Lets start with the Fujitsu U1010. Its not my favorite UMPC based on the fact that it just doesn’t seem to be the best at anything. The Screen DPI is high. The keyboard is cramped. Its not actually that small and the sub 2-hour battery life is not exactly class leading. Jack of all trades. Master of none. But that’s just my opinion. Over to Jenneth at Gear Diary for a second opinion…
What I Like: Ultra-portable form factor, good video performance, reasonable price.
What Needs Improvement: 800 x 480 pixels should be a screen resolution option, a Pentium M would’ve been a better choice of processors, the keyboard is too small for touch typing.
Seems like Jenneth has similar thoughts. Good video performance applies to all Intel-based UMPCs. The GMA900 and 950 GPU’s are far superior to the VIA and AMD Geode equivalents.
The U1010 is a nice gadget, you can’t deny it that but that ‘feature’ could wear off after a short while. Read the mini-review at Gear Diary.
And now onto another device that I’m not that impressed with. The HTC Advantage. This is a device I’ve already had hands-on with and wrote about last month just before I made the snap decision to buy and test out a Nokia E90. The GBM guys and Matt Miller seem pretty impressed citing good office features and GPS capability which is fine but I put a lot of weight on the Internet experience. I’m not tied to office systems and generally like to Web2.0-it when I can so the browser is #1 on my list when I test things. The Advantage I tested, a T-Mobile Ameo – based on the 7500, was terrible. The Microsoft mobile internet explorer browser should be banned from mobile devices as its just not up to scratch. Soon after I wrote about the 7500, Jenn of Pocketables canceled her Advantage order in favor of a Q1 Ultra. 24 hours later she changed her mind again (Jenn, pull yourself together girl!) and re-ordered the Advantage. She received it this week and I popped the question to her. No, not that question!
"How is the browsing experience from a consumer angle?"
"Hmm." she said, and went on to explain that its not that impressive.
So the Advantage isn’t a phone (Matt Miller and James Kendrick both confirmed this) and its got a mediocre browser. And it costs as much as a UMPC. OK, you get all the enterprise goodness of WM6 and that will certainly bring huge value to a lot of people but for me its pretty much a non-starter. I’d rather take the Everun and a folding keyboard any day. Keep an eye on Pocketables though and see what else Jenn has to say. She’ll be putting up a full review before long i’m sure.
HTC Advantage product details.
