Fallout 1.5 Resurrection forum

Elise in Imperial City addresses your Pip-Boy as a wrist mounted device.
Of course it's an age-old argument, and I know that in the manuals for F1 and F2 it's referred-to as wrist-mounted, but nowhere in the actual games is it implied that it's worn on your arm. Moreover, it's referred to as a laptop. And getting your canon from meta sources is... well, at the very least boring. So I don't think Resurrection benefits from this specificity. I'm not saying the dialog should state it's NOT a wrist-mounted device or anything, just probably avoid such a specific description, like in the original games.

As you mentioned, according to the manual, it's supposed to be wrist-mounted device. And J.E. Sawyer's Fallout RPG then specifies that standard Pip-Boy 2000 is hand-held device, but Vault Dweller and Chosen One had special wrist-mounted version. See here.
Where is it referred to as a laptop? I would be curious to know that. It would be in the conflict with the information mentioned above. But if nature of the device isn't specified in the original games, then claiming that Pip-Boy 2000 of our hero is wrist-mounted isn't againts anything even if it wouldn't be mentioned in the manual. And then it makes more sense that NPCs like Elisa are able to see your Pip-Boy.

Anyway in order to avoid this unnecessary discussion, I'm really thinking to change the texts the way that it isn't specified there what kind of device it is. You aren't the first one who objects againts the wrist-mounted version.

More important Pip-Boy related question - What kind of Pip-Boy attachment New Reno prostitutes are mentioning when saying "I guarantee I'm better than that Pip Boy attachment you've been using."?

Where is it referred to as a laptop? I would be curious to know that.

In F2, if you try to access your Pip-Boy before you pass the temple of trials, a message will display saying that you don't carry a laptop.
EDIT:
Just checked, in the gog version it displays "you aren't wearing a pipboy". But I'm pretty damn sure it wasn't this way the last time I played.
EDIT 2:
Okay, i found out that it was referred to as laptop in one of the russian versions for some reason, so that argument is invalid.