[1] Introduced in November 1987, it had two 3.5 inch floppy drives and a flip-up monochrome LCD screen, powered by an internal battery.

The back-lit monochrome LCD screen had a resolution of 640 × 200 pixels and was IBM CGA compatible, mapping colors to grayscale.

Later revised designs were the 1400 FD, which was lighter, omitted the composite video port, and had an external floppy drive connector.

The "clamshell" configuration of the Tandy 1400 was similar to that of the earlier Data General/One and IBM PC Convertible.

Although the battery life of the 1400 LT was less than that of the IBM Convertible, the system came with more standard peripheral connections and was priced significantly lower.