14 DAY TRIAL // We’re seeing tablets pop up everywhere these days. You can spot them while taking a ride on the metro or drinking coffee at your local Starbucks, your kid has one and even your gradma.
But the tablet explosion wasn't similar to the Big Bang, it did not come from nothing. The tablets we know, handle and love today are successors of much chunkier, heavier designs that started coming out in the ’90s.
Back then, whoever owned a tablet must have been extremely wealthy, because these devices were very expensive. Even so, they brought about very limited features compared to what we have today.
And for those of you who are interested in the evolution of tablets, the guys at PhoneArena put together a list of ancient tablet devices.
The GRiDPad This brick-like device was unleashed onto the market in 1989 and it was one of the first tablet devices available for the general public.
The device was no leaf, as it weighted 4.5 lbs / 2kg and was 1.4 inches / 3.4 inches thick, but at the time, the form factor was considered quite “sleek”.
The device arrived with a 10-inch monochrome screen boasting 640 x 500 pixel resolution, a 10MHz 80C86 processor fitted with 1MB of RAM, 256- or 512-kilobyte removable storage cards.
Capturing the essence of the ‘90s, the tablet was offered with a 2400 baud modem, capable of delivering 2.4 kilobites per second. The GRiDPad ran a version of DOS 3.3 capable of supporting touch gestures and handwriting inputs, too.
As for pricing, the monster sold for $2,370 / €1,743 or $3,000 / €2,207 if you added the software.
Toshiba Dynapad
Toshiba was touting the "Dyna" moniker ever since 1993. Back then, the company launched a “pen-based computer” called the T100X or the Dynapad for Japanese customers.
Compared to the previous tablet we’ve outlined, there are a few advancements to be noticed here. For starters, the device runs on an Intel 386 processor clocked at 25MHz combined with 4MB of RAM and a hard drive with 40-megabyte capacity.
The Dyna device has a 9.5-inch monochrome display with a 640 x 480 pixel resolution capable of displaying 16 shades of gray.
The 3.3 lbs / 1.5 kg device sold for the “affordable” price of $3,499 / €2,575.
Fujitsu Stylistic 1000
To this day, Fujitsu continues to sell Stylistic tablets and one of the first it launched on the market was the Stylistic 1000 that arrived back in 1996.
The tablet had an 8-inch display with 640 x 480 pixel resolution and was sold in several variants. The cheapest one had a monochrome screen, but customers with more money in the bank could have opted for a 256-color CSTN display with Windows 95.
Fujitsu continues to sell its tablet products at super high price tags to this day and the 1996 model was no exception, as it sold for over $2,900 / 2,133.