Rick Dickinson worked as industrial designer for Sinclair Research in the 80's designing the cases of the ZX81, ZX Spectrum and QL series of computers as well as Sinclair's Flat Screen TV and Sir Clive's later Cambridge Z88 computer.
Rick has put some pictures of his work "Sinclair ZX days" on flickr. A must see for all Sinclair fellows!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9574086@N02/collections/72157608812198325/
I always thought that the ZX81 case was quite stylishly designed- well, about as stylish as one could have reasonably managed within the price and technical constraints!
I assume the fact that the ZX81 looks somewhat less "cheap" than the ZX80 reflects the fact that- after its predecessor was way more of a success than had been expected- they knew it was likely to be an even bigger mass market success and they could afford to spend more money on the design, tooling and manufacture of the case.
NotATube 1 month ago
Hmm, the zx80, still can't afford one, but got to use one a few months ago :o)
RetroGamerVX 1 year ago