The last ever Sinclair Spectrum model, brought out in 1987. It was the top of the range model, everything that the Spectrum should be, with a disk drive capable of reading 3" double sided disks, the same as the Amstrad CPC-6128.

Looking exactly the same as the +2 but in a nice shade of black, the +3's major factor was loading times - they were drastically reduced, as much as few seconds to load a game, and gave the Spectrum range a much needed new lease of life at a time when the Amiga and Atari were on the scene.

Games were released and rereleased on the new disk format but proved expensive, sometimes £14.99 which at the time was quite a jump up from £7.95 for cassette.

The machine was robust and heavy, including the power supply which was massive. We think Amstrad did a good job on the models which it brought out - certainly no-one else could have done better.

SPECIFICATIONS

CPU Zilog Z80A
SPEED 3.5469 Mhz
RAM 128k
ROM 64k (Contains operating systems and BASIC)
SOUND 3 channels, 8 octaves
GRAPHICS 256 x 192 resolution
COLOURS 8 (16 using differing levels of brightness)
DIMENSIONS 44 x 17.5 x 5cm
WEIGHT 1650g
I/O PORTS Expansion port at rear, RF video out, ear/mic, RS232/MIDI, RGB, keypad, parallel printer, audio out, 2 joystick ports, AUX port, Disk Drive Port
PSU 5V @ 2A, +12V @ 700mA, -12V @ 50mA
PRICE £249