In 1997, a laptop costing around 4,500 euros contained an idea so strange that it is still dead 27 years later

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Manufacturers are always testing new ideas to sell devices. HP tested a particularly interesting notebook years ago. A particularly strange idea, a mini mouse in a notebook, has not caught on.

What kind of notebook is this? With the HP OmniBook 800CT, the manufacturer HP brought a completely new notebook onto the market in 1997. The built-in hardware sounds pretty unspectacular from today’s perspective, but was a huge development considering the conditions at the time:

  • Intel Pentium 166-MHz with MMX technology and PCI bus architecture.
  • 16 MB RAM, which could be expanded to 48 MB
  • The device was offered with three different hard drive sizes: 772 MB, 1.34 Gb and 2 GB.
  • The display with a resolution of 800 x 600 could be purchased as either TFT or DSTN and was 10.4 inches in size.
  • By the way, Windows 95 is preinstalled on the model.

    • In particular, this laptop was the first model to use the Pentium processor from Intel, even if the performance of 166 MHz can no longer keep up with modern systems.

    A mini mouse could not establish itself in notebooks

    What was so strange about the device? The strangest idea, however, was on the side of the model: instead of a touchpad, the device offered an integrated, self-calibrating mouse that could be stored inside the device. With the press of a button you could remove the mouse from the device and then use it.

    From today’s perspective, it may not be surprising that this mini mouse has not been revived by any manufacturer to date. The main reason why the mouse ultimately disappeared again was probably that the device was simply impractical: the mouse was so small, just a few centimeters in size, that it must have been difficult to work properly with it.

    Can you see this in practice? You can take a look at the device live at YouTuber PGR. The YouTuber explains in his video that the device allegedly cost around 5,000 US dollars (around 4,500 euros) when it was released in 1997.

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    Where can you still find the device today? Otherwise, you can still find the model in various computer museums in the USA or Australia. You can also buy some still working models on eBay for around 1,500 euros. For the money you can also get powerful, modern gaming notebooks or a real gaming PC.

    Today, for 4,500 euros you get a fully equipped gaming PC with high-end components and some with usable peripherals. But it’s even more expensive. A German company has now introduced a gaming PC with an RTX 4090 that costs as much as a car or a fancy vacation:

    German company presents gaming PC with Nvidia’s RTX 4090: It weighs 14 kg and costs as much as a car

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