compaqportableplus
Veteran Member
Since a particular person in this thread told me I was "imagining things" when I said that the Zenith ZLF-181 and ZWL-183 were completely different machines, despite the fact that they look similar, I am now doing this little comparison of them side-by-side, since I just got a ZWL-183-93 yesterday (from eBay of course).
Here they are both on a powered-up (the ZFL-181 is on the left and the ZWL-183 is on the right in all pictures here):
I was told the keyboard was "the same." Don't they look a little different? YES! The layout is considerably different. They are not even remotely the same.
Here they are both shut:
They share the same case? Hmm... the ZWL-183 seems bigger, has the latches positioned differently AND a handle... once again completely different, although similar looking.
Here are the ports at the back:
Different once again.
Now lets compare the floppy drive design:
Completely different parts yet again. You see, the pop-up feature is actually a part of the disk-loading mechanism on the older ZFL-181 (the drives have to be shut to work), where it is just a standard 3.5" drive in a pop-up bay on the newer ZFL-183.
I don't feel like taking them back apart right now, but the insides are 100% different. The way they come apart is completely different as well.
Now the LCD panel is definitely the same, and the modem is too, but everything else is different. Hell, they even use a different battery pack (the one on the ZWL is much larger than the older ZFL's). Now my ZWL is missing the battery, but the compartment is way, way bigger than the one on the ZFL, so I know it used a bigger pack.
Hope this clears things up. I had been wanting to do this comparison for a while now, so I'm glad I could finally do it. There will be another thread outlining how I got the ZWL-183-93 running also.
Looks like I'm not "imagining things" after all.
Here they are both on a powered-up (the ZFL-181 is on the left and the ZWL-183 is on the right in all pictures here):
I was told the keyboard was "the same." Don't they look a little different? YES! The layout is considerably different. They are not even remotely the same.
Here they are both shut:
They share the same case? Hmm... the ZWL-183 seems bigger, has the latches positioned differently AND a handle... once again completely different, although similar looking.
Here are the ports at the back:
Different once again.
Now lets compare the floppy drive design:
Completely different parts yet again. You see, the pop-up feature is actually a part of the disk-loading mechanism on the older ZFL-181 (the drives have to be shut to work), where it is just a standard 3.5" drive in a pop-up bay on the newer ZFL-183.
I don't feel like taking them back apart right now, but the insides are 100% different. The way they come apart is completely different as well.
Now the LCD panel is definitely the same, and the modem is too, but everything else is different. Hell, they even use a different battery pack (the one on the ZWL is much larger than the older ZFL's). Now my ZWL is missing the battery, but the compartment is way, way bigger than the one on the ZFL, so I know it used a bigger pack.
Hope this clears things up. I had been wanting to do this comparison for a while now, so I'm glad I could finally do it. There will be another thread outlining how I got the ZWL-183-93 running also.
Looks like I'm not "imagining things" after all.
