The Canon NoteJet is a series of

notebook computers A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...

which include a

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer ( fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * Jame ...

and scanner that was manufactured from 1993 to 1995 by a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between the

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

subsidiary Canon Computer Systems Inc. and IBM subsidiary

IBM Japan IBM has had business internationally since before the company had a name. Early leaders of the companies that would eventually become IBM (Mr Hollerith, Mr Flint, and Mr Watson) all were involved in doing international business. In those early day ...

. The Canon branded series was sold worldwide except in Japan, where the similar IBM ThinkPad 555BJ and 550BJ was sold. The European model did not use the NoteJet branding and was branded as the Canon BN120C, BN22 or BN200. Reviews during the general availability of the series were mixed. Historical analyses viewed it either extremely positive or extremely negative.

History

Canon, one of the largest printer manufacturers globally, released their first

inkjet printer Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensi ...

in 1985. They joined the

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

PC market in October 1992 as Canon Computer Systems Inc. and launched the Innova PC line in 1993. Canon combined these products in the NoteJet series. ''Bubble Jet'' and ''BJ'' are trademarks owned by Canon, which have been used by IBM for their printer-laptops. According to Canon, the printer in the NoteJet is 70% smaller than any printer they developed before.

Models

The Canon branded models were released globally, except in Japan where the IBM branded ThinkPads were released. The NoteJet branding was not used in Europe.

Canon NoteJet 486

It uses the Cyrix 486SLC clocked at 25 MHz as a CPU. It weighs 7.7 pounds and the dimensions are 12.2 by 10 by 2 inches. The

list price The list price, also known as the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), or the recommended retail price (RRP), or the suggested retail price (SRP) of a product is the price at which its manufacturer notionally recommends that a retailer ...

was $2499. The CPU was manufactured by Texas Instruments. The NoteJet 486 was made in three different versions: the model 1 has a 85MB disk, the model 2 has a 130MB disk and the model 3 has a 180MB disk.

Canon NoteJet II 486C

The NoteJet II 486C uses a 486SLC2 processor at 50 MHz and weighs 8.6 pounds. It has a 10.3 inch

DSTN DSTN (double super twisted nematic), also known as dual-scan super twisted nematic or simply dual-scan, is an LCD technology in which a screen is divided in half, which are simultaneously refreshed giving faster refresh rate than traditional passive ...

and two PCMCIA slots. It has 4MiB RAM with a 130MB HDD or a 260MB HDD.

Canon NoteJet IIIcx

The printer is based on the Canon BJC-70. It uses a Pentium I clocked at 90 MHz, 16MiB of RAM and a HDD of 810MB. It has an internal PCI bus and IrDA, a Sound Blaster card, two Type II PC Card slots or one Type III PC card slot. It uses an external AC adapter.

Canon BN22

Canon marketed the NoteJet 486 in Europe as the Canon BN22, because the

AC adapter An AC adapter or AC/DC adapter is a type of external power supply, often enclosed in a case similar to an AC plug. Other common names include wall wart, power brick, wall charger, and power adapter. Adapters for battery-powered equipment may ...

and keyboard have differences.

Canon BN120C

The Canon BN120C uses a 100 MHz Intel 486, 810MB HDD and 16MiB RAM.

Canon BN200

The Canon BN200 is an upgrade from the BN22. It has an active matrix 800x600 LCD. It was sold in three different models. BN200-DE in Nova71-SF

IBM ThinkPad 550BJ

It used the 25 MHz

IBM 486SLC The 386SLC was an Intel-licensed version of the 386SX (32-bit internal, 16-bit external, 24-bit memory addressing), developed and manufactured by IBM in 1991. It included power-management capabilities and an 8KB internal CPU cache, which enabled i ...

CPU. The 550BJ was launched in Japan on 19 February 1993. It was developed within the new self-contained IBM Personal Computer Company which was set up in 1992, separate from the IBM corporate hierarchy. The computer components were developed by IBM Japan and printer components were developed by Canon, with both logos engraved on the machine. The ''BJ'' stands for Bubble Jet which is Canon's printer technology. Although ThinkPads are known for their usage of the

TrackPoint A pointing stick (or trackpoint, also referred to generically as a nub or nipple) is a small analog stick used as a pointing device typically mounted centrally in a computer keyboard. Like other pointing devices such as mice, touchpads or trac ...

pointing stick, this machine comes with a "Mini Mouse II-B" The machine gained popularity mainly amongst

beginners ''Beginners'' is a 2010 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Mills. It tells the story of a man reflecting on the life and death of his father, while trying to forge a new romantic relationship with a woman dealing w ...

and students.

IBM ThinkPad 555BJ

It used the 486SLC2 as a CPU, which is the 50 MHz version of the IBM 486SLC. The

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...

was upgraded from a 9.5 inch STN to 10.3 inch

color LCD. The memory was expanded to 12MiB. In contrast to the earlier model, this machine included a TrackPoint II.

Reception

PCMag ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

reviewed the NoteJet IIIcx in 1996. They noted the slowness of the scanning feature while appreciating the quality documentation from Canon. They concluded that the PC performance was average, but noted the high amount of extra peripherals available. They noted: "the point isn't really how well it works, but that it works at all". According to ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', users have complained that the NoteJet series was too heavy and expensive. ''PCMag'' listed it in a 2015 article as one of the 7 "Bizarre FrankenPCs That Are Better Off Dead". ''

TechRadar ''TechRadar'' is an online publication owned by Future and focused on technology. It has editorial teams in the US, UK and Australia and provides news and reviews of tech products and gadgets. It was launched in 2007 and expanded to the US in ...

'' listed it in a 2016 article as one of the 12 "ground-breaking laptops that dared to be different", and argued that was sad that the NoteJet was a one-of-a-kind. ''

PC World ''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online only publication. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tech ...

'' listed the Canon NoteJet 486 in a 2006 as one of the greatest PCs of all time.

Further developments

The NoteJet series was silently discontinued. Canon left the U.S. PC market in January 1997 due to low sales.

References

External links

Canon BN200 diskette backup

{{IBM personal computers IBM laptops Computer printers NoteJet Computer-related introductions in 1993