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Texas Instruments Inc.
TI TravelMate 6160
TI TravelMate 6160

The new flagship of Texas Instrument's high-end notebook line, the TI TravelMate 6160, from Texas Instruments, has impressive credentials, but it never manages to rise above mediocrity. The $5,000 system boasts a 166-MHz MMX Pentium processor, 32MB of EDO RAM, and 512K of external cache. Unfortunately, that didn't translate into leading-edge scores on our benchmark tests.

Designed for the mobile professional, the TravelMate weighs in at a relatively light 6.5 pounds and at just over 7 pounds with the AC adapter; the unit measures 2.2 by 12 by 9 inches. On board are all the features you need for presentations, including Zoomed Video port compatibility on one of its two Type II card slots for playing MPEG video.

Like the Nuovo and HiNote VP, the TravelMate's 12.1-inch active-matrix display is supported by NeoMagic Corp.'s MagicGraph graphics accelerator and can display 64,000 colors at 800-by-600 resolution. But the TravelMate lagged significantly behind the pack on graphics tests.

The unit features built-in 3-D Spatializer sound, and stereo speakers are integrated into the wrist rest. Like the Tecra, the TravelMate relies on a pointing stick rather than a touchpad.

There are two bays mounted in the front for the lithium ion battery and the 10X CD-ROM drive, and an LED on the front of the battery lets you check battery status at any time. You can swap the CD-ROM drive for a second, optional battery, and TI offers a variety of DockMate port replicators. TI tops the TravelMate off with a PC Card 33.6-Kbps modem and a built in wireless IrDA port.

The TravelMate didn't fare well on our benchmark tests. It posted the lowest scores on ZD Business Winstone 97 (30) and ZD Business Graphics WinMark 97 (42.7), and it lagged on the ZD CPUmark32 test as well. Its ZD BatteryMark score of 1:38 was disappointing and insufficient for most professionals who travel frequently.

In short, the TI TravelMate 6160's features read like a wish list for portable computing, but its performance on our tests leaves something to be desired.

TI TravelMate 6160 Street price: With MMX Pentium/166 with MMX, 32MB EDO RAM, 512K external cache, 2GB hard disk, 12.1-inch active-matrix color display, $5,000. Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, TX; 800-848-3927, 817-774-5856;
www.ti.com.
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