Obscure Tech Review: NEC "Starlet" Laptop From 1985

The PC-8401 "Starlet" was NEC's answer to the Tandy 200... but with a worse operating system and worse LCD screen. It never quite took off, and has become one of those forgotten computers from the 1980s that never got a cult following like the TRS-80 or Apple. I found this one at Ax-Man Surplus in St. Paul.

Running on a version of CP/M that attempted to look like the Tandy or NEC PC-8201 firmware, this system had a 4MHz Z80 clone and a whopping 64K of RAM. It came with a huge array of accessories like external monitors, drives, modems, and memory expansions. Mine only came with one memory cartridge (with dead battery), and has flaky internal RAM chips, so it only works about 60% of the time.

I was able to go online with the Starlet thanks to Arcanebyte's RS-232 Wifi Modem. Check it out here: https://www.arcanebyte.com/wifimodem-product/

Thanks to Ax-Man Surplus for hooking me up with this weird old laptop! Check them out at https://www.ax-man.com/

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