The article doesn't seem to answer the question it has on its headline.. instead it just goes through banal details of the hardware and software.
TRS-80 Model 100 was released in 1983 predating this.
The original Kyocera design was originally released in japan in 1982.
For me a portable computer is one that needs a table or lap to use (can't reasonably be used standing up) and replicates the capabilities of a desktop computer in a more compact form. The T1100 is beaten out on that definition by the Osbourne, though arguably that's in it's own 'luggable' category. I think the T1100 is almost certainly the first computer we could call a laptop though.
[edit: And what did we do with such a machine? Created text-editing/printing software for scripts like Devanagari, Urdu, and more.]
Yeah - the Sharp's (optional) built-in thermal printer was much higher resolution (with a 24-dot print head, resulting in around 200dpi IIRC) than most dot-matrix impact printers of that era (8- or 9-pin print heads, 70dpi or so), but the thermal ribbons it used to print on plain paper were hard to come by. You could also use it with thermal paper, but the resulting printouts tended to fade quite quickly (somewhat depending on the environment).
We were thrilled when we managed to get hold of 24-pin impact printers that produced more permanent output, and where we could re-ink the ribbons. Produced camera-ready copy to publish books with those for several years, designing "oversized" fonts that were printed using multiple passes, and then photo-reducing the printed output to boost the effective resolution.
We bought them by the 1000. Each ribbon could only print 5 images, so our customers burnt through them. I bet we made more money on selling ribbons than software :-) Was my fist software development job... so I have a warm spot for that machine.
The keyboard was wider than many modern laptops, so typing would be done with one hand, other under the device.
No one really used it unless on desk, as I recall.
My 10th grade computer teacher had one, so I'm dating myself here...
Man, the envy we all had for it, heh.
The first reasonably portable computer was the GRiD Compass "briefcase computer" (i.e. that could be carried inside a briefcase; the word laptop was coined later), which was introduced in April 1982.
GRiD Compass was the first portable computer made in the clamshell format now used by any laptop and the first portable computer with a flat display instead of a CRT (it had an electroluminescent display).
GRiD Compass looked like a modern laptop (unlike all the previous portable computers, which were large boxes with handles, usually compared with portable sewing machines), but it did not have an internal battery, it had to be used with an external power inverter where mains power was not available.
It used an Intel 8086 CPU, but it was not compatible with the IBM PC, as it had different peripherals.
Because it was extremely expensive, it was typically used by customers with deep pockets, e.g. the NASA Space Shuttle and special missions of the US military or CIA.