Didn’t we hear VIA say ‘well under $1000.’ in this video? Bzzzzzzzt! Didn’t we hear the president of Arima say that they would go on sale for $800? Bzzzzzzzzzzt! The Medion UMPC has just gone on pre-order availability in Germany for 1000 Euro. You do get the docking station, Windows Vista Home Premium and Microsoft Works thrown in so maybe you could call this a ‘bundle.’ but it won’t be available with the built in GPS and it won’t be available with the build in DVB-T solution. With all the bad news about media playback on VIA-based Vista devices one wonders how they’re going to sell any at all. Lets ignore that bit though and assume that Arima are going to get some drivers together in time for launch.
Ignoring the price and possible driver issues, (don’t forget the blocked MovieMaker and DVDMaker apps – which is probably why they are including Nero DVD softare!) the Medion UMPC is a nice machine. The hardware layout with Touchpad and keyboard is good, the weight is nice, the battery life and the size too but its such a shame that Vista is pushing the prices up like this. Vista has come at the wrong time for UMPCs so maybe we should forget Vista for a while, stick with XP and a nice StreetDeck ‘experience.’ Anyone with us on this?
