The Express, also known as the Osborne 4, has some attractive features but it's priced too high to tempt potential buyers away from the likes of the Kaypro or Apricot, argues Peter Worlock

The computer industry has come a long way since the Osborne 1. Osborne itself has been, gone and come back again, the machines themselves have physically shrunk to the size of Data General's The One, while the transportable group offers Compaqs et al, with hard disks and IBM compatibility.

Now Osborne is back with a machine, variously called the Osborne 4 and the Express, which drops cleanly into the middle of the market, both in features and pricing.

The Express is definitely transportable, weighing less than the Compaq but still heavy.

The major hardware features are a 7" amber screen, twin double-sided, double density drives giving 400K storage per disk, 64K RAM and serial and parallel output ports.

The Express is solidly built of plastic with the keyboard hinged to the unit, providing a front cover when the machine is packed up for moving. When fully dropped down, the keyboard levers the main unit up, tilting the screen to a better angle. The screen itself is readable, providing a steady display without the irritating ghosting that some models have.

A separate cover at the back reveals the power socket and connectors, together with the on/off switch and hard-reset button, and screen contrast control. The cooling fan also resides here and this proved to be the only source of complaint in the hardware. It sounds like a jet engine warming up. When using the Express at home you should count on being banished to the bedroom by TV watchers and music lovers alike.

The Operating System is bog standard CP/M 2.2 although Osborne has thrown in a couple of extras which make it marginally more pleasant to use.

Software bundling is all the rage with hardware manufacturers these days and Osborne is no exception. Indeed, it is the free software that makes up much of the appeal of this machine. In addition to the standard attractions of word processing (Wordstar 3.3) and spreadsheet (Supercalc 2) the Express comes with Mailmerge for Wordstar; MBasic; Osboard, an in-house graphics program; Turnkey, a menu program; and, the star of the show, Media Master.

Media Master is one of the best reasons for buying the Express. It will allow you to read data fisks from more than a dozen other systems including IBM PCs and compatibles, Tandy, Xerox, DEC, Cromemco and Kaypro. This is an outstanding facility that every manufacturer could profitably imitate.

The documentation is the other major strong point of the system. Osborne's motto here seems to be "Better too much than too little". Consequently you should find everything you need to know in the four manuals that accompany the machine.

The main one (oddly named Volume 2) is the General Information and CP/M guide, which covers setting up the system, introduction to the hardware and software, and a complete guide to CP/M.

Volume 1 is an Introduction to Personal Computing, a useful thing to include but probably of least use to potential buyers of the machine.

Volume 3 is a massive tome containing complete documenation to Wordstar and Supercalc, while Volume 4 is a programmer's guide to MBasic and the Osboard graphics package. The connection is logical since Osboard graphics can be incorporated into your own Basic or assembly language programs.

All of the guides are straight dot-matrix output, but the content is superb, complete with indices and several useful appendices.

Setting up the machine is simplicity itself: unlatch the front cover/keyboad and pull it down, remove the back cover, plug in the power cord, and switch on. Away you go.

With the user of Turnkey, just put a disk in the drive and you're presented with a menu of all program files on the disk. Alternatively, you can configure any program to autostart so, for example, you can go straight into Wordstar on power-up.

Keyboards are very much a matter of personal perference, but this one has no major faults that I could find. Action is light and positive although I would have preferred a detachable version.

The number and arrow keys are software-definable from the Set-up Menu which avoids one source of unpleasantness in CP/M. CP/M uses CTRL and K, J, H, L for cursor control, while Wordstar uses CTRL E, X, S and D. You can define the keyboard arrow keys to conform to either version, or set up the numbers to perform strings of functions at the press of CTRL and the number of your choice.

Connecting peripherals is straightforward, thanks to copious notes in the documentation detailing pin outs for both serial and parallel ports.

As CP/M systems go, the Express is hard to fault. The hardware is neat and well built; the bundled software is a real bargain compared to some of the less useful packages on offer elsewhere, although Osborne could profitably throw in a database too. If it replaces that fan with a quieter model, the package will be near flawless.

But (and you knew there'd be a catch) the pricing is really out of order. At £1,275 the Osborne is £300 more expensive than the comparable twin-disk, CP/M system from Kaypro, and also dangerously close to the cost of ACT's outstanding Apricot which offers some IBM compatibility and 16-bit power in addition to its 256K RAM and twin disk drives.

Although the bundled software is worth a great deal (how much depends on what your major use will be), it certainly isn't worth as much as you will be paying. In short, Osborne should look to trim at least £200 off the price if it hopes to sell the machine in significant numbers.