386SX 9100-20 Notebook

The Leading Edge 386sx notebook is a laptop manufactured by Leading Edge Products. This handsome machine was offered in a typical for the time white case sporting the iconic Leading Edge logo to the lower left. Unfortunately, the designer did not keep in mind that when the lid is open, then the logo is upside down. The physical dimensions of the laptop are 12" wide, 10.5" long, 2.25" thick. The laptop features a low power 386sx processor and came standard with 1mb of RAM, upgradeable to 4mb, a choice of 20, 30, or 60mb HDD, and an available 387 co‐processor socket.

Opening the computer's lid greats the user with a 9‐inch white monochrome "VGA‐compatible, side lit, double film super twisted LCD". Below the display, the user can find an array of LEDs indicating various statuses of the computer including: scroll lock, num lock, caps lock, floppy drive activity, hard drive activity, power status, and standby status with a standby button to the left of the status LEDs. In front of the LED status array is the 85‐key, two‐toned keyboard. For a laptop keyboard made in the early 1990's, the keys are responsive and give nice feedback. The keys are not light, but do require some force to fully press down.

To the back of the machine, one finds that the computer came equipped with an external AT keyboard connector, RS‐232 serial port, parallel printer/external floppy drive port, external floppy drive A/B selector switch, a perforated section that can be popped out by the owner for an optional modem phone like connector, and external VGA monitor connector. All of the rear connectors are hidden by a connector door to give the machine a clean and complete look. Finally, at the corner of the rear is the small rechargeable NiCad battery that also includes the AC power adapter jack.

To the left of the machine are the power slider switch and battery pack release latch. To the other side of the machine, on the right, is the 3.5" 1.44mb floppy drive, LCD brightness and contrast wheels, and a selector switch for internal or external keyboard selection. The laptop does not come with an integrated cursor pointer such as a track ball, pointer nub, or trackpad. To compensate for this, Leading Edge included a Leading Edge branded triple button serial mouse as the laptop's pointer device.