5 laptop designs from the '80s that defined portable computing
Why don't laptops still look like this? Up above is the GRiD Compass computer by laptop design pioneer Bill Moggridge, which just won him the prestigious 2010 Prince Philip Designers Prize. It's widely considered the first portable computer to utilize the clamshell form factor we still use today, and even though it came out in 1982 there's something timelessly modern about it.
Moggridge's GRiD computers came when laptops were taking their first steps and the designs were wildly varied. Check out the GRiD in all its glory in the gallery below, as well as four other beautiful and pioneering machines.
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The landmark GRiD Compass wasn't entirely portable as it didn't run on batteries, but it's widely considered to be the first clamshell laptop and was used in highly specialized ways, such as by NASA on the Space Shuttle or by America's special forces. It remained a specialty machine most of all because of its price: $10,000.
The Osborne 1, released April, 1981, was the first portable computer to see commercial success, and helped start the trend of bundling extensive software suites on a machine as an incentive. It didn't have a battery, though, and can you imagine working on that tiny, 5-inch screen?
The Epson HX-20 may look more like a calculator than a laptop, but when it came out in 1981 it was a revelation. While it's tiny LCD screen only allows four lines of 20 characters, its running off rechargeable batteries was way ahead of its time.
This is what a portable computer looked like in 1975: still rather large, a small screen and it still had to be plugged in to run. You can see where the engineers are going with it, though, as all the parts of a computer are boiled down into one body. Okay, so this one isn't from the '80s, exactly, but it's one of the machines that inspired everything else on this list.
The Galivan SC was the first portable computer to actually be billed as a "laptop" when it came out in 1983. It was significantly light than most of the competition at nine pounds, cost only$4,000, ran off of battery power and even had an option for an attachable printer.
