Apricot Portable

Apricot Portable
DeveloperACT Ltd.[1]
Typeportable computer
Release date1984; 40 years ago (1984)
Introductory price£1,965 (equivalent to £7,978 in 2023)
Operating systemMS-DOS 2.11, Concurrent CP/M, CP/M-86
CPUIntel 8086 CPU @ 5 MHz[2]
Memory256 KB RAM, expandable to 768 KB
Storage3.5" floppy drive
DisplayBuilt-in monochrome LCD, optional external 16-colour display
ConnectivityInfrared wireless keyboard, optional wireless mouse
Dimensions45 cm × 20 cm × 17.2 cm
Mass5.8 kg

The Apricot Portable was a personal computer manufactured by ACT Ltd., and was released to the public in November 1984. It was ACT's first attempt at manufacturing a portable computer, which were gaining popularity at the time. Compared to other portable computers of its time like the Compaq Portable and the Commodore SX-64, the Apricot Portable was the first system to have an 80-column and 25-line LCD screen and the first with a speech recognition system.[3]

The Apricot Portable was designed to be easily carried in its case, but was powered by mains electricity only. It consisted of a central unit containing the motherboard, monochrome display and a floppy disk drive. It also came with a wireless keyboard and bundled software.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference aao-adverts was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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  3. ^ "Apricot Portable - Computing History". www.computinghistory.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-01-29.