The 1983 Compaq Plus Portable — When Computers Were Fun

Nowadays everybody is carrying in the pocket a device that is more powerful than a computer that guided astronauts to the Moon. But how was it in 1983? At that time having something really portable was a big deal — it was not only expensive, but you’ll also have to carry something heavy like this:

How was it really working? Let’s figure it out.

Specs

The 80s was the era of the very beginning of personal computers. Only several years before, in 1974, the Altair 8800 became the first commercially successful personal computer. A bit later, in 1981, the Osborne 1, the first commercially successful portable computer was released. It had a Z80 CPU, was working with a CP/M OS, had 64 KB of RAM, and two 90 KB 5-1/4 floppy drives. Compared to that, the Compaq Portable was a real step forward: it had a 4.7 MHz 8088 CPU, 128 KB RAM, and two 320K 5–1/4" floppy disk drives. The improved model, Compaq Plus, was released a year later, it had a 10 MB hard disk drive, and the suggested retail price was $4,995 ($13,800 nowadays). This was obviously far from cheap, but as we can see, the reviews of that time were pretty enthusiastic: