If someone gifted you a cheap laptop this holiday season, you might be a little put out by the 2GB of RAM and the 400 MHz CPU. However, you might appreciate it more once you look at [Noel’s Retro Lab’s] 4.8 Kg Amstrad PPC512 He shows it off inside and out in the video below.
Unlike a modern laptop, this oldie but goodie has a full keyboard that swings out of the main body. The space below the keyboard contains the LCD screen, which [Noel] is going to have to replace with an LCD from another unit that was in worse shape but had a good-looking screen. In this video, he gets as far as getting video output to an external monitor, but neither LCD shows any sign of life. But he’s planning more videos soon.
The MS-DOS 3.3 computer’s LCD could emulate a CGA or MDA screen but had no backlight. The 8 MHz NEC V30 processor had 512K of memory, hence the part number. There was also a similar model with 640K of memory and a (gasp) 2400 baud modem.
The power options for this laptop were a bit odd by today’s standards. The computer could use an AC adapter or a car adapter. It could also run on ten C-size batteries. There were also matching external monitors that were able to power the machine.
We’ve seen LCD transplants on this class of machine before, although that one went from monochrome to color. These may not seem very portable, but compared to the earlier “luggable” computers, they were great.
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