The first generation of the Let's Note AL-N1 computers came out in June 1996 before the idea of "mobile computing" had become commonplace. The AL-N1 was distinctive for its light weight, small footprint, and other characteristics. In this way, the mobile characteristics of the Let's Note series were present from the very first generation.
The model's primary features were as follows.
- （1）The AL-N1 featured an extremely good balance of size, performance, and price.
- （2）The B5-sized AL-N1 weighed only 1.47 kilograms at a time when even the lightest notebooks weighed 2 kilograms or more.
- （3）Its TFT LCD monitor had SVGA resolution (800×600 pixels). Most monitors at this time were STN LCDs with only VGA resolution (640×480 pixels).
- （4）The AL-N1 could house a second battery to extend its battery life.
- （5）It came with a 120 MHz Pentium processor, 16 megabytes of RAM, and an 810 megabyte hard disk drive. It ran Windows 95 (official version) as its operating system.
Panasonic announced the AL-N2 model in June 1997 with an optical track ball and the AL-N3 slim A4-sized model with an internal drive in July 1997.
