[ Retro Scan of the Week ] The Cambridge Z88
January 11th, 2010 by Benj Edwards
There’s a little bit of Clive in every box.
The Cambridge Z88 (1987) was a slim, diskless, battery-sipping laptop computer similar to the famous TRS-80 Model 100.
Interestingly, former VC&G contributor Gnome wrote about this machine for us in 2006. He makes specific note of the Z88’s relationship to Sir Clive Sinclair of Sinclair Research fame.
I don’t have a Z88, but I love laptops in this monolithic, almost slate-like form factor. If you have one you’d like to get rid of, I’m all ears.
Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever owned a laptop with a non-folding screen (i.e. not a clamshell design) like the Z88 above? What did you like or dislike about it?
January 12th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Man, I discovered the Z88 on Wikipedia about the same time I found out about the Model 100, they look like really interesting machines, but quite scarce on E-Bay.
January 12th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Odd enough, last week I published a retro scan of a Z88’s advertising on my blog…
I own an Olivetti M10 (1984?), made on the same platform of TRS-80 Model 100, and it still works!
Only eight lines, forty characters, nothing more than an expensive toy; in mid ninty I saw one still used to print museum tickets in Siena’s “Duomo”, here in Italy.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
I consider this type of portable to be a “missing link” in the evolution of laptops. It’s definitely task-oriented, but still reminds me of a calculator than a pc.
January 13th, 2010 at 7:51 am
Former? Hah! Think again!
Oh, and a happy 2010!
January 15th, 2010 at 6:39 am
No Disks – NO DOS. Love it!
It just wasn’t ‘quite there’ that machine
January 25th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Why the discrepancy of the max RAM? In the side bar it says “…expands to over 1.5 megabytes.”
In the text, it says “…expandable to over 3 megabytes.”
While both can be technically correct at the same time, it seems like confusing marketing to me. It makes me wonder what the true maximum is.
March 14th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
If I was old enough, I would have bought this as soon as it came out!
The main selling point is that it was linkable to the IBM.
August 5th, 2010 at 5:24 am
I have an immaculate Sinclair Cambridge Z88 Vintage Laptop Computer. There are bids from £25.00 so far on Ebay, so what would you be prepared to pay? Olga R Hepple