Hitachi Flora 220TX Specs

Hitachi introduced the Flora 220TX Crusoe-based notebook October 31st, but only to the Japanese market thus far.

The attractive Flora 220TX comes in two flavours. The more powerful version uses the TM5600 600MHz Crusoe processor coupled with a large 12.1" TFT LCD screen, a lower powered version comes with the TM5400 533Mhz Crusoe processor.

Being a fan of the "the screen still draws too much power" argument, we are pleased to see the Flora 220TX also ships with a 10.1" TFT LCD screen and TM5400 533MHz Crusoe processor. Pricing ranges from about $1,500 to $2,200.

The Flora 220TX come with Windows 98SE or WinMe. Of all the Crusoe-based notebooks we have seen come to market, this is the first one not offering Windows 2000, but rather the more stable Win98SE.

Looking closer at the higher-end model we can see that it comes well equipped: 600Mhz Crusoe processor, 100Mhz Bus, 128MB RAM, 12.1" TFT screen, Trident 2.5Mb video, 10GB HDD, optional DVD/CD-ROM, onboard sound, NIC card/Modem, and weighs in an just under 2 kilos. The Flora 220TX consums upto 14 Watts (maximum of 40 Watts and minimum of 1 Watt in sleep mode), and has a moderate battery life of upto 4.3 hours.

It appears as though both versions of the Flora 220TX ship with the larger 300g battery. The ultralight 160g battery provides only 1.7 hours of use for the 12.1" version, and an additional 220g battery can be docked into a vacant CD/DVD-ROM bay for an extra 2 hours of battery life if desired.

Battery Life

The lower-priced 10.4" TFT Flora version comes with only 64MB RAM, a 533Mhz Crusoe processor, no CD/DVD-ROM, and has a slightly longer battery life of about 4.7 hours. It consumes 11 Watts (maximum of 33 Watts and a minimum of 1 Watt in sleep mode)of electricity and weighs in at 1.4 kilos.

While both of the Flora come packed to the gills with all the peripherals and features you could ever desire, battery life appears to be a bit shy of preconceived expectations. Mind you, with the largest battery, the Flora can operate for an astounding 7-8.4 hours - especially considering my old Acer 512 has a battery that weighs in around the same amount, but only lives for 4 hours or so.