As a business-oriented UMPC or laptop replacement, the P1510 was pretty hard to beat. It and the Flybook V33i are still two of the best multi-purpose Ultra Mobile PCs. Why? Well they have the 9″ screen, a 1024-wide resolution and the keyboard that a lot of journalists said was missing from the Origami based devices. I tend to agree. Well actually, I strongly agree. Although touchscreen capability is wonderful, there is no substitute for a keyboard for the majority of people. Those aged 40 and under are pretty much part of a keyboard generation and watching 13 year olds type on keypads and thumbpads you wonder why we ever bother with handwriting these days. Christmas is coming for me and I’ll be writing cards but apart from that and the scribbled to-do notes I’ve got to the left of me here, I don’t do any handwriting at all. I tried so hard too. I watched Hugo Ortega’s great UMPC and TIP introduction video but the error rate was so high that it didn’t beat even on-screen keyboard tapping. Even when I watch videos from other pro-ink websites I never see anyone actually reaching any decent writing speeds. I’ve pretty much given up on handwriting on UMPCs
I use a Pepperpad in the evening (after I’ve tidied away my i7210 which is my daytime and away-from-home PC.) and even the little thumbpads on that enables me to write emails, forums reply’s, IM’s and short blogs with efficiency. The Keyboard is here to stay and customers want to see it. Customers love to see it. Its clear that it gives them a sense of comfort and it elevates any UMPC out from Uber-PMP status to Mini-Notebook status. It assists the sales, enables many more user scenarios and even enables a device to be sold at a higher price.
So with that in mind, its clear to understand why everyone gets excited over the convertible notebook format. The Lifebook P1510d, Flybook V range and the new boy, the P1610 are designed to allow both tablet and notebook format to be used on one device.
Rob Bushway of GottaBeMobile has bought a P1610 and seems pretty happy. He’s done an InkShow and today I’ve been reading his notes from the first 24 hours.
I’m a little surprised that the cellular modem isn’t included in his device (as far as I know) and that he’s slotted a PCMCIA card in. PCMCIA cards aren’t usually designed with the limited UMPC battery life in mind and that’s probably why he’s getting the poor sub 2 hour life with the PCMCIA card in use. It sounds like the Wifi module included isn’t that efficient either. I’ve been using cellular modem via Bluetooth and although the speeds aren’t as high, the gains made in battery life far outweigh the speed disadvantages.
The palm-rejection technology looks nice. I don’t have any problems with my i7210 but with a 9″ screen, things would be different as my palm would not rest on the frame.
I’m looking for a reason why you might buy the 1610 over the 1510 though. There’s the PCMCIA slot, LED-backlit higher-resolution screen and slightly improved processing and graphics power but it appears like an evolution of the 1510 rather than a completely new device. When the internal HSDPA cellular modem appears (Jan 2007 in Europe) then it will be a different matter. The Flybook V33i Broadband and P1610 will go head-to-head.
Rob is making another video/ink show about the P1610 so maybe I’ll find out then!
24 hours with a P1610 Tablet PC - GottaBeMobile.
Steve /Chippy
