Tandy 1400 Laptop Series, Are They Good? - Tandy Lab

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Today we look at some of Tandy’s early laptops, The Tandy 1400LT, The Tandy 1400FD and the Tandy 1400HD. These early laptops were relatively powerful for the time with decent screens and were relatively light weight while remaining fully MS-DOS compatible.
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Опубликовано:

11 окт 2024

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Комментарии : 30

@Laceykat66 Год назад

The 1400 LT was a great buy at the time because you got a monitor and TWO floppy drives for what most computers would cost with NO monitor and only one drive. It did have an internal hard drive but that was as expensive as the computer itself. With a math coprocessor chip added, which I did myself, this computer got me through college thanks to Word Star software and my 9-pin (and later 32-pin color) printer. I can't belive you forgot to bring the DOS disk to boot the machine. It does not have any internal programming.

@grinderkenny 2 года назад

I had one of these in the early 90s and I took it with me to college. I always sat at the back of the class close to a wall so I can plug it in and typed all my notes in it and the sold my notes to all of my school mates. Some professors hated me for having it and I told the get use to it because this is the future and before you know it everyone will have one.

@jacobjones9071 4 года назад

I have to say, if I was stuck in the 80s and NEEDED a laptop these would do pretty nice

@hstrinzel 11 месяцев назад

I had a Toshiba T1100Plus in those days. It was a bit more compact and also does no longer work. Will be interesting to see if a Raspberry Pi5 will still work IN 40 YEARS. I think it quite possibly WILL WORK, because it does not have any huge discrete chemical time bombs, such as electrolytic capacitors etc. Let's see, I'll be 100 years old by then - I wonder if I will still "work", hopefully still happily alive...

@NewsmakersTech 4 года назад

These laptops are pretty cool for their time! Have you ever used a Tandy laptop?

@jamesrakestraw7125 3 года назад

I love to buy one from you. I do want one.

@waynelawrence5220 3 года назад

I bought a 1400HD brand new back in the early '90s, it was a nice machine for the time. I really liked it and actually kept it until the hard drive died.

@danielrjones 4 года назад

I upgraded from a 1100 FD to a 1400 FD and it was so much better! The screen was still terrible, but so much better.

@captain3186 4 года назад

I have a Tandy 1400 FD. The Caps in the PSU have gone bad and the machine won't power up unless you leave it plugged in for 30 min then unplug and plug it back in. Really easy fix I just haven't felt like fixing it. These are surprisingly easy to work on. The whole internal PSU comes right out in a single piece

@NewsmakersTech 4 года назад

We have multiple systems with easy to fix issues that we've procrastinated on. Great activity for quiet weekend

@TheSulross 3 года назад

This is why collecting retro laptops is at the bottom of my list - battery issues and screen issues. My first retro collectible was a Tandy Model 200 and on that I just got lucky as it still works and has legible display, which is not backlit so not a computer for use in low light. I was more interested in the case and keyboard for basing neo-retro computers that are portable but with an authentic 80s retro look, e.g., imagine a Tandy Model 200 housing a Commander X16 motherboard coupled to a modern color display, and the keycaps all sporting the PETSCII graphics character set - now that would be the bees' knees of a styling rig!

@squirlmy 3 года назад

If compatible screens exist, and I think more collector will find replacements, or do hacks, as time goes on. If three color e-ink screens get cheaper, I'd love to put one in a machine like the Tandy laptops.

@80sCompaqPC 4 года назад

Actually, LOTS of people bought those Compaq Portables like the one you showed. They were very reasonably priced for what they were too; not any more than a contemporary IBM PC. Those sold so well, even IBM themselves was worried. And also, those Tandy 1400s use *Nickel Cadmium* battery packs, not Lithium Ion. Most consumer electronics in the late 1980s (laptops, cellular phones, etc) were using SLA or Ni-Cd batteries. It’s also worth noting that there had been battery-powered portables for several years before these, such as the Morrow Pivot, released in late 1984.

@80sCompaqPC 4 года назад

Also, there *were* backlit LCDs before 1988. There was the Zenith ZFL-181, which was released in 1986 and had a blue, EL backlit LCD, much like the one on the Tandy 1400.

@squirlmy 3 года назад

Yes Compaq made $111 million in their first year, when their only products were the Portable and (Portable Plus maybe? the only difference is it had a harddrive standard. Tons of people bought the 1 and asked the retail store for a hard drive. Compaq noticed) That set records for an American company, I believe. There were actually many computer manufacturers, who switched form making Z80 CP/M machines to making DOS 8088s and 8086s. Dynalogic's Hyperion, Seequa Chameleon, Corona Data System's PPC-400. They were quickly forgotten, because they didn't make PC-DOS compatibility their main focus. Only Compaq insisted on as close to 100% as they could. And in those early days, Microsoft didn't want to anger IBM too much, so they kinda looked the other way, when Compaq said that was their goal, complete compatibility. IBM was too arrogant to realize the full implications of "clones", at least not at first.

@jacobw446 4 года назад

I took a Tandy 1400hd to college. Loved it, despite the monechrome screen.

@NewsmakersTech 4 года назад

The screen is really bad but the system itself was pretty nice for the time.

@MessalineApghar 4 года назад

They were great for the Era. They were an IBM convertable in a smaller case.

@enjoythepig 4 года назад

Great job documenting an important computer.

@NewsmakersTech 4 года назад

I'd ideally like to do a more general retrospective video on all of Tandy's portable line in the future. There are plenty of machines we haven't covered yet but thier Laptop offerings are a fantastic barometer for how Tandy was doing as a whole

@andrewdupuis1151 2 года назад

i was 25 years old then thats cool laptop

@wickedcoolname399 3 года назад

I still have my old 1400 LT. I need a power supply and a battery....I think. Will it run with just a power supply, or does it need the battery too?

@dorin.dumitru Год назад

Just the power supply would be just fine

@Roxasofmalice 4 года назад

Just gonna copy and paste because I CAN! -- Mr. Daniel Jones. Thank you for Jacob...Just thank you for him. We're friends on Discord for a few years and we both are fans of card games. I have to do an IT Degree due to my parents, and today I was humiliated and insulted for not being able to put more time into Linux classes because my PC is insufficient to run Linux. I asked Jacob for some advice...Ya know what he did. It made me feel better by giving me amazing options for GPU and Ram Upgrades and consoling me a bit on my humiliation. I don't know what I can do much to be a good friend to your son...so Thank you for him.

@duckyduck2108 3 года назад

Hey can they run windows 3.1 or 3.0?

@aleksandrbmelnikov 3 года назад

It's saying you have no RAM.

@user-vn7ce5ig1z 4 года назад

(12:49 - *anti-climactic; anti-climatic are Scott Morrison, Jair Bolsonaro, and Donald Trump.) 13:18 - There's probably a short in the battery pack. Oh well, it probably couldn't hold much of a charge anymore anyway. 🤷

@NewsmakersTech 4 года назад

This is true