Adorable...

I’ve reviewed a few Eastern European clones of 8-bit computers, and many of them have been….. not particularly attractive or elegant. Then this little bundle of adorableness comes along.

I mean, OMG, isn't this the cutest little micro you ever did see? OK, it’s a bit quirky, but I just want to snuggle with it.

This, by the way, is the Kvant (or Quantum) BK, manufactured by Kvant in Zelenograd, which, as far as I can tell, is a part of greater Moscow. Thanks to Oleg Mitin who’s LinkedIn post provided the location information.

This is a tiny little computer roughly the same size as an original ZX Spectrum.

As you can see it’s marginally wider and deeper than the Spectrum.

And it’s a little bit taller. It’s about 2 ounces (57g) heavier Spectrum, but due to the larger case, it feels less dense. It reminds me a little (note little) bit of the Grundy Newbrain Model A.

Photo Credit: Marcin Wichary - Creative Commons

The keyboard isn’t great. Like the Esquire, the keyboard is a 4 x 10 grid of square keys. The keycaps appear to be squares of paper or cardboard inside transparent keys. The color scheme is better than the Esquire, with the only issue being the beige on white used for some of the functions. This could be due to fading over time because you can see that the “red” key is much more of an orange.

Both sides of the Kvant are empty of any buttons, switches, or connectors, which gives it a very clean (and adorable) look.

All of the connectivity is around the back.

The labeling here is not very helpful. On the far left is a reset switch. My best guess for the DIN sockets are, from left to right, a joystick port, cassette interface (the label translates to “sound” and I can’t imagine this machine had an audio out), tv connection, I have no idea, and probably the AC power connection. The second to the right could be the input for the cassette if MI stands for microphone, but if the cassette had separate in and out ports I’d expect them to be next to each other, so it seems unlikely.

The bottom of the Kvant just has a label with (adorably) handwritten part or serial numbers. The feet are also molded as part of the case.

So without further ado, let’s peek inside.

First up, here’s the keyboard, which is on a tan-colored board. I’m not sure why the keyboard is on a tan board, and the mainboard is green. The tan color seems to appear far more often in Eastern European micros.

The mainboard is pretty similar to other Spectrum clones I’ve seen. The large chip on the right-hand side is most likely the Zilog Z80A clone, and just to the right of that is the ROM. The odd little square chip in the middle is, I think, the ULA. Finally, at the bottom are the RAM chips.

Not much more to say about this one other than, “Who’s a cute micro? Who’s a cute micro? You are! Yes, you are….”