Okay, well maybe it’s not a true competitor to the iPhone, seeing how it lacks cellular capabilities and only has a 5MHz processor. But it did come out 18 years before the iPhone and was the first hand-held computer made available to consumers. Even Palm’s debut of the Pilot wasn’t for another 7 years. The Atari Portfolio was ahead of it’s time

The Specs

Processor: Intel 80C88 CPU@ 4.9152MHz

Operating System: DIP DOS 2.11

RAM: 128kB

ROM: 256kB

Screen: Monochrome with 240×64 Resolution (40 characters x 8 lines)

Dimensions: 20cm x 10.5cm x 2.5cm

Weight: 17.5 oz / 505g

You may actually remember this device from Terminator 2 when John Connor used it to hack into a bank machine as well as into Cyberdyne Systems. But beyond that, the Portfolio was met with limited success — perhaps the world just wasn’t ready for handheld computers yet.

Here are some pictures of magazine ads for the portfolio that I managed to dig up: Page 1 · Page 2