Compaq Portable II

The Compaq Portable II is the fourth product in the Compaq Portable series to be brought out by Compaq Computer Corporation. Released in 1986 at a price of US$3499, the Portable II much improved upon its predecessor, the Compaq 286, which had been Compaq's version of the PC AT in the original Compaq Portable chassis; Portable 286 came equipped with 6/8-MHz 286 and a high-speed 20-MB hard drive, while the Portable II included an 8 MHz processor, and was lighter and smaller than the previous Compaq Portables. There were four models of the Compaq Portable II. The basic Model 1 shipped one 5.25" floppy drive and 256 KB of RAM. The Model 2 added a second 5.25" floppy drive and sold for $3599. The Model 3 shipped with a 10MB hard disk in addition to one 5.25" floppy drive and 640 KB of RAM for $4799 at launch. The Model 4 would upgrade the Model 3 with a 20MB hard drive and sold for $4999. There also may have been a 4.1 MB hard drive included at one point. The Compaq Portable II was significantly lighter than its predecessors, the Model 1 weighed just 23.6 pounds compared to the 30.5 pounds the Compaq Portable 286 weighed. Compaq only shipped the system with a small demo disk, MS-DOS 3.1 had to be purchased separately.

There are at least two reported cases of improperly serviced computers exploding when the non-rechargeable lithium battery on the motherboard was connected to the power supply. There were no recorded injuries. The Compaq Portable II was succeeded by the Compaq Portable III in 1987.