Making sure our laptops last long days of work (or leisure) has always been one of the challenges for manufacturers, but there was a time when some of these manufacturers came up with a unique idea: not using traditional rechargeable batteries, but AA batteries for life.

Really? A laptop powered by AA batteries? This doesn’t seem like a very good idea given the limited capacity of the batteries, but on some modest machines with very specific features it has made sense. They showed some remarkable examples at Lunduke, and although they are limited and already obsolete machines, every suggestion is extremely intriguing.

Atari ST Book

The first of these is the Atari ST Book, which was released in 1991 and was an amazing laptop with a Motorola 68000, up to 4 MB of RAM, up to a 120 MB hard drive and, most importantly in this case, a 1080p passive matrix monochrome LCD display. 10.4 inches and 640×400 pixel resolution. It was based on the Atari TOS 2.06 operating system.

The equipment utilized a compartment in which it was possible to use a rechargeable battery but was also battery powered. seven AA batteries. Despite this, its modest features ensured relatively long autonomy. The location of the trackpad on the keyboard is another noteworthy note.

TRS-80 Model 100 (1983)

This even older equipment looks more like a scientific calculator. Its specs are particularly modest, too, as it only has 24 KB of memory and a 240×64 LCD screen.

However, its format was surprising because it had a full-size keyboard. Programming in BASIC. It used four AA batteries and could last 20 hours with them.

HP OmniBook 300 (1994)

HP’s Omnibook laptop family was one of the most coveted on the market and included unique members such as the 1994 OmniBook 300, which was based on the Intel 386 and featured a unique detachable mouse that “popped out” from a compartment. side of the equipment.

This laptop had a 9-inch VGA display and included both Excel and Word due to their limitations. Pre-installed in ROM So that they can work reasonably. It used four AA batteries, offering up to 9 hours of range depending on the internal storage device selected in the configuration.

HP 200LX (1994)

Although this product falls more into the PDA category than the laptop category, we’re looking at a hybrid device, arguably the first of its kind, that features a small-format keyboard and even a numpad in addition to a CGA display. 640×200 pixels.

This device was based on MS-DOS 5.0, had an Intel 80186 CPU, and two AA batteries. Thanks to the reduced consumption of this equipment, autonomy reached an incredible 40 hours.

IBM Workpad Z50 (1999)

In May 1999, IBM released an astonishing laptop that made its way into this brief review. It was a device based on a 131 MHz MIPS 4100 processor, 16 MB RAM, a 640×480 pixel display, an integrated 33.6 Kbps modem, and a unique operating system, Windows CE 2.11.

The laptop had a conventional rechargeable battery but also auxiliary power system: The compartment for two AAA batteries allowed the device’s lifespan to be slightly extended, thus preventing data loss in case the main battery died.

Alpha Smart Dana (2002)

What is even more interesting is that this equipment is probably not known to many people and is not based on the “desktop” operating system, but is managed by PalmOS 4.1.2. It had a large screen with a resolution of 560×160 pixels and 16 MB of memory.

But besides the keyboard, it also had USB ports, an SD reader, and even on a revised model, via Wi-Fi. It was powered by three AA batteries that provided 40 hours of autonomy (or half when the backlight was activated).

Gecko EduBook (2009)

Almost fresh out of the oven, especially considering the rest of the equipment we mentioned, this Gecko EduBook was a “netbook” that was sold with Windows XP – but could also run Linux – and had an 8.9 screen. inches and 1,024 x 600 pixels.

It was based on the interesting 1 GHz Xcore86 processor, which consumed only 1.2 W and was compatible with x86 architecture. It was powered by netbook eight rechargeable AA batteries This offered, yes, an autonomy of around 4 hours, a bit limited but reasonable given that we are looking at an “almost normal” laptop here.

Image | Felix Winkelnemper

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