely of magnesium alloy. The design also stands out from the rest because of the generously- curved edge at the left front sinde which is an eye- catcher in itself. When closed, the Armada looks very much like a book, which is due to the straight right-angled sides and the Compaq logo which is turned to look like the title of a book. Overall the device is very handy and its simple elegance is inspired.

The keyboard is, like the case, fairly non- standard. The trackpoint, a sort of mouse-cum- joystick, sits as usual between the keys [G], [H] and

[B].When using most trackpoints it’s not hard to slightly touch the [B] key with the index finger and this may be bad depending on the program being

used. For this reason, Compaq has tilted the [B] away from the trackpoint so there is more room for the index finger, something which doesn’t noticeably affect the typing feel or ability. Under the space bar are three mouse keys which can be operated with no problem using the PS/2 protocol.

Due to the compact dimensions – the lid is only a few millimeters larger than the 14.1-inch TFT display – the centre of the image is slightly offset to the left with respect to the keyboard. The result of this is that you have to look at the display a bit askew. This is not really a big problem but takes some getting used to – you tend to sit centred to the display but then type one row of keys to the left and keep producing gibberish.

First Start

The notebook was supplied pre-installed with Windows 98 although you don’t get the CDs. A standalone disk drive is supplied together with a set of cables consisting of a parallel port adapter, modem and Ethernet attachments. The power pack has the new triangular power socket which is incompatible with common power leads. If at all possible, you should try not to lose this because replacements could be costly. But Compaq is not alone when it comes to this new standard – Acer and IBM made the same choice.

Before you delete Windows when installing Linux, you should change the TV output of the ATI Rage Mobility graphics chipset from NTSC to PAL as there is no option for this to be found in BIOS. This changeover under Windows is necessary only once and remains permanently active.

While we’re talking about TV, it’s worth nothing that the Compaq Armada is the only device here to simultaneously output to display and TV over the entire range of resolutions – there is no need to set lower resolutions for

38 LINUX MAGAZINE 5 · 2001