$2,400 Laptop From 1994: Packard Bell Statesman
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- 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.
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#LGR #Laptop #Retrospective
To those saying the Statesman floppy drive kinda sounds like a guitar riff... agreed
twitter.com/lazygamereviews/status/1259256331116167175
Cyrix has problems with fps’s with 3d frame rendering engines. The instructions required are missing. I bet a math coprocessor would fix it
You could get amazing LCDs in the 90s , some SPARC laptops had them, honestly have seen cheap laptops form 5 years ago with worse ( but higher res) screens.
Absolutely, this also comes to mind, same exact key, rhythm, and chords. th-cam.com/video/RX7iHsAIw9o/w-d-xo.html
@@andljoy oh yeah you're right we can get them at a antique store what they sell old things how about that Andrew Joy?😏👍👐
Glad you could get some use out of it. When I saw the name I knew I had to send it your way.
Thanks again for sending it over, it ended up being a surprising amount of fun!
G00DwillHUNT3R you sent it? Cool!
thanks for helping with this amazing entertainment!
How much it cost u to buy this?
GROOT it’s the least I could do for all the years of excellent content and entertainment
Playing video games on that screen looks like you’re playing on an ATM.
A really old one btw
The memories of trying to play Starflight on my Compaq Contura Aero...mostly memories of eye strain, and nausea but still memories.
That sounds kinda cool.
Hell yeah dude.
This realy trippy effecy,like you stoned.
I’ve never cared about old computer hardware in my life but for some reason I just like hearing you talk about it.
Ayy, it's the real brentalfloss!
when the imposter is sus
Brentalfloss ??????
"This is getting out of hand - now there are two of them!"
Prequel memes in my LGR? A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
It's an older meme, sir, but it checks out.
oh that's a prequels meme i always thought that was a pron thing
@@jasonblalock4429 Now that's a meme I've not heard in a long time
Hello there
@@HannahFortalezza General Andrea V!
The J mouse sounds like it could be it's own oddware episode.
Or a collective episode about all of the weirdo pointing devices that were on laptop computers in the '90s before the industry pretty much standardized on the touchpad, TrackPoint, or a combination of both.
@@vwestlife @musickid43 Indeed. Our old AST 486 laptop had a small trackball in it, since touchpads hadn't become a thing yet. It wasn't bad to use, but wasn't great for some things either.
@@vwestlife My Lenovo Thinkpads X121e, X131e, and X140e all have trackpad/trackpoint combos, and it's really nice to have options to use them if i forget to pack my wireless logitech mouse lol
Dude I have one of those somewhere in my garage. I can’t find it for the life of me, but the part that I really liked about that laptop was actually the J mouse. I got mine free and I had to hunt the win3.1 for networks driver, but was not difficult to get it working. Used it for playing solitaire only. Will reappear at some point I hope.
As a person who is hearing impaired it’s really cool to see that the captions are so well done, really cool thanks!
Another hearing impaired person here seconding this, very impressed!
Maybe it works for non-natives who can definitely read English but not hear it? It did for me :)
Agreed. I have audio processing disorder and am intermittently hard of hearing when my intracranial fluid pressure is high so I always appreciate good and accurate captions. It’s really unfortunate that a lot of the creators I enjoy watching don’t have captions so I’ll have to spend triple the time on their video rewinding over and over to hear what they’re saying, or just click off the video entirely.
@@danielfox1356 that’s a good point as well! I can read two languages but not understand them spoken, so that’s a great application
Having worked for Packard Bell Back in the mid 90s, I definitely remember the Statesman laptop. They were ok, but sometimes riddled with issues. Thanks for the video.
You should make a video sharing some of your memories from that time period for posterity sake, as I always love hearing stories from people who worked in the trenches of these once great companies a lot of us thought would be around till the end of time.
Maybe you know what the memory connection type is called?
What was the most common issue with them?
MajorTempest the j-mouse had issues.
First, those memory modules are so adorably small, I audibly "awww"ed when I saw them. Second, the last line in the video about appreciating things for what they are, rather than calling them out for what they're not is a way of thinking we could all do with a little more of. Excellent video as always!
They had a little black and white sub notebook around that time. Mine literally fried itself but would love to see one again. EDIT the diplomat! I forgot its name so glad you covered it :)
Lon? Didn’t expect to see you here. You’re the youtuber that does the reviews on the HDHomeRun antenna/cable card things, and streaming boxes, right? If I’m correct, will you do a video on the new Onn android TV boxes?
PCMCIA: People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms.
I thought it was Pulse-Code Modulation Central Intelligence Agency :P
h91 - smart arse... nobody likes a smart arse. 😋
Personal Computer Memory Connection Interchange Accessory
Isn't it an initialism... not an acronym? I always get those mixed up, myself.
@@ash36230 That's how I always remembered it actually.
Hey LGR! Thanks for putting subtitles on all your videos as soon as they're released :D
"Appreciate these for what they are, rather than calling them out for what they're not." is the positive attitude that I appreciate in your videos. You gave these machines a fair shake.
I too was released in January 1994!
This laptop is older then me by a year
Jon Chui Lol I was released in 1987!
@@justice_1337 6 years older than me
Yeah? But who's got the most bits?
I was released in january 2019
0:48 That hard drive noise sounds like the downbeat of a really kickin rock song starting up.
I noticed that, too! Sounds like the first strum from The Doobie Brothers' China Grove
Seems like the start riff of "no sleep till brooklyn"
I was thinking Led Zeppelin
Reminded me of Dropkick Murphy's Shipping Up To Boston
I have one of these! It’s a pretty cool machine. I had the Zenith version as well.
Wow, a part of the internet were using emojis doesn't get you on a flame war
Man... I was like 2 months without internet, and I downloaded only one of your videos (the Zodiac review)... And literally, I saw that video everyday and never got bored of it; your voice and narration was so calming and yet entertaining.
One of the things I wanted to do for when I get Wi-Fi was: I'M GONNA SEE SOME LGR ALL DAY!
Thank you, man.
I like how the power lead can be plugged in and the flap goes back up to cover the other ports - a nice touch for an expensive machine, just helps show you have bought something nice.
This was my mom's first work laptop in the 90s. I remember messing around with it a lot in the early 2000s. I preferred typing my homework on it for a time because I did not have to fight over the newer family computer with my dad.
Honestly, I love the name. If you call the halo product (in any lineup) "the statesman" I'm going to assume that it's baller. I guess what goes around... Either that or I just have horribly cheap taste.
Wow, I have never been this early to an LGR video!
It looks like if a 2000s oem beige athlon desktop was transformed into a 90s laptop
never been this early, I love your videos on old laptops!!!
1994: Man I want a TFT in my laptop
2020: Man I want an OLED in my laptop.
gentuxable 2021: Man I want a mini-LED in my laptop
Imagine putting these old 90s tn displays in a VR headset
2020...I want my iPHONE to not suck
@@crestofhonor2349 my eyes hurt enough watching the side scrollers
@@fearofpineapples I find it quite astonishing but I actually had many DSTN laptops from the "bin" in 1999-2004 when I was a student and got the discharged machines nobody wanted anymore for free, as my school was quite far away I slept in the dorm and wanted a laptop. I actually played Doom on a DSTN and my eyes didn't hurt as much as now when I watch LGR playing on a DSTN.
My family's fist computer was a Packard Bell and oddly enough despite everyone telling us they were cheap trash at the time our's was still running fine this year when we had to get rid of it because we ran out of room in our house and we bought it in 1996, making it my family's longest lasting computer.
I would love to see a Tech tales episode about Packard Bell.
I swear if you didn’t give it to someone I’m gonna...
@@LKComputes I tried but we were having to move and pack up things on short notice and I couldn't find anyone who wanted it in the week I had to get rid of it.
The worst part is someone stepped in and helped my family out at the very last minute so we didn't have to move and I could have kept it. This is almost as big a blow as when my mom got rid of the Vectrex when I was a kid because "you don't need two Nintendos."
Matthew Given
Paragraph 1: O_O
Paragraph 2: o_O
Same here. Mine lasted from 1995 till 2016 when the power supply went - I should try to get it fixed...
@@BlameThande Wow, they really do stand up and I would see if I could get that fixed.
Working and having LGR vids playing while I'm busy is better than any podcast. I just love how you do the reviews and making everything interesting. Reminds me of sitting at school back in the day and discussing the latest hardware and games that is now considered retro. Don't ever stop being awesome!
12:07 Quote of the day "Find value and enjoyment in experiencing the limitations of old machines for what they are, instead of calling them out for what they're not"
you know, this can be applied to many things in life. that quote stuck with me, and i think it will stick for many years to come. left an impression for sure.
LGR always has a unique way of bringing me back to my childhood, remembering all of the old computers and electronics my dad would store all around the house. Even though I couldn't appreciate the tech for what it was growing up in the early 90s, I do really appreciate the videos!
The benchmark software I used to use was windows solitaire, you could tell how fast a computer was by how long it took for all the cards to bounce down the screen after you completed the game.
Is it just me or does anyone else find the intro very relaxing along with the way LGR speaks (for all the videos). Thanks for all your videos.
“Vaseline coated in drunkenness” that sounds like my 20's which would have been the same time frame as that machine was made..... welcome to the '90s
I'm 25 but i love this channel so much. The chill jazz music your voice and the content is great! I just bought parts for a new windows xp project, can not wait for then to arrive! Great channel keep it up! :) Greetings from Holland.
Thank you, I hope you continue to enjoy!
ohh that sweet old-school startup sound.. "Du du duum.... beep".. Soon forgotten.. But the Nerds remember. :)
Another fantastic video from LGR - one of my favorite things about Fridays.
I'm here to 2nd some of the comments in (eventually) calling for a Tech Tales on Packard-Bell. Would love to see your coverage on the company!
Thank you for your awesome content. :)
Laptop from 1994: No headphone jack
iPhone 7 from 2016: No headphone jack :D
I knew Apple stole many ideas, but man...
Oh man. You had me with the retro tech, but you really got me when you were playing quarantine! An absolute favorite of mine as a child!
Now I want a band named the Beige Beasties whose members are all named after late 80s to 90s computers.
I'd buy their albums.
First album: Trinity of 77
Oh, man...this brings back memories...I was an electronic technician at Sears from 88-97 and I worked on a few of those...
I was recently watching a review of a prerelease model of the upcoming GPD Win Max, and it was focused on the inputs. It is a mini-laptop with built-in game controls, a touch-screen, a near-full-sized keyboard, a trackpad, and the game controls can be switched into mouse-control mode.
I said, (to the screen on which I was watching the review) "Heh, it's only missing the mouse nub!"
I didn't know it was also missing the J-Mouse.
I always get excited when I see that you released a new video Clint! Been a subscriber for a long time now and I still love your vids!
“This is getting out of hand, now there are two of them!” “A name I have not heard in a long time.” The Star Wars references were fittingly on point this week 👌
IKR.
Great content as always LGR! I would actually pay real money to tour your home to see all the goodies you’ve got in person! Nostalgia hits hard when I see you show something I actually had.
Never been this early for a LGR video.
Same :) consequence of lockdown :D
My father was very much into computers and brought home the first laptop I ever saw, a Toshiba with a monochrome screen. He passed away the month after that Statesman was built... it would blow his mind how far we have come, and I sure wish I could talk to him about it.
The design is really angular and beautiful.
Yea I also love boxy bois
All computers were boxy back then.
Now it's all unicorn rainbow farts. Lol.
Those videos are my coffee time, I love how you tell things, and i learn more things here than in middle schoo, i watch you since my 7 years, almost 6 years. Keep doing this, it's fascinating !
"Statesman", LOL. Like a luxury car from the 1950s.
it is a luxury car just google holden statesman, the Aussie bogans dream car xx
The Nash Statesman wasn't quite luxury but still better materials than anything built today lol
This laptop must be related in some way to GM Opel/Holden
Opel Diplomat?
Holden Statesman?
wouldn't be surprised if there was a related laptop called the Senator
@@iiLuvvEminem The days when cars were good looking and ran forever. Unlike today where cars are disposable and have useless features to ramp up the price.
Wow awesome! I have the Zenith version of the Diplomat that I found in a thrift store and honestly didn’t know much about it since it was hard to find information online. Thanks for the informative video, this will help me get searching for more info about my funky little spreadsheet makin brick. (It was originally used at a Loblaws grocery store in Ottawa for tracking finances and making timesheets)
You know LGR is cool when he says 2:03 "Control-C" and "Control-V(eed)"
You will take my Control-Insert and Shift-Insert out of my cold, dead hands.
@@hjalfi they still work today!
It's "control-V'd", he's making it a verb
@@hjalfi I get it but that would fly over many people's heads to the point I might think that Clint's a Stormtrooper.
@@Nukle0n And that was very common--probably is when you tell someone to copy/paste. In this case, he was probably speaking past tense so you had ctrl-V'd it.
Best part of this video: FINALLY learning the name of that addictive AF game I played round my friend's house in the 90's and have wondered about ever since! Crystal Caves... Totally made my day, thanks LGR!!
Watching these videos makes me feel really old. I started my career repairing old AT machines and eventually Packard Bell computers as well....
Am I one of the few that loves the look and feel of it? And, yes, I also love the keyboard layout.
Loved all of the Star Wars quotes! Great video as always!
Nice Star Wars references, we will watch your career with great interest.
LuggyBro This comment is perfect
That is a pretty neat old computer. I'm glad you do all the work you do to kinda catalog and showcase these neat old pieces of hardware most people would pass up for not being specifically what they want to collect.
An apt description, all of that ghosting definitely makes me feel drunk 😂
At least it has some retro beauty with the minimalist exterior and the white shell
I'm so early this time! It's like getting the first row seats at the theater.
Hey, just want to say how much joy your channel brings me every time you upload a new video. I'm subbed to so many channels, but yours is special. Your enthusiasm is contagious, and it's awesome to see you mess around with a ton of cool stuff!
Really appreciate what you do, bro!
i wake up the second this video goes live. what a lovely thing to wake up to
Man, that last part was deep. This channel is top notch, I always have a great day when you release a video.
I appreciate that!
I had one my mom threw it away
edit: I just remembered it was because of the battery I could have kept it. Mother how could you.
Fu--
F to pay respect
F
Sold one for $300. Mommy dun fuckd up.
Man. The opening intro is so darn relaxing. always puts me in a good mood.
7:19 "Vaseline coated in drunkenness." I love that quote!
dude your videos are so addictive, you bring back nice memories also make me feel old lol
5:38 Oh lord, that screen ghosts almost as much as a Game. com!
Hi Clint. Nice video and I like your statement at the end...Greetings from CPU-Galaxy
The Star Wars references makes me think that this might have been recorded on May (the) 4th (be with you).
Nakna_ankaN unfortunately the shot of the BIOS shows it was filmed around 8pm on the Revenge of the Fifth.
Good one. If party too hard on may the fourth you do, suffer the Revenge of the fifth you will. Star Wars day leads to partying, partying leads to drinking, drinking leads to suffering a hangover.
So glad to be down the retro-tech rabbit hole with you LGR.
"Vaseline coated in drunkenness" And *that* is how I ended up here, your honour
@@LeeDee5 That's what the witnessing police officer said... but I can't remember a thing O_O
Your videos are like yummy comfort food in a troubling time. Thank you!
Damn this laptop is from the same year as I.
@Blue Max TH-cam does, because any comment counts as "engagement" which is good for the video.
@Blue Max I care.
@Blue Max about you
That is what I like about your video's. You don't hate, you try to see the good in all things, even though they are bad products :P
Another thumbs up from me!
"Vaseline coated in drunkenness."
Sounds sexy in context yet awkward in practice.
Great video as usual Clint! Ah, Cyrix CPU's, the nostalgic feels are really flowing on this one! Had a Cyrix MB 300 CPU back in the late 1990's, was able to do lots of school work on it (but not that much gaming) - anyway, looking forward to the next one bro'! Stay safe (due to COVID-19), more power, and God bless from the Philippines!
Me, a former squid: "Why is there a Fireman Apprentice rating insignia on it?"
Me, a current squid: HMMMMMM...
That is the most convenient RAM module/installation design I've ever seen. Would love to have something as easy on modern laptops.
The Nostalgia Nerd did a really extensive hour long video about Cyrix.
This video brings back memories of a Compaq laptop I used at work around this time, but it had a trackball to the right of the LCD screen and a motorized dock - you pressed a button and the huge laptop popped out like a piece of toast! The CD Rom and additional hard drive was in the dock. These laptops lasted a long time, I think I sold one of them at a garage sale about 5 years ago and everything including the hard drive still worked!
5:55 oh my these old LCD screens that refreshed seemingly at chemical-reaction-like speeds... I hated those so much back then. The funniest thing was, this Windows "mouse trail" option that people enabled on laptops, because apparently it was a good idea to make it even worse...? Crazy days, man. :-)
I don't think the trail made it worse. It's hard to keep track of small objects like cursor on this LCD because of how fast it changes position, and given the LCD update time, the cursor would be a lot dimmer when moved. The trail provides the more-long-lasting row of cursors, which in turn have more time to be shown and thus more visible.
@@1loshvitalik I understand. Still not my taste, and pretty much useless in my experience. But I do remember people swearing by the trails, just as I remember people swearing by the trackpoint (or rather its early ancestors... nowhere near as good as a modern one).
That floppy drive grunt on boot brings back memories! I used to sneak into my dad’s office late at night to play games, and that sound somehow took me back in time!
2:34 Star Wars Episode 1 reference much? ;)
Belated May the 4th reference, check!
+1 for a Packard Bell Tech Tales. Would love to see that
When even Doom lags on your system ...
Really with a Cyrix you were lucky when your system wasn't randomly blue-screening, let alone being able to actually play anything.
Doom really needs a 486 to run well. And unless you want to lose in deathmatch, you really need the DX. I had a 486 SX and got my butt kicked. When I got a 486 DX I kicked my friend's butt. lol
@Mr VT any laptop today can easily even with GZDoom. But this isn't a "today" laptop.
Wasn't expecting a new LGR video to be up this early!
Weighs in at 6 pounds, 9 ounces?!
Nice....
That's nothing.
My 1996 hyperdata laptop weighs a tad over 7 pounds. XD
A beast of a machine back in the day.
I can't imagine TH-cam without contents like this. Kudos to you.
As someone who was in law school at the time, I can tell you $2400 for a laptop was very cheap. It was not difficult at all to spend five or $6000, in 1994 dollars on a laptop. Screens barely had color. Forget about wireless, it didn't exist.
Indeed, relative to the higher-end competition the Statesman was downright affordable! For example, the IBM ThinkPad 755 series sold at the same time in '94 went for over $6,000. And the Panasonic CF-V41 cost around $7,400!
LGR yes, during my second year, a roommate of mine bought a brand new IBM ThinkPad. The one with a butterfly keyboard. It was a wonderful laptop. As I recall it was about $6000. But his father was a doctor. LOL
If cheap means relative to the other high tech at the time then sure. My family could barely afford a car at that time let alone a computer. I love hearing about these old machines but am glad prices went down and there's more market diversity now.
@@Yusuke_Denton As a kid I remember learning about what laptops were, and wondering who'd spend thousands on one while also really wanting one myself. A real computer that was battery powered, and didn't need a separate screen? That sounded like crazy space-age technology at the time.
@@kevinbarry71 LGR has a video about that one too by the way.
Thank you for the kg conversion, Clint! Regards from Europe. :)
Looks like a "football" to me...😎
Thank you for all your videos!
2:32 you're 4 days late for this joke
Nice review, LGR! I like how you point out the pluses and minuses, and offer perspective on what was going on with systems around that time.
Seeing those proprietary memory modules reminded me of a laptop I upgraded about that same time frame. It belonged to a friend's son; don't recall the brand, some lesser known one. But the fun thing was that it used standard desktop memory modules, which were cheaper than the smaller form factor modules used for most laptops. I also think you could switch to the BIOS screen any time, even while DOS or Win3.x was running.
Remember memory slot adapters? Where you could install multiple modules, like 30-pin SIMMs, into the adapter, then plug that into a different slot on the mainboard. So you could still use your older type memory in a newer mainboard, or expand total memory beyond what the memory slots would normally allow.
Packard Bell's name is always going to make me upset. Far as I remember every single one of their computers were junk.
Back in the day their keyboards, mice, and monitors where about the only good thing about them if you where able to salvage them for free. I remember one of the worst things about them in the mid 90's was god awful 33.6k dialup modem/sound blaster clone combo card that set on a proprietary PCI riser card, that had driver issues to hell, and back. I was on high school at the time taking Computer network tech classes, and we did work for the school system, so we saw our fair share of these pieces of junk till they switched over to Gateway, and Dell machines.
@D.O.A. Or "Packard Hell" as Clint himself has said a while ago
That was really nice of a viewer to send you that!
"I have no idea what this connection is called"
My guess is "a mistake"
From the looks of it, it could also be called "proprietary".
gotta say, the styling on that thing is sharp as a business suit, I love it! simple white boxy look and ultra clean lines.
2:36 nice nod to the 90's. I didn't have a PB, but I had 386-sx laptop in the 90's when I was in school. This video brought back some cool memories (and maybe a few I wished I had forgotten). I just subscribed. I'd love to see videos about PB or Gateway. On my laptop, the PC card seems to have been cosmetic, and a card modem never worked.
Another great video mister LGR! You are always bringing me back to my swiss childhood/teenagehood and to a slower going world where IT products could still be appreciated physically and had some magic (and less cheap plastic) in them (If that make sense at all)... anyway I still wear your sponsored wood grain socks every sundays and my wife hates it ;) With love and respect, thanks for your work!
Love Your Vids LGR
Oh that moment starting at 44 seconds! Clint sure is the man who knows how to make people smile.