Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstrad had a substantial share of the PC market in the UK. Amstrad was once a FTSE 100 Index constituent, but since 2007 has been wholly owned by Sky UK. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business was manufacturing Sky UK interactive boxes. In 2010, Sky integrated Amstrad's satellite division as part of Sky so they could make their own set-top boxes in-house.
Psion Organiser was the brand name of a range of pocket computers developed by the British company Psion in the 1980s. The Organiser I and Organiser II had a characteristic hard plastic sliding cover protecting a 6×6 keypad instead of a computer keyboard, with letters arranged alphabetically.
The Poqet PC is a very small, portable IBM PC compatible computer, introduced in 1989 by Poqet Computer Corporation with a price of $2000. The computer was discontinued after Fujitsu Ltd. bought Poqet Computer Corp. It was the first subnotebook form factor IBM PC compatible computer that ran MS-DOS. The Poqet PC is powered by two AA-size batteries. Through the use of aggressive power management, which includes stopping the CPU between keystrokes, the batteries are able to power the computer for anywhere between a couple of weeks and a couple of months, depending on usage. The computer also uses an "instant on" feature, such that after powering it down, it can be used again immediately without having to go through a full booting sequence. The Poqet PC is comparable to the HP 95LX/HP 100LX/HP 200LX and the Atari Portfolio handheld computers.
A touchpad or trackpad is a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on the operating system that is made output to the screen. Touchpads are a common feature of laptop computers as opposed to using a mouse on a desktop, and are also used as a substitute for a mouse where desk space is scarce. Because they vary in size, they can also be found on personal digital assistants (PDAs) and some portable media players. Wireless touchpads are also available as detached accessories.
The Atari Portfolio is an IBM PC-compatible palmtop PC, released by Atari Corporation in June 1989. This makes it the world's first palmtop computer.
The TRS-80 Model 100 is a portable computer introduced in April 1983. It is one of the first notebook-style computers, featuring a keyboard and liquid crystal display, in a battery-powered package roughly the size and shape of a notepad or large book.
The Psion Series 3 range of personal digital assistants were made by Psion PLC. The four main variants are the Psion Series 3 (1991), the Psion Series 3a (1993), the Psion Series 3c (1996), and the Psion Series 3mx (1998), all sized 165 by 85 by 22 millimetres. Further, a Psion Series 3a variant with factory installed software for the Russian language was called a Psion Series 3aR, and Acorn Computers sold renamed versions of the Psion Series 3 and 3a marketed as the Acorn Pocket Book and Acorn Pocket Book II.
The Psion Series 7 is a subnotebook computer from Psion that was released in 2000. In size it is fairly original: larger than a palmtop or handheld machine, but smaller than a laptop computer. It was the first and last of the Psion series to have a full color electronic visual display. It has a leather-bound clamshell design, with a touch-sensitive, Video Graphics Array (VGA) resolution liquid-crystal display (LCD) and QWERTY computer keyboard. Internally it has a 132.71 MHz StrongARM SA-1100 processor, 16 megabyte (MB) of random-access memory (RAM) and 16 MB of internal read-only memory (ROM).
Toughbook is a line of rugged computers produced and marketed by Panasonic Corporation. The Toughbook, introduced in 1996 with the CF-25, is designed to withstand outside forces which would damage or destroy normal laptops. Toughbook mobile computers are used in a wide variety of industries, including construction, defense, emergency services, government, healthcare, law enforcement, manufacturing, oil, gas, telecom, and utilities. The Toughbook brand mainly competes with other lines of rugged computers, such as Dell's Rugged Extreme.
The Epson PX-8 a.k.a. Geneva was a small laptop computer made by the Epson Corporation in the mid-1980s.
The Gavilan SC is a laptop computer and was the first ever to be marketed as a "laptop".
The Compaq Presario 1200 was a line of notebook computers produced between 1998 and 2000 by Compaq as part of Compaq Presario line. They were originally noted for their AMD processors, light weight and 12-inch LCD screens, while later models included a shift to Intel processors and other changed features. The label of "Compaq Presario 1200" includes a vast set of model numbers and revisions, many of which are not totally compatible, even though the machines share the same general Presario model number.
The NEC UltraLite was an MS-DOS-based laptop in a "notebook" size. It was introduced in October 1988 alongside the heavier and more-capable ProSpeed.
The history of laptops describes the efforts, begun in the 1970s, to build small, portable personal computers that combine the components, inputs, outputs and capabilities of a desktop computer in a small chassis.
The ICL DRS was a range of departmental computers from International Computers Limited (ICL). Standing originally for Distributed Resource System, the full name was later dropped in favour of the abbreviation.
The ThinkPad X series is a line of laptop computers and convertible tablets produced by Lenovo with less power than its other counterparts. It was initially produced by IBM until 2005.
The IdeaPad S Series is a series of notebook computers launched by Lenovo in October 2008. The IdeaPad S10 was initially scheduled for launch in September, but its release was delayed in the United States until October.
The Packard Bell Statesman was an economy line of notebook computers introduced in 1993 by Packard Bell. They were slower in performance and lacked features compared to most competitor products, but they were lower in price. It was created in a collaboration between Packard Bell and Zenith Data Systems. The Statesman series was essentially a rebrand of Zenith Data Systems Z-Star 433 series, with the only notable difference of the logo in the middle and text on the front bezel.
Armada is a discontinued line of business laptops by Compaq. They started as a more affordable version of the Contura line, but after that, they replaced Contura as a mainstream laptop line, and then the high-end Compaq LTE line were merged with Armada as a premium 7300 and 7700 sub-lines.
The Sharp PC-4500 is a line of laptop computers released by Sharp Corporation in 1987. The line comprises the PC-4501, the PC-4502, and the PC-4521. The PC-4501 is a bare-bones unit with only 256 KB of RAM stock, only one floppy drive, no backlighting, and no built-in numeric keypad; the PC-4502 and PC-4521 bumps the stock RAM to 640 KB and includes the latter two features while providing either two floppy drive (PC-4502) or one floppy drive and a 20 MB hard drive (PC-4521). Prices on the line initially ranged from $1,295 to just under $3,000; the PC-4501 was later sold for $995, becoming one of the first sub-$1,000 laptops available on the market. The PC-4500 line received mixed, mostly positive, reviews on its release in September 1987.
