ClassicConnect

[teedeeaye]

I feel that I've posted this one quite extensively in my couple of posts here, but I'm immensely proud of having worked to buy one of these when I'd started my first job (some moons ago admittedly).

As per the title, it's a Libretto 50CT. I believe the first of the Librettos to be sold outside of Japan, but happy to be corrected. Mine I think has been a UK laptop since new and I've done my best to keep it in decent condition. Of course, the plastic is fighting against that statement, there's a few cracks here and there, but it's still miles better than any other larger Toshiba I've owned of this era, and I've had many in my time. Somewhere there's an image of the variety I had, before I sold almost all of them to put some money towards buying the Libretto (and a 3Dfx Voodoo 3 for my desktop).

Anyway, I've went off on a bit of a tangent there, so back to the Libretto. In the time I've owned it, it sees some sparing use, often getting wheeled out when I'm bored or to show to new people as a conversation piece due to the quirky form factor. The only sort of modification I've done with it is fit a 4GB SD card in an adaptor in place of the 815MB hard disk drive, which although functional, had began to sound a bit like a bag of spanners getting launched down a flight of stairs.

Beyond that, it's been lovely to own and use. Sure, I have objectively "better" retro machines, including an absolutely wicked desktop which is my baby, but there's something about the Libretto. I get joy out of it, and that's what matters - even if typing this forum post on the obnoxiously small keyboard is infuriating me somewhat. I'm getting better at it, mind you.

Below are some pictures of the 50CT, including with its little bag, the 3.5" diskette drive, and the docking station! Pictures taken with a 1997 Fujifilm DX-7 digital camera. Glad I found my SmartMedia card reader.






Thanks!
_________________
- Ryan
Sent from my potato peeler.

[cadrega]

I have a 70CT that I paid an absolutely egregious amount for. Would not recommend... that being said, they're incredible and unique machines. I love mine to death and would never part with it. I love that you were able to access the forum with it, lol. I think I have Win98/IE5 on mine, so it would probably be possible. I haven't done that yet, but I have accessed Discord via the Discord Messenger client for Win9x:



The experience was surprisingly very good. I could use it on a daily basis, and probably will try to once I get some of my machines up and running again. The fact that you can damn near fit an actual Pentium machine in your pocket is unbelievable. My original battery still has a bit of juice in it, and when it inevitably goes bad, I'll probably put new cells in it. They're a very non-standard size, though. And yeah, as someone who doesn't own a 3D printer, the brittle plastic hurts.


For scale, lol
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[teedeeaye]

That 70CT is lovely! I always like seeing them with the larger capacity batteries on them, as it dwarves them somewhat. I've just got the standard (and very dead) battery on mine. Thankfully, the CMOS battery on mine was replaced before I bought it (and also paid an egregious amount... ), as I know those little green packet (?) cells like to empty their contents after a while.

Worst I had was my first of two Satellite 430CDT models, which was suffering from battery leakage so badly that the keyboard connector had completely fallen off the motherboard - it still tried to boot though! I've had a T2130CT, Tecra 510CDT, Satellite 310CDS, two Portege 7020CTs, and this Libretto, and only two of those haven't had CMOS/date & time battery issues.

The form factor of these Librettos is amazing though, I'd have liked a working battery on this so that I could use it out and about (taken to a coffee shop, perhaps). However, if I'm that way inclined, then I do have a lovely Toshiba Portege 7020CT here which also has a massive (and functional) battery attached!

Upon reflection, I might like Toshiba laptops...
_________________
- Ryan
Sent from my potato peeler.