Keyboard Builders' Digest
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Keyboard Builders' Digest / Keyboard Spotting

Compaq Plus Portable

A nice review of a Compaq Plus Portable (1983) by Dmitrii Eliuseev.

KBD.news
Published January 2, 2022
Would you like to contribute to this year's MK Advent Calendar? Here are the guidelines for authors, along with last year's edition for reference.

Read the full article here.

The price of the Compaq Portable can be in the $100-1000 range on eBay depending on its condition. I decided to buy a not working one and to restore the computer myself, not only because it's cheaper but because it's challenging and more fun – DmitriiElj.

Well, I'm not really into vintage computing. I do collect vintage keyboards but I'm not interested in converting them or bothering with running software on these computers.

Probably that's why I was stuck by seeing some familiar apps in monochrome like Lotus and Blockout – stuff I played around somewhere back in 1990.

And while I own similar luggable computers, e.g. my IBM Portable 5155 practically comes with a Model F, while this one in the picture features foam and foil switches like my Reuters trading keyboard.

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Published on Sun 2nd Jan 2022. Featured in KBD #59 (source).


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