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LGR - The Packard Bell Statesman from 1994 (Patreon)

Published:
2020-05-06 21:14:04
Edited:
2020-05-19 18:35:01
Imported:
2021-03

Content

https://youtu.be/izQkP0l7Syw

Greetings, folks! I hope that you've had a decent week out there. Either way, I've got another LGR laptop retrospective for ya right here!

Say hello to the Packard Bell Statesman (and Statesman Plus!) from 1994. Essentially a Zenith Z-Star 433 series in disguise, the Statesman is a halfway enjoyable machine that falls short in a variety of ways. And in my opinion, it's all the more awesome to play around with because of it. There's something special about this particular blend of amusingly awkward and surprisingly capable that captured my attention as soon as I powered it on for the first time. It's also the only laptop I currently own with a Cyrix CPU, so that's neat.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this one! I'm not exactly sure when the next video will be since, well... currently my editing PC is sitting in a pile of parts, haha. Yeah, I decided to use my tax return to build an all-new workstation based around the Ryzen Threadripper 3970X. So my main goal this week is assembling that, reinstalling all my crap, and putting it through its paces. Perhaps that'll take the form of a video in and of itself, we'll see.

Files

$2,400 Laptop From 1994: Packard Bell Statesman

50MHz Cyrix CPU! 12MB RAM! Windows 3.1! All this for under 3 grand in 1994. Essentially a Zenith Z-Star in disguise, the Statesman is a halfway enjoyable notebook computer that falls short in several ways. And it's all the more amusing to play around with because of it. ● Pertinent linkage: https://www.patreon.com/LazyGameReviews https://www.twitter.com/LazyGameReviews https://www.facebook.com/LazyGameReviews ● Music courtesy of: http://www.epidemicsound.com #LGR #Laptop #Retrospective

Comments

Anonymous

Oh man! I love laptops from this era! Just the boxiness and the beige and oh everything!

Dereck

your Packard Bell toys make me jealous!

LazyGameReviews
>>36468183

Yesssss. It's all trying so hard to be small and lightweight but the tech and design just isn't quite there yet.

Jason Wellband

Working on a modern PC?!?!! That's verboten, sir ;)

Anonymous

It’s a stately laptop.

Anonymous

The J-Mouse. I'd repressed its existence. So awfull.

Anonymous

I can just picture someone pulling this out sitting next to me on a plane in 1994... My 11 year old brain would have exploded.

LazyGameReviews
>>36468836

Seriously though! Especially the color model, but even the grayscale Statesman would've been wild to me back then. Commander Keen and Doom on the go? Madness!

Anonymous

Man, I can't get over laptops from that era. I always loved the boxy looks and that particular shade of beige. God, the J-mouse, though... BLECH! D: [Personally, i'd love to see a vid on your new modern PC being built. It may not be retro tech, but it *is* tech, and your PC builds are always some of my favorite vids to relax to. I'd consider it equally as enjoyable. :) ]

Anonymous

Wow, I still have my old Zenith Z-Note that I had back in the day - it's the spitting image of this unit. I loved the fresh white look of that series of laptop. If you're keeping this, check the cmos battery, those things leak badly.

Anonymous

I would love to see a video or two about your new build! I doubt you have the time for it, but I've occasionally thought that a video series where you choose parts to build a modern system and then go through putting it together would be really great.

Anonymous

Now that's a chonk

Seth C

It needs some woodgrain LGR!

Anonymous
>>36470183

There was a brief, sweet moment between these chonkers and aluminum wrist-hurters where laptops were OK to type on. I miss that tiny window.

Anonymous

I am very confuse

Anonymous

Thank god you posted this 'cause eco lifestyle is the biggest joke since my first pet stuff and I need something good to distract 😆

Anonymous

Looks like its trying to be a macbook clone and they got it to boxy.

LazyGameReviews
>>36469199

Heh, yeah they're both CMOS battery-less. I had to cut out a buncha footage of me resetting the date and time every time I started these back up after unplugging them. Shame the battery in such an annoying spot inside!

LazyGameReviews
>>36468968

If not on the main channel, perhaps on LGR Blerbs or something. Will see how it goes, it'd certainly be a different kinda video for me!

Anonymous

This was probably not the best video to realize you started recording in 4k. that ultra HD TFT blur, though. Great video, Sir!

LazyGameReviews
>>36477565

Haha, I've been recording in 4K for years now 😄 But yeah, the resolution and increased clarity do zero favors for DSTN displays like this one. Makes it look even worse than in person. Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed!

Valora Inverse

Oh gosh, that RAM placement is so delightful.

Anonymous

That would make an awesome video!

Anonymous

My ‘92 Gateway Nomad did not have a J Mouse, but it did have the palmable Field Mouse. Basically a tiny mouse used upside down while manipulating its little ball directly with your thumb. Mine still works!

Anonymous

I remember my dad's work gave him a ZEOS laptop that used a cylindrical rod as a mouse. basically it would slide left and right for the x-axis and roll for the y axis. It didn't work very well. obscure laptop pointing methods might be a good video.

Alyxx the Rat

Kinda glad the J-mouse never caught on.

Anonymous

Wish we had something like tax return here, switzerland just takes ALL your money and if you think you payed up, they ask for more xD .... oh and if ya payed too much they keep it by themselfs for the next tax payment... Hence... i got my 3900X with my salery leftovers... and 32gigs o ram but... so far i havent seen much of a difference - but i also didnt play any cpu intensive games. Gets to show how good my old 6700K was - anyhow enjoy fiddling with yer parts ;-)

Anonymous

Oh, my God. I never even heard of the J-mouse, and with good reason. That thing seems like a nightmare. I already have trouble with keyboard trackballs and touchpads. The J-mouse would have turned my hair white right before making me rip it off.

Anonymous

You got my vote on making that build-vid on your new pc! Should be entertaining and recognisable for your fans. Also, my thanks for another great & educational video!

Anonymous

What a delight this laptop is. My favorite kind of 90s laptop. Full of flaws but somehow irresistible! I remember getting to mess around with laptops which my dad borrowed from work and being amazed even despite their terrible displays.

Anonymous

Just started watching.. gonna be grumpy if you don't play DOOM over the serial ports on these babies, man! :D

Anonymous

My Dad had a similar ZDS model. It had a real trackball, though rather than the J-mouse horrorshow.

Anonymous

Would be great to see a video of your Ryzen Threadripper 3970X build. Even though it's not vintage, I love those new AMD CPUs and it would be cool to hear how much faster it runs your video processing pipeline.

Evan B

Whoa.. can't say I've ever seen that type of RAM before.. wow, what a wacky design

Anonymous

"known for budget minded computers" - $2400 in 1994 :D

Anonymous

This was a fun one to watch, as always. Thank you. I had no idea that this generation of laptops existed. It's like the missing link between an 80 column x6 row LCD 1986 laptop and the late '90s laptops.

LazyGameReviews
>>36517667

"Budget-minded" is always a relative term :) You should see the higher-end competition in 1994! The IBM ThinkPad 755 cost almost $6,000 and the Panasonic CF-V41 series cost $7,000.

LazyGameReviews
>>36524129

Quite welcome! It's definitely a fun transition period to go back and revisit, mixing all the lofty goals of the 90s with one foot still in the late 80s.

LazyGameReviews
>>36509146

Yeah it makes me wonder what kinda business deal with down that they went with the J-Mouse for these systems. And then never again! They went to trackballs after this, along with their own teal-colored version of the TrackPoint nub.

LazyGameReviews
>>36493940

It's definitely a threat to hair follicles, hehe. I've got plans for deeper coverage of the J-Mouse on Oddware, it's a fun time looking at old reviews and coverage of the devices that used it.

LazyGameReviews
>>36487180

Likewise! They sure tried though, it ended up making its way into a number of devices for about... a year, maybe. Such an odd blip in the history of mouse devices.

LazyGameReviews
>>36483804

If anything, 3D input devices like that are always prime Oddware fodder. Just about every form factor was attempted it seems.

LazyGameReviews
>>36482732

Gateway used a larger version of that in the massive Gateway Destination as well! Makes sense on a TV system, but I imagine it might be a little strange on a laptop screen at first.

LazyGameReviews
>>36497970

Likewise! The first time I saw a color DSTN I was floored. The blurring didn't matter so much as having COLOR did. It was such a wild step up from monochrome.

Anonymous

Sorry, coming in late to this video. I liked it. I had many machines of that era. I had several 25 mhz and 33 mhz laptops, most with DSTN screens or even monochrome. So I'm quite familiar with the appearance. Nevertheless, I used to play Heretic a lot on my 33 Mhz laptop back in the day, despite the DSTN. In fact, I think because the frame rate was lower (probably about 10 fps on that machine) I think the DSTN was more tolerable because the frame stayed there longer than if the game ran smoother. So it's kind of appropriate! The really odd one out would be those laptops that had TFT monochrome screens. That was pretty rare. But the screens actually looked really great! They were sharp and crisp with high contrast and fast frame rate. But just no color. I think one of the Mac laptops came like that too.

Anonymous

I could watch videos like this all day. :)

Anonymous

Hey, checking in late just to say that I'd definitely be interested in a video about the Threadripper, even if in Blerb form. It's always refreshing to see the perspective of someone who works with the hardware.

Anonymous

I'm looking forward to the next video love your videos

Anonymous

Very interesting video!

Anonymous

Sneaky SW Ep1 quote!