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Famously the Sinclair family died with the QL, but there was another machine designed for compatibility and which could have been a contender.

The SAM Coupé always looked pretty in reviews at the time, but I never met anybody who owned one, and I've never seen one in-person even now:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAM_Coup%C3%A9

3 comments

Largely because as an 8bit machine it wasn't really going to cut it against the Atari ST and Amiga and remember the had much bigger marketing power. I was thrilled with my Amiga which I got around the time the SAM was advertised. Then it was only a short window of 3-4 years until the PC came in and suddenly there was Doom, online gaming etc. Things went quick!

Agreed. It was outdated at launch, but it's always nice fuel for the "What if ..?" conversations!

I had one, unfortunately. It was a nice enough upgrade from a Spectrum, but far too late. I really regretted it when all my friends got Amigas and I was stuck in 8 bit land. It didn't help that they had to do a mass ROM replacement after shipping the launch units.

In terms of the brand I think the ZX Spectrum +3 came a good bit after the QL and there was a peculiar "Sinclair" branded MS DOS compatible machine, the PC200. Both in the Amstrad era of course.

Ignoring the brand but focusing on Uncle Clive there was also the Cambridge Z88 laptop/notepad device.