Laser 50

The Laser 50 was a small portable child computer, and a cut down version of the Laser 100. It was launched in 1985 to compete with other inexpensive computers. It has several peripherals such as printers, tape deck, and additional ram cartridges. Software was very limited due to the LCD screen display and sales where on the low side. It has an expansion port, but no information was supplied at suppliers to produce other peripherals. Mainly it was considered as an Introduction machine to learn basic and a calculator. The price was not that expensive at the time but considering that other machines performed better in the same price range it did not sell as expected. Later Vtech reduced the price, but still sales remained low, and it was too late as other better options where on the market. Eventually the company decided to stop its production and clear their stock. Many users remained with a machine barely used due that Vtech did not deliver any new software other than the few titles and owner’s Manual programs.

As a machine its quite attractive and you could save programs in memory banks selectable from the keyboard. In France it was sold with an additional pocket, and at a determined time it was advert as a programmable calculator. It has a decent full style portable keyboard and a good clear LCD dot matrix screen, with a retractable handle on top to carry it and runs on 4 AA batteries that last for at least 200 Hours of operation.

The Club currently owns a Laser 110 computer boxed, complete with manuals in German language, expansion memory for 16Kbytes also boxed with manual, power supply and cables. The club managed to get this machine from a computer shop. The shop keeper told us that it never was switched on, but fortunately when we plugged it in it worked perfectly.