Canon (UK) Ltd yesterday launched its BN22 BJ all-in-one notebook computer and bubblejet printer – a machine that is similar but, Canon is adamant, not identical to IBM Corp’s ThinkPad. The BN22 printbook uses Texas Instruments Inc’s 25MHz TI486SLC processor and incorporates a special near laser quality micro Bubble Jet printer which is plugged straight into the internal bus to improve speed. Its flatbed paper path, situated under the notebook’s keyboard, is suitable for A4 paper, envelopes and transparencies. The notebook itself boasts 4Mb expandable to 12Mb RAM and comes in hard disk configurations of 85Mb, 135Mb or 180Mb. It has a 3.5 floppy drive; two PCMCIA II slots for which a facsimile modem card will be available in the third quarter; and parallel, serial, Super VGA and PS/2 ports. It is supplied with a NiCAD battery that provides around four hours computing or 60 pages of printing, and an adaptor. Canon says it designed the machine so batteries can be changed without having to exit applications. Power management software is included to conserve power and MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 also come pre-installed. The machine weighs 7.7 lbs and measures 12.2 by 10 by 2.2. It features a monochrome, backlit display supplied by Sharp Corp. Exact pricing has not been decided yet, but is not expected to exceed UKP2,000; ships next quarter.
