Actually, what I owned was a Timex Sinclair 1000, which was a rebranded ZX-81. Apologies for the confusion. The rest of the Sinclair Spectrum line never made it to the states, as far as I know...so my knowledge is limited to what I read in magazines back then, and what I've read on the net since then.
I think he may have been thinking of the ZX-80, precursor to the spectrum. I recall reading a review of it many years ago - it came in kit form, and was a really primitive machine.