Comments on: OQO 2+ screen brightness and battery life.

By: WebFrukt

WebFrukt — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:11:06 +0000

Поссорился на днях с женой. На следующий день просыпаюсь, жена уже ушла, на столе завтрак: лежит два раздавленных яйца и мелко-мелко искромсанная сосиска. Мда, намек понял… В обед заехал в магазин – купил пилотку и степлер… Тоже намекать буду…

By: PGB

PGB — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:16:49 +0000

what’s the status on these guys, my battery on my 02 just exploded, and can’t reach OQO numbers? Help!

much appreciated –

Paul

By: Jerry Stimmel

Jerry Stimmel — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:19:05 +0000

I need to display videos, word documents, photos, and scanned documents from my computer to a jury in a courtroom. I normally run a cable from my laptop to a DLP projector and light up a wall or projection screen. I’d like to get rid of the laptop and use this OQO 2+ and a bluetooth signal to the projector. Anybody know if the 800 x 480 resolution on the OQO 2+ will project adequately to a larger size on the wall?

By: bristolview

bristolview — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:21:44 +0000

For those who are dismissing the OQO due to the 800×480 screen….. I originally thought the same thing. When I got mine for field use, I thought, ‘how quaint’. To my surprise, it works really well. Yes, the native resolution is low, but the unit includes a clever driver to interpolate higher resolutions on the small screen. Being an image scientist, I immediately puked at the thought, then used it. The first interpolated resolution (no, I don’t know the exact res) is very crisp and clear and very readable. I use this resolution most of the time and find it great. The native resolution is very clear and easy to read size wise.

To make better use of the small screen, I’m running a virtual window manager with 4 screens. The first is my communications and usually has Outlook 2007 and Skype running. The second screen is my current work items, usually office apps like Word/Excel/PowerPoint; 3rd screen is web browsing with Chrome and the 4th screen is my media control (Media Player, WinAmp) for tunes while I work.

Yes, it is lower res than other machines, but this is an ok trade for the portability. In my office, it is docked and runs a 20 inch monitor as the main display, with the OQO display as a secondary (mostly for Skype IM). When mobile, it slips into a pocket so that I don’t have to carry a computer backpack or briefcase. I love heading off to meetings without the need to take anything else, slips into my sport coat pocket and I’m good to go. The low res screen is just fine while I’m out and about.

By: sipp11

sipp11 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:54:21 +0000

If this OLED is the same as iriver clix, it’s almost unusable in daylight. So much worse than LCD in this circumstance.

By: DrCaffeine

DrCaffeine — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:16:55 +0000

Regarding power drain, I’d say its far more related to the desktop OS running on these sorts of devices, and the corresponding CPU requirements. Remember the old Palm Pilot and how long that got on a single charge? If we could get a dedicated mobile OS with a reasonable set of light apps — browser, word processor, accessible software development kit, etc. — then we could get back to devices that last several days between charges, rather than hours.

Now I’m sure everyone will want a full featured version of Windows and their own favourite apps running as well, so how about combining the two feature sets into one device with two distinct CPUs and OSs? You use the ultra-lowpower CPU and intant-on OS with the light apps (in a ROM or even as a swappable cart) for the usual on-the-road tasks and web browsing, and switch to the full OS if required for situations where you really need a desktop app that is not available as a mobile version.

By: EC

EC — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:36:09 +0000

Yeah that’s what I just told someone today, get the 02 to be silent and get me on around double the battery time with std battery size, and I will be happy and stop debating which UMPC/MID I should get, it will then be the OQO for a year or two into the future…unless?

By: EC

EC — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:34:40 +0000

Well I’d care to differ with passion, I would most def want the device to be double if not triple those numbers, why? Because as a mobile device I shouldn’t be able to be mobile with no plugs for at least a full work day.

Now are those expectations unrealistic right now, yes from a technical standpoint since as you just pointed out not even (normal) laptops without these size constraints do any better, on an average. There however I feel there’s no excuse, on your traditional laptop there is so much “extra space” that you could use to add battery time, but apparently the general public isn’t complaining about it, and it’s a balancing act for the manufacturers to between price, weight, battery time etc.

So all in all GOOD JOB OQO, but *I* want/expect more…

By: EC

EC — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:30:45 +0000

I am not sure I follow, why did you expect the OQO to be at so much lower consumption since it essentially has everything your 10″ netbook has including OS(?)

By: EC

EC — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:29:13 +0000

May I ask what your planned usage for 1024×600 on 4.8″ is btw?

By: EC

EC — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:28:22 +0000

The UMID runs 1024×600 natively on an 4.8 screen but as with anything w/resolution like that on a size like that I actually preferred to have it on lower res to not have to spend all too much time on the touch screen. The higher the res, the less useful the touch screen becomes.

By: EC

EC — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:25:43 +0000

Good since I prefer a black background on my desktops anyhow! See I can even save some energy with my taste LOL.

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:21:03 +0000

How does it compare to LCDs for outdoor strong daylight viewing?

By: JC

JC — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:56:35 +0000

It’s easy to make anything look bad by quoting the worst case numbers, then treating them as if they were the typical numbers. 10W is the “high bright white” case. That’s the case where the screen can ever consumes the most power it can ever consume. In no way is that a typical, or reasonable use scenario. (For one thing, the screen is consuming the most power it can, but you can’t actually use it for anything since it’s always bright white.)

Chippy has said that he gets 2.5 to 3 hours of battery life. That works out to approximately a 6W drain, on average. Yes, we would all be happier if it were less than that. However, 6W is not unimpressive.

By: Hugobon

Hugobon — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:30:46 +0000

Screen brightness and size do affect battery life, but I believe the
battery killers are the spinning mechanical hard disk (especially in
Vista) and the noisy fan of the OQO which spins almost constantly.
The regular automatic on/off of the cooling fan is my main suspect for
a unit this small. It spins louder and faster than a remote control
racer car.