The HP 200 LX was a successful palmtop computer introduced in 1994. HP continued to sell it through 1999, an unusually long run for a 1990s computer model. In this blog post, we’ll dig into this largely forgotten form factor and why it became such a quiet success.
What was a palmtop?
Palmtops were an early take on mobile computing. Unlike the Apple Newton or Palm Pilot, palmtops squeezed a simple desktop computer into a format about the size of a modern smartphone.
You unfolded the palmtop to reveal a monochrome LCD screen and a calculator-style miniature keyboard. It was like having an XT clone in the palm of your hand.
Admittedly, that wasn’t a lot of power. But these weren’t intended to be your primary computer. The idea was you would carry the palmtop with you where even a laptop might not be practical. It could run useful MS-DOS programs to let you do simple computing tasks on the go, and then, when you got back to your desk, you could exchange data with your full-size computer.
The first company to introduce a product in this category was, believe it or not, Atari. It is easy to forget Atari had a PC clone business alongside its game consoles, 8-bit home computers, and the ST series. Atari’s palmtop, the Portfolio, reached the market in June 1989.
HP’s DOS-based and Windows CE-based palmtops
But in the end, Hewlett-Packard, yes, the printer people, ended up being the most prolific manufacturer of palmtops. They entered the market in 1991 with the Model 95, followed up with the Model 100, and then issued the Model 200 in 1994 before pivoting to Windows CE. The 95, 100, and 200 all ran MS-DOS and included DOS and some useful programs built into ROM.
HP continued marketing palmtop computers until 2007. At that point, the Blackberry was providing most of what people would want to do with a palmtop, and of course, the modern smartphone as we know it today was emerging. HP wisely decided it was the end of the line.
The HP 200 LX quietly gathered a devoted following, and it maintained it, being the fastest DOS-based palmtop for those who liked the form factor and didn’t want to use Windows CE.
HP 100LX versus 200LX palmtops
The HP 95 used an NEC V20 CPU, a CPU that was showing its age in 1991, but still adequate for running text-based DOS programs. The model 100 dusted off the Intel 186 CPU, a processor that wasn’t frequently used in PCs. But it was fine in this application, offering better performance while keeping very reasonable battery life.
The 200 iterated on the model 100. It was essentially the same hardware, but in addition to offering the option of more memory, is also included an additional application built into ROM. That application, Quicken, was a very popular personal finance application at the time. Online banking largely made Quicken obsolete, but in the early 1990s, it was a perennial best seller.
The 200LX is really a throwback to a different era, with not one, but two powerhouse third party PC applications built in. Microsoft would soon control and define the PC ecosystem, so the model 200 is one of the last relics of the era when Microsoft had to share.
The HP 200LX’s hidden superpower
And if you were careful, the 200LX was really fast. If you bought one of the models that had at least 2 MB of RAM, you ended up with a 1.3 MB RAM disk. That’s almost as much space as a three and a half inch floppy disk, and enough space to hold one useful program. But unlike a floppy disk, access to a RAM disk is nearly instantaneous. Similar to a modern SSD, but 20 years earlier.
While the 200LX may not have been the ideal platform to run the last versions of Word or Wordperfect for DOS, it would have run previous-generation word processors very well, while possibly leaving enough room left over in the RAM disk for another text based program.
Today, you can use a PCMCIA to compact flash adapter to put 32 MB of solid state storage in a 200LX, and then you really do have the equivalent of a late 80s turbo XT that fits in your pocket.
The HP200LX’s quiet following
I remember people showing off their Apple Newtons, Palm Pilots, and Blackberries in the 90s. I do not remember ever seeing someone showing off an HP palmtop.
One speculation I’ve heard is that large companies bought them for their employees in large quantities. That seems plausible. They did cost $800, but it was much less expensive to buy an employee a desktop PC and a palmtop then it was to buy a 1990s laptop. The $3,000 laptop my former coworker sent flying off the roof of his car was no fluke. Well, at least the price wasn’t.
It was also a very different style of mobile computing. It was text and keyboard based, rather than stylus-based in the case of the Palm Pilot or Newton, and if you read your email on it, you were reading email offline, not online like a BlackBerry.
The HP 200LX wasn’t a status symbol like the other mobile platforms. It was practical, not flashy. And it was quietly cutting edge. While the technology was rather old at the time, the ability to shrink it down that small and run it off a pair of AA batteries certainly wasn’t.
I saw a Palm Pilot as a burden when my boss told me it was time for me to start carrying one. I don’t think I would have recoiled as much at an HP palmtop, partly because the thing actually worked.
Thank you
Thank you for reading this far. I write about four times a week, typically about old and new computers, 80s nostalgia, and vintage electric trains. I try to write about retro twice a week. If you enjoy this type of content, you can follow me on Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter, or subscribe to my RSS feed.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Have you looked at the GPD Pocket products? I sort of feel like they are a kind of spiritual successor to the HP Palmtop form factor. I don’t make GPD money so these aren’t in the budget but the do look pretty cool and quite compelling to those that could use such a thing.
I wasn’t aware of the GPD Pocket products but they sure do look like a modern version of a palmtop! It goes to show that good ideas never die.
And then someone named Mack figured out how to double the clock speed (and write some code to run at startup to fix the display timing to work with that) and add a 32MB RAM disk inside the 200LX. Not merely fast, but faster! And you could still use the PCMCIA socket for flash storage (mine’s a Sandisk 256MB).
It wasn’t flashy, there wasn’t much to show off, it was an XT-class PC with some built-in applications that you could carry round and get stuff done anywhere. In a world of landlines, you might also carry a battery-powered modem and cables so you could download your e-mail and upload your replies and writings. In the data center, you might use it as a serial console for configuration or diagnosis.