What do you think was the world's first laptop computer? It sounds like an easy question, but in fact it's almost impossible to answer. I had this discussion with some very knowledgeable collectors
Impossible, you didn't ask ME.
(Arrogant? No, just observant. Okay, maybe arrogant.)
Anyway ... in 1982 there were FIVE laptops available ... in no particular order they were the Grid Compass 1100/1101, Epson HX-20, MicroOffice RoadRunner, Teleram T-3000, and Grundy NewBrain. (Anyone thinking about the DG should immediately disabuse themselves of that notion. Best-selling laptop of the early years was the Tandy Model 100, circa 1983. The DG was a 1984 product. 1983 comes before 1984 .... duh.)
Most people only think of the Grid and the Epson. But the Grid required AC power! So if battery power is a requirement, then the Grid doesn't count for 1982. (I am loathe to enter a debate about definitions. But to me, 'laptop' only defines the size and form factor, while 'portable' is the word indicating that it's not tethered to AC power. So technically a 'laptop portable' is the correct term, but for this thread, and to (gasp) normal people, 'laptop' suffices because we all 'know it when we see it'.)
Meanwhile, what applications/features must a laptop possess? That obviously gets subjective. The original Husky computer is, I think, from 1981. (I have to do some more research on that.) Also from 1981 is the Sony Typecorder. The latter is at first glance 'just' a word processor, but inside, it's a computer -- they just didn't enable other applications.
So this is not a straightforward question to answer. (It's similar to the question I asked on cctalk in approx. 2002: "What's the first PDA?" ... I didn't know at the time that my question would open a huge can of worms.)
For those who still aren't aware, I am writing a whole book on the history of portables. True, I've been saying that for five years.
But I really am making good progress. Every time I think the research is complete, I learn about something else to include. As my goal is to be thorough and accurate, I will keep researching until there are NO unexplored paths -- whenever that happens, then I'll publish it. Not incidentally, because my daytime job is technology journalism, most of the sources in my book will be first-person, meaning I've actually tracked down and interviewed the people who designed these early laptops -- I'm not relying on what I read, heard, speculated, or blatantly plagiarized from old-computers.com, unlike other books.
This part about the first GENERATION of laptops will be a whole chapter.
"Generation" is what counts the most, I feel. Which of these few products were actually 'first' is, I feel, a pointless and nearly impossible question. It really doesn't matter because 'first' means ... what? First to think of something, sketch it on a napkin, prototype it, patent it, announce it to the press, collect money for it, actually ship it? If you look at any of these four or five computers and draw a grid with the various definitions of 'first' on one axis and the different challengers on the other axis, they'd all be 'first' in different categories, and no two people agree anyway about which category(s) are most important. So rather than waste time at that futile and sensationalist debate, I instead focus on the first generation, which is quite clearly 1981-1982. (So that part of the chapter will not include the Model 100. Just like Ford's Model T, the Model 100 was the first commercial smash-hit laptop. But to claim it or anything else from '83+ as the first overall is just very poor historianship.)
You may all now bow before me.