The internal CGA graphics card is able to display a resolution up to 640x400 pixels with a color depth of 2 bits (monochrome), which was first seen in the AT&T 6300 built by Olivetti, surpassing the original IBM standard by 200 pixels in height while remaining fully CGA compatible elsewhere.

Users can install a better graphics card via the Compaq Expansion Unit (See below), but the factory-installed monitor was unable to take advantage of it.

Quite common back in the days, the BIOS of the Compaq only offers to select preconfigured hard disk configurations like Type 17 for 40MB or 42 for 504MB.

The device suffers from the widespread CHS barrier, not allowing hard disk drives greater than 504MB.

Compaq offered multiple expansion cards for the Portable 386, which can be installed inside the main housing.

There was also a User Programs disk bundled with the Portable which offers tools for memory management and adapting the CPU speed (between 6, 8 and 20 MHz):