Apparently there was a gadget show last week. Avanade and Expansys put on something sort of gadget show. I’m not sure where it was but Ian Crowther went there in the hope that he cold find a solution for his 2hr 15minute commute to work. He blogged his thoughts and mentions a few of his requirements which include battery life, price, weight, size, screen quality and, judging by some of the devices on his short list, a keyboard. He’s a web developer but his requirements for the device go something like this…
I really just want a portable device that I can read my feeds with, do some emails, research and write some blog�s, create some slides with and maybe work on the odd Google doc or spreadsheet.
The Fujitsu U810 comes into my head at this point but lets see what else he has to say because after he checked out the gadget show, he came back which a rather grey opinion of the HTC Shift (poor battery life) and a shining opinion of the OQO Model 02. Interesting. The thumb keyboard, handheld mode has him interested. If we assume he’s on a commuter train (I think he’s in the UK somewhere) then it could be a great choice because there’s really no guarantee of a table most of the time.
The OQO has an excellent screen and on a commute, he won’t be using the WiFi so even the standard battery might go the full commute distance on one charge but it will be a bit hit-and-miss. He’ll have to consider the extended battery when then brings weight into the equation. Holding a device of over 500g for over one hour isn’t going to be comfortable. Only the other day I was reading about Archos 605 owners who got stiff necks after watching films on flights and the 605 is like a feather compared to an OQO. My other concern is screen size. While 800×480 at arms length on a 5″ screen is comfortable, if you’re in a train, its not. I know this from using the Everun in a car. You need to go up to a 7″ screen (or an equivalent 180 pixels per inch) if you want to avoid problems in a moving environment. That kind of kills the idea of the OQO and the U810 leaving 7″ 800×480 devices. I blogged something about commuter solutions last may in my ‘UMPC toplist’ blog (which I really need to do more on) A quick review of that and a look at the UMPC comparison pages brings these devices to the fore:
The Kohjinsha SA1 F00KS. (Aka Cathena CX.) 7″ 800×480 touchscreen. Good keyboard. Great battery life (4-hrs), nice bright screen, big hard disk, convertible for handheld operation (RSS reading etc) and well priced. Its not a powerful machine by any means but if Ian wants to work on an offline blog, read some feeds or do the occasional Google doc or spreadsheet (I wonder how, during a commute. Does he have Wifi or 3g on his commute?) then its enough. The ‘cons’ are: Weight. Style. No easy typing in handheld mode (as with all convertibles except the U810)
The other one that comes to mind is the Gigabyte U60 with its 6.5″ 800×480 screen, 3.5 hours battery life and slide-out thumboard. You get the comfortable PPI and slider form factor but the keyboard isn’t really up to the quality of the OQO one. It would be a bit slower. Again the price is good (around 800 Euros in Europ now.) There’s also a dock and a nice case available. I like the form factor and specs of this device but watch the build quality. Its a clunky, chunky device.
The third option I’d put forward is the Q1b with organiser pack. Again, it has a comfortable PPI and good battery life. The organiser pack makes it big but it protects the package well comes with one of the best mini-usb keyboards ever. Handheld operation would be limited to browsing and short bursts of on-screen keyboard work. The screen is supposed to be fairly bright but my Q1b HSDPA from Germany isn’t anything to shout about. Something to be wary of.
So the top three choices are: Kohjinsha SA1 F00KS/Cathena CX (specifically that model), the Gigabyte U60 and the Q1b with organizer pack. The theme here is good PPI and battery life with handheld capability and funnily enough none of the models are new.
If you’re reading Ian, let me know what you think of the choices. And if anyone else has a requirement, drop me a line and i’ll do another ‘customer challenge’ post next week. Maybe i’ll make it a series and dump the results into the toplist blog for good reference.
