Epson HX-20
I have the main, dot matrix printer, tape drive and carrying case.
type computer
country Japan
year 1981
os Basic
cpu two Hitachi 6301
speed 0,614 MHz
ram 16 KB
graphic 20×4 text, 120×32 graphics
colors mono
sound beeper
ports RS-232, serial
The Epson HX-20 — The World’s First Laptop Computer
The Epson HX-20, released to the mass market in July 1982 and demonstrated at the 1981 COMDEX show in Las Vegas, is universally recognised as the world’s first laptop computer — the machine that established the notebook form factor with A4 footprint, built-in keyboard, LCD display, and battery operation that has defined portable computing ever since. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History describes it simply as ”the world’s first production laptop computer.” Epson itself calls it ”the forerunner of the modern mobile PC.”
Invented by Yukio Yokozawa
The concept behind the HX-20 was devised in July 1980 by Yukio Yokozawa, who worked for Suwa Seikosha (now Seiko Epson). Yokozawa received a patent for the invention and supervised the development of a machine that brought together Epson’s core competencies — printers, liquid crystal displays, batteries, semiconductors, and miniaturisation — into a single revolutionary product. The HX-20 was announced in Japan as the HC-20 and demonstrated internationally at COMDEX 1981, where it generated extraordinary attention from journalists and industry observers who had never seen anything like it.
Technical Specifications
The HX-20 packed a remarkable amount of functionality into its A4-sized, 1.6 kg chassis. Two Hitachi 6301 processors (essentially enhanced Motorola 6801 chips) at 614 kHz ran Microsoft Extended BASIC from 16 KB of RAM (expandable to 32 KB). The 120×32 pixel LCD displayed 4 lines of 20 characters. A built-in dot-matrix printer produced hard copy at 17 characters per second on a 5.6 cm paper roll. An optional built-in microcassette drive provided storage. Two RS-232 serial ports, a barcode reader connector, and an expansion port completed the connectivity. The rechargeable nickel-cadmium battery provided up to 50 hours of operation — an extraordinary figure that modern laptops rarely match.
Commercial Impact
The HX-20 sold approximately 250,000 units — impressive for a genuinely new product category at $795, though Radio Shack’s TRS-80 Model 100 (1983) would prove more commercially successful. The HX-20 found customers not just in the personal computer market but in factories, field service operations, and scientific research — anywhere that needed computing capability away from a desk. It demonstrated beyond doubt that there was a market for portable computers, and its success directly inspired the wave of laptop development that would transform the PC industry throughout the 1980s and 1990s.