The Medion UMPC could have DOUBLE the battery life of 2006 UMPCs…

But first, the images. These come from the OEM’s website.

That’s a good looking docking station. If the Medion UMPC is shipped with it, it will enable grab-and-go home PC use.

In my quality mock-up (!) I proved that thumbing could be possible.

Note the Touchpad on the bottom right of the frame. This is an update to the design. There was a mouse button before.

The specifications have been updated. They now reflect the fact that we’ve seen it promoted as a Windows Vista machine. Note too that it has the LED backlit screen and they quote a battery life of 4-5 hours. That’s believable due to the fact the h/w spec is similar to the Samsung Q1B which has been proven to reach 4 hours battery life. I like the idea of a touch pad rather than a mouse pointer too. This opens up the possibility of little thumb gestures. It might be too small though. We’ll have to see.

A word about the processor. Its the VIA C7-M. I know this doesn’t support Direct-X 9 in hardware so there will be limitations. Gaming will be a problem. I’ve also seen problems in Vista’s media center but this could be due to beta s/w and drivers. On the positive side, the quality of screen-scaling, TV out, audio (I hope there’s a digital audio output on the dock) and, if supported in the drivers, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and WMV9 hardware acceleration will be very good. My guess is that the hardware video acceleration IS supported. Why? Well to support DVB-T MPEG-2 rates on the C7, you need to be doing something in hardware. Having tested it myself, DVB-T on the VIA C7-M based Paceblade Easybook P7 without hardware acceleration support is a jittery experience.

These are OEM specs and could change slightly for the Medion version of this device.

• OS: Microsoft Windows Vista
• CPU: VIA C7-M 770 (5.0W 1.0GHz ULV @400MHz FSB)
• Chipset & GPU: VX700 (UniChrome GPU)
• Memory: 512MB/768MB DDR2
• Storage: 30GB or above PATA 4200rpm
• LCD:6.5″ WVGA (800 X 480 LED B/L)
• Web Cam: 300K for VOIP
• Input Device
  Touch Screen
  Stylus
  Touch Pad
  Keyboard
  4-way buttons
  Enter button
  Mouse select buttons
• Connectivity:
  802.11b/g
  Bluetooth® V2.0
• I/O Port
  VGA out x 1
  USB 2.0 x 2
  Media slot (SD/SD-IO/MMC) x 1
  Headphone jack x 1
  Microphone jack x 1
  DC-In x 1
  Hot Key Buttons
  WiFi on/off
  Bluetooth on/off
  Web Cam on/off
  TV/GPS on/off
  Show or hide windows Mobility Center
  Display enlarge
• Dimension (w/Battery Pack)
  190 x 120.8 x 28.3 mm
• Weight (w/Battery Pack): 720g
• Battery Life: 4 ~ 5 hrs

I liked this device when I first saw it back in Nov and I like it even more now. Engadget dismissed it as a non-starter then (guys, you have to trust my tips!) but I’d like to see what they say now. Personally, I find it much more exciting than the iPhone and want one NOW!

I’ll update the Carrypad datasheet for this later today.

Steve / Chippy

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• Medion UMPC. New images and specs.
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