Compaq's new Contura 420C delivers a blend of power, comfort, software, and support, all for an estimated street price of $2,499. October 1995 quote.

The guts of the 6.25-pound Contura make it as suitable for the desktop as it is for the road: an Intel DX4/75 processor, 8MB of RAM, a BIOS that supports Plug and Play peripherals, a 3.5-inch disk drive, and a 350MB hard drive. That last number is a bit small, but Compaq also sells the Contura with a 420MB, 540MB, or 720MB drive. The 420C boasts a 10.4-inch passive-matrix color display that's as sharp and bright as some dual-scan screens we've seen.

An optical trackball is sandwiched between two large buttons on the unit's wrist rest. The ball itself is comfortable enough, but the buttons are annoyingly stiff. Contura's full-size keyboard, on the other hand, ranks among the best we've tested, but it's also the reason the Contura is a bit larger than average. At 9 by 11.9 by 2.2 inches, the Contura will undoubtedly push the boundaries of your briefcase.

Our Contura which has a series number of 286OC was kindly donated by Alan Hunter.

Manufacturer: Compaq
Date: October 1995

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH11985. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.