"When it's launched next year and that date is a much less safe bet - Sinclair's new master weapon looks very much like a portable business computer armed with 16K CMOS RAM (minimum), dual Microdrivers, a Liquid Crystal Display screen (a Sinclair flat-screen would be too hard to read), a full-travel keyboard, the ability to run a proper composite video monitor with 80-column screen. It will cost between £400 and £500."
Sinclair Research's long-awaited ZX83 business micro is due to be launched this week, and there's every indication that it's as PCN predicted two months ago.
According to a source close to Sinclair, the machine - to be known as the Sinclair QL - will use a 68000-type processor, have two Microdrives built-in, come with 128K RAM expandable to 148K, have multi-tasking facilities using Sinclair's QDOS proprietary Operating System and cost £399. It is also said to have full networking and RS232 interfacing, RGB output, joystick ports, modem facility, a proper Qwerty-style typewriter keyboard, five function keys, and four cursor keys laid out on either side of the spacebar like the Oric.
The machine is said to come with "super-enhanced Sinclair Basic" and five pieces of software including a word-processor, database, and spreadsheet.
Much of this was predicted by PCN in Issue 36 last November. We said that the ZX83 would be "...a portable business computer... with dual Microdrives, a full-travel keyboard..."
PCN's prediction that Sinclair would use the CMOS RAM technology was wrong, but this machine will be competitive in both price and application to CMOS-based portable micros. The £399 price should put the machine up against the rush of £400 to £1,000, business machines expected from Japan and range it alongside the BBC Micro.
The price will also put this new machine outside the provisions of Sinclair's agreement with Timex that allow Timex the North American rights to any "personal computers" selling for under $500. So Sinclair will be free to do whatever it wants with this machine in the often lucrative North American market without being held to its association with Timex.
14th January 1984