Compaq Ships Two Lean, Light Evo Notebooks

Compaq released two new slim and light notebook computers on Monday under its growing Evo line of mobile computers.

Compaq released the Evo notebook N200 and Evo N160, which are aimed at business users in companies of all sizes, the company said in a statement.

The Evo N200, which was previewed at the TECHXNY trade show in June, has a price tag of $1799. The Evo N160 is scheduled to sell for $1399, Compaq said.

The notebooks are part of the Evo product line (short for "evolution") which Compaq launched last May. The new family of Compaq Evo systems includes notebooks, desktops, workstations, and thin clients designed to have an industrial style. They were introduced as a replacement for its previous DeskPro, Prosignia, and Armada lines of business PCs.

Lasting Battery

With a height of 0.8 inches, the mini Evo N200 mini notebook is powered by the Intel Pentium III 700 MHz-M processor, giving it a battery life of up to eight hours. The notebook also has 192MB of memory and a 20GB hard drive, Compaq said.

The Evo N200 supports the Compaq WL110 Wireless PC Card for use on a wireless LAN, the company said.

The Evo N160 can be configured with either an Intel Celeron 933 MHz or Pentium III 1 GHz processor, and comes with a mini-PCI V.92 modem, integrated 10/100 NIC, DVD-ROM optical drive, and a hard drive of up to 20GB.

The notebook also has high-end multimedia capabilities such as ATI Technologies' Mobility Radeon Graphics, S-Video-out and IEEE 1394 digital video input, Compaq said.

Growing Family

Earlier models of Evo Notebooks also provide support for the 802.11b and Bluetooth wireless networking standards through their MultiPort modules, which are sold as an option to the notebooks.

Compaq also recently grew its Evo line by bundling service and support into a monthly fee.

Compaq unveiled the service plan along with several new desktop and notebook members of the Evo family of business PCs. The Access on Demand service packages let businesses pay for the services and hardware they use.