Thanks to Expansys, I have received the OQO Model e2 (Euro version of the Model 02) for testing over the next two weeks. The timing is not perfect as I’m in the middle of writing the Vye S37 review and have also bought a Q1 Ultra so the OQO has to fight for my time AND against two other very good ultra mobile PC devices! Read on…
First impressions are pretty good. As far as build quality, looks and package goes, its a really impressive bit of engineering. Good strong casing, great slide action on the keyboard and very good quality keyboard. Its amazingly small and the desktop stand is just fantastic and turns the device into a usable daily PC which I think could be one of the main advantages of the OQO over other devices. Justifying the cost of the OQO as a standalone mobile device is going to take some justification! Its extremely stylish though so that could go a long way to helping people decide.
As I said, the keyboard is very nice. Its faster and easier to use than the one on the Everun and Medion/Gigabye U60) and in a completely different league to the silly little affair on the Q1 Ultra. Although I haven’t tried the Sony UX for any length of time, I’m sure its much better than that too. The backlighting is very nice, the mouse buttons well placed, spacebar a good size and although the function, punctuation and feature keys are in non-standard places, its only a matter of getting used to the layout. I like the sticky indicators on the shift, fn, ctrl and alt keys. Nice touch!
The 800×480 screen size is optimal for the 5″ screen at hand-held length. As an extended desktop screen it has value when you use it for, say, an email or IM window but like any device with a PPI (pixels per inch) nearing 200, its not that easy to read from over 50cm away.
Vista Ultimate on the 1.6Ghz processor and 1GB of RAM works smoothly out of the box with no optimisations which is nice to see. In fact, I’ve never used Vista as a desktop OS before so it will be funny if the smallest Vista PC in the world finally gets me to switch from XP. Whether this VIA-based architecture performs well enough for a suite of simultaneously running applications is uncertain though. Running Firefox and Livewriter is working fine as I type this (using the Samsung Q1 keyboard that works nicely when connected to the front of the docking station.) Media Center works, YouTube is smooth and DivX playback goes over 3mbps but I’ll want to test out some office app’s and a photo editing suite before I make a full judgement on it.
Battery life is around the 2.5 hours mark using power-saving mode when browsing, which is extremely efficient considering that the battery is half the size of most ultra mobile PC batteries, but its just under my 3 hour entry point where I would consider a ultra mobile PC truly mobile rather than just portable. I do have an extended battery but that is going to bulk it out somewhat. I think I’d prefer 2 small batteries if I was an owner. The external battery charger that comes with the OQO makes rotating batteries very simple. Oh hold on, I don’t have one in the box. I was sure that OQO included a standalone battery charger with the OQO Model 02. Can an OQO Model 02 owner confirm this? Mmm. I’ll have another think about the battery situation and let you know what I think after I’ve used the extended battery for a few days.
I thought the lack of touchscreen might be a major problem for me but the mouse pointer is very good indeed and when you hold the device in two hands there’s no requirement for a touchscreen at all. Its strange though, that when the screen is closed over the keyboard, there’s absolutely no way to use the device unless you want to carry a special pen with you. I doubt many people will be going for that option as its just too annoying unless you intend to get stuck in to some handwriting, annotating or sketching.
Another thing that annoys me is the extremely noisy fan. When I say ‘extremely’ I mean, at hand-held distance. It’s way too noisy for sofa-surfing, bedtime use, ebooks and arguably, as a desktop PC. Once the fan gets on song (as it does all the time when you’re using high performance settings) its louder than all UMPCs I’ve tried. There’s no HDD indicator light on the device, there’s a limited vertical viewing angle and I’d have loved to have seen an SD or Mini-SD card slot. Oh, and the speaker is terrible but that’s par for the course on UMPCs. Only Nokia and Samsung have managed to crack that nut by using, one presumes, their mobile phone technology. Finally, where’s the 3G OQO? They won’t get away with calling a ultra mobile PC ‘mobile’ in 2008 unless its got some form of 3,3.5 or 4G data connectivity but I hear that something could be in the pipeline for Europe so I think they’ve got it covered.
The 4-6″ slider form factor is both one of my favorites and one that I believe will be the most popular form factor for handheld PCs and mobile Internet devices in the future. The OQO e2 is obviously one of the most stylish, well built and powerful devices in this segment at the moment. Stay tuned to this thread in the forum for more of my feedback and the chance to ask questions. Comments below are also welcome and and I’ll try to provide feedback as soon as I can.
More info on the OQO Model e2 can be found at Expansys and on the product portal page. Links to other reviews and news items can be found here.
