First Russian Laptop

first russian laptop elektronika

This is first Russian laptop, made under the brand “Elektronika”. The production started in 1991 and lasted not very long due to the high price of the device – none of the common people could afford themselves such devices. The price for the computer was around $6000, that equals 25,000 roubles according to that time’s exchange rate, when the average salary across the country was 500 roubles (50 times less!).

FIRSt russian laptop was very expensive

As we mentioned before in the article “How the richest Russians became rich” at that time there were practicaly no people who earned a lot and could afford such hardware for personal use. It was mainly produced for larger industrial factory engineers so that they could carry it along with them and plug to the larger machines they operated.

russian laptop 1991

It has been reported that not more than a thousand of such computers were produced. The exact technical specifications are not very clear.

first russian laptop weight was 10 lbs!

According to people who used them the specifications were as following: 

CPU, Intel 8086 clone, with the speed of 4.47 Mhz
RAM: 1mb
Videocard: CGA (It was such a video standard that supported only two colours, black and white)
Screen: Monochrome (black&white) 640×200
HDD: no exact data
Weight: approx. 10 lbs (it was heavy!)

And it seems the exterior was a kind of cloning attempt of Toshiba-3100

toshiba 3100 resembles first russian laptop
It’s a very rare exhibit, due to its limited production. Many people even don’t know that in the late 80s there were a laptop production in Russia.

26 thoughts on “First Russian Laptop”

  1. не ибите моск! отличная машинка была, у вас в то время не лучше делали. проклятые империалисты.

  3. Interesting! (:
    The only point is that CGA is not monochrome. You can display several colors (say four!) on it.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter

  8. Оу, как уматно. Русские, как обычно отсосали.
    Ну эт нормально, много последних сотен лет они сосут. Это правильно, так надо.

  11. Першу ЕОМ (комп”ютер)було зроблено в Києві. А те що америкоси вкрали ці технології та більш вдало розвинули їх – так це не бозна який подвиг. Так вже сталося – що де не глянь – навіть в силиконову долину – всюди російська або українська мова. МИ ВСЕ РОБИМО. Чи може автор думає, що все на чому він працює – американське? Та нехай його їбуть мільйон китайців – бо це не так. Слава Україні.

  16. ВСЕ АМЕРИКАНЦЫ ЧЁРСТВЫЕ. И не смейтесь над нашим ноутом, если б СССР не распался щас бы играл на какойнибудь электронике… Всёравно больше половины програмистов и учёных в аМЕРИКЕ это русские евреи. ГГ Винду и то спёрли =)

  17. Господа русские! как вам не стыдно материться! невоспитанные вы! уважайте других

    For all russian people who posted their comments here. Be patience for other! don’t spoil this article with bad words!

  18. if it was a 16 bit 8086 (or clone), then you can only address up to 64KB of memory, not 1MB. at 1991, a computer with 1MB would have been be MUCH MORE expensive, and nobody would need 1MB with with everydays DOS-programs at this time. 🙂

  20. To give some perspective the big laptop news of 1991 in America was the Apple Powerbook 170. This laptop had the following features:

    Introduction Date: October 21, 1991
    Processor Type: 68030
    Processor Speed: 25 MHz
    ROM Size: 1 MB
    Data Path: 32-bit
    Standard RAM: 4 MB
    Maximum RAM: 8 MB
    Standard Hard Drive: 40 MB, 80 MB
    Built-in Display: 9.8″ Monochrome
    Supported MacOS: 7.0.1-7.5.1,7.5.3-7.6.1
    Dimensions: 2.25 x 11.25 x 9.3 2.
    Avg. Weight: 6.8 lbs.
    Original Price: $4600 US

    In 1992 the, what I consider historic, IBM Thinkpad 700c was released:

    Processor Type: 486 SLC
    Processor Speed: 25 MHz
    Graphics Type: VGA
    Built In Display: 10.4″ TFT display with 640×480 resolution
    Standard RAM: 4 MB
    Maximum RAM: 8 MB
    Standard Hard Drive: 120MB ESDI HDD
    Original Price: $4350

    These were top of the line models. There were cheaper laptops available at the time. In 1991 the overall median household income in the United States was $40,873. One of these computers was approximately 1/10th the median household income. Sorry I don’t have more time to find median personal income figures for the United States in 1991. Median household income data is from the US Census Bureau via Wikipedia:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#Education_and_Gender

  21. I don’t understand why the Russian responders are so upset by this post. I am an American, I had a laptop that looked almost EXACTLY like this one. This is what laptops looked like in the late 80’s and early 90’s

  26. The cost of such things wasn’t much cheaper in the US. And I would imagine that most of the ICs were of Russian origin, and semiconductor devices in Russia were very expensive to produce in that era.

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