The First Laptop in History: EPSON HX-20.

By the end of December of last year I got an impressive gem: an old computer, but in excellent condition, the EPSON HX-20, the first laptop ever. This relic, part of the History of computing It was my Christmas self-present and I hadn't had time to light it until today.

The first laptop in history had 2 processors!

For many, the EPSON HX-20 is the first laptop ever, launched in 1983. Other compact products had already been on the market, but none of them could be easily transported (they weighed a lot); plus, it had a built-in battery and TWO Hitachi 630 processors! Yes, as it is read. Thus, it could be said (at least commercially speaking) that EPSON was who invented the first laptop.

Another interesting feature is its graphical interface. Despite its small 120 × 32 pixel display, you can already tell that the technology was ready for portability. Not only was it dependent on the heavy and bulky CTRs (glass screens) monitors, but the LCD began to occupy more and more space. EPSON's next laptop, the PX-8, would have an 8 times larger LCD screen, 480 x 64 pixels. Who would say in those days that we would end up using LCD televisions years later?

It is very interesting to search the Internet for the advertisements of the time advertising the product as revolutionary. One of the ones that caught my attention the most was this video for television. I didn't find it in good resolution, but you can feel that 80s rock video style glam in the. True reflection of the time.

My first experience when turning it on was a screen with certain strange characters on it: "garbage" I tell him. Looking for a solution, I invoked Google and came across a surprise that I think is interesting to tell. EPSON still maintains the product manuals on its website! With them and a simple procedure I solved the problem. That's right ... here is a test.

https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/hx20__/hx20__u1.pdf

Between document and document I began to investigate, among other things, the autonomy of the battery, to discover that it was more than 50 hours !!! ... My current laptop with which I write this article barely reaches 5 hours.

Portable printer too

Something that was certainly surprising when I first saw the EPSON HX20 was its embedded dot matrix printer. Yes, as it reads, the first laptop ever comes with a compact and integrated printer. I imagine they were other times and the product was aimed at executives who needed to make paper receipts.

Review video of the first laptop

For now I won't say much more. It will take me a few days to dust off my BASIC knowledge and do useful things with the old computer. I already have ideas ... even in the meantime, I made a short video to present it to society. I hope you like it.

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If you love vintage hardware, you'll enjoy the old computers club and remembering Yubox, the first Ecuadorian Linux distribution.