Atari Portfolio from 1989, How Does It Work?

Testing the Portable Computer from “Terminator 2”

Many computers and personal digital assistants were made in the 80s and 90s. Most of them are now forgotten, but some models became popular and were even used in iconic movies, like the Atari Portfolio in “Terminator 2 Judgement Day”:

This is obviously just a movie, but how does this computer work in real life? Well, the best way to figure it out is just to take one and test it.

Before we begin, a usual reminder. This article is not sponsored by any company. I buy all hardware on my own, and I’m convinced that this is the only way to make reviews like this. All specs can be found online, but if we want to know if the device was convenient to use, easy to carry, how good the keyboard was, and so on, we need a real thing for a test. Last but not least, it is also just fun.

And now, let's get started.

History

Nowadays, almost everybody can afford a laptop; they are cheap, compact, and reliable. We take it for granted, but it was not always like this. The very first portable computer, the Toshiba T1100, was made in 1985. It had a 4.7 MHz 8086 CPU, 256 KB of RAM…