Viliv S5 official prices, availability announced. 3G and Wimax coming too!

Posted on 13 February 2009, Last updated on 11 November 2019 by

Back in Dec we heard that the local launch price of the Viliv in Korea would be “(US$388 to US$543)” and today we’ve learned via an email from Viliv that the US retail price will be $649. Luckily, the Viliv S5 Premium that is going to be sold in the US (and I assume anywhere else that ultra mobile PC retailers can import and sell it) is a high-spec model running XP in 1GB on a 1.3Ghz Z520 CPU with a 60GB hard drive and a 1024×600 screen. I can tell you from my experience with the Wibrain i1 that runs exactly the same specs, it’s a pleasurable experience. The ‘Premium’ also comes with GPS, Haptic feedback and the Viliv UI and on-screen keyboard and that big, 17Wh battery which, again based on my work with the Wibrain i1, should return 6hrs screen-off/wifi off and 3-3.5hrs with wifi on, screen-on. That’s 3.5 hrs of very fast web access; [UPDATE: We’re checking on the battery specs. Previously we heard it was 24wh battery.  We might have made a mistake on that 17wh figure.] 24wh 22.9wh battery (confirmed) which again, based on my work with the Wibrain i1 should return 10 hours screen off/wifi off and 4hrs with wifi-on screen on.

The i1 returns an average sub 10 second-per-page web experience (Sub 5-second with the no-script plugin – 4 times faster than the best smartphones!) and in terms of javascript power:weight ratio, was the best that I’ve ever tested. There’s no reason to believe that the S5 will be any different.

More Viliv S5 details including specifications and news links available here.

In addition to the information that came in the email, we’ve managed to coerce some information about the missing 3G out of Viliv. Apparently the HSDPA version is still going through certification and is planned for Europe and for those with WiMax in their area, Viliv also have a model planned that will cover that too. In terms of pricing, the going rate for a 3G option runs at between 100 and 150 so $799 seems likely.

Overall it’s looking like a good price for what it is. The lack of keyboard is going to worry some but as a media consumption device, pmp, pnd and fallback PC, it’s really a huge step forward from what we saw even a year ago.

Update: US shipping expected at end of March.

Finally, there’s a new video available here showing the S5 running itunes and coverflow. Expect more videos and review information soon as sample devices have already gone out to Korean bloggers.

46 Comments For This Post

  1. Steve 'Chippy' Paine says:

    Viliv S5 official prices, availability announced. 3G and Wimax coming too! http://www.umpcportal.com/?p=5636

  2. turn.self.off says:

    any news on the S7, or for that matter the extreme version of either that mobilx have listed? the specs that mobilx lists for the extreme version seems close to the low end korean one.

    and if the price of said extreme will match the korean low end price, its starting to become really interesting ;)

  3. deriuqer says:

    If the prices will be similar and CeBIT doesn’t show me the LG-Xnote or something like it,I might buy a HSDPA-less S5 rather than the planned NC10.Would add something with mousepointer/touchpad + keyboard (maybe 3G/GPS) later on though.

  4. JonL says:

    Is the battery down to 17Wh now?

    Specs on here and on Dynamism inidicate a 22-24Wh, which i though was fantastic. A 17Wh, whilst decent, is a lot behind the Wibrain i1 and may make me consider the i1 over the S5.

  5. JonL says:

    Hmmm, the umid m1 manages to cram a 17Wh battery into 17mm body whilst including a hardware keyboard.

    The s5 is 24mm thick minus the hardware keyboard, so one would think the extra thinkness was going into battery, even considering the height and length of the s5 are less than the m1.

  6. JonL says:

    I guess my point is, with only a 17Wh battery, the only reason to pick an S5 over an m1 is if you really like the slate format without the hardware keyboard. I don’t think there are too many people like that.

    Okay last reply to myself.

  7. turn.self.off says:

    I suspect that umid manages that thanks to using SSD/flash storage rather then a HDD. The storage could be soldered onto the motherboard rather then a separate part.

  8. Chippy says:

    Sorry for my error on the battery cap. it’s 24wh.
    Steve

  9. deriuqer says:

    Battery life better be close to i1’s or they lost a customer before he became one. :D

    17WH would be how much estimated hrs (wifi on/browsing) ?

  10. deriuqer says:

    *17WH would be how much estimated hrs (wifi on/browsing) ?*

    -> sick and lack of sleep

  11. Chippy says:

    24wh (corrected battery info)
    Wifi-on browsing 3.5-4hrs.

    Steve

  12. Chippy says:

    And remember thats very fast browsing. it would take you double that time to do the same browsing on any smartphone platform!

  13. turn.self.off says:

    thew question then becomes what one consider a acceptable page load time ;)

  14. Chippy says:

    Yup. In my experience, I see the average person accepting 15 seconds, getting annoyed at over 20 seconds. Obviously, if time is important, cutting page load times by 75% and being able to scan much more of a page with scrolling or zooming becomes very valuable.

  15. turn.self.off says:

    in my experience, thats best done by killing plugins and scripts, not by upping cpu ;)

    those will more often then not be a distraction rather then a aid anyways.

  16. fab says:

    higher specs, battery so so, no keyboard and with 3G/hsdpa around 800 us and if imported to europe around 900/1k usd… hm.. guessing at least 650 euros and up. no, as long as they are getting more expensive and more specs but the most important thing is always forgotten (long battery life!) i don’t consider MIDs to be an alternative – i want one, but these facts just don’t make me want one badly.

  17. fab says:

    Steve… “6hrs screen-off/wifi off”…you know that’s non-sense. no wifi and no screen? what’s the difference to a 20 dollar mp3 player??

    as long as the battery specs are given with lowest brightness, no radios, no no no… it’s just worthless.

    a company which tells me:

    “3 hours in full power mode”

    is more reliable than one which tells me:

    “6 hours”

  18. Chippy says:

    Fab it’s not nonsense.
    With the Wibrain i1 I was turning it on in the morning, and leaving it on all day. It’s an quick-usage standby scenario as used by all smartphones (they even leave a radio connected!) the Nokia tablets etc.
    Think about leaving it tethered over BT. By leaving your phone on GSM you could have all-day on plus internet connectivity for presence, email polling, skype etc.

    Steve.

  19. fab says:

    i think it IS nonsense. if i switch the MID on in the morning and leave it there for 5 hours with switched off screen and no wifi…what’s the use for? a phone is always on and can receive, and i can carry it with me. the MID with wifi off or 3G off is useless as it cannot receive anything. thethering with a phone..what for? i have 3G built in? so again it would be like having hardware and not being able to use? why paying for it then?

    come on guys, these devices are not cheap, not cheaper than netbooks, but apart from being smaller they are less capable then netbooks! i don’t accept this fact and i don’t want to find any excuses to make them look great.

    positive criticism is the best to push manufacturers to finally do something. JKK showed what could be done, but this is modding and not the standard device.

  20. Chippy says:

    You miss point that you can actually start to leave a device on, and connected. A good data modem in GSM mode would give you 6hrs of internet connected time. (i tested about 6.5 on the Wibrain) You reach smartphone always-on usage models and that’s exactly where Intel and ARM want to be. Just imagine a device that could run Skype, Pidgin, Tweetdeck, push email for 24hrs without turning it off. Also consider visual and audible (and vibration) indicators. The N810 uses a number of indicators to indicate various things. As I type this, my N810 screen is off but its running skype, im and email. I see, right now, that a message is waiting for me but the screen is still off.

    With the Viliv able to run 8+hrs in this mode (Nokia N810 does about the same) it’s well worth thinking about.

    Steve

  21. Chippy says:

    Corrction, the Viliv should run about 6hrs in this mode.

  22. fab says:

    i did not miss the point, i just figured that today that’s not possible yet. obviously i want an always on device but i’m not pretending 24hours always on and “wake-up-from-sleep-mode”. but a device which aims to be a “computer” and not a phone in terms of functionality, must have the capability of being in full power mode for more than 5 hours. it’s a MOBILE device but a computer.

    an example:

    i switch it on in the morning, i switch on my IM (skype, pidgin etc.) and some other stuff like mp3 player. I walk to the tube station listening to music until i’m at work it usually takes up to 45 min. now at work i leave my personal websites on and continue with my IM on the desktop. the MID is still on but on standby. at lunch i watch some news, feeds, vids etc and then in the evening i go to have a drink with friends and while they talk about cars, i quickly check some new articles or comments on UMPCportal :-) and reply. then i leave and go home. when i’m there, a friend calls me to check out the new shop in a street i don’t know. i take my MID, fire on GPS and drive there, for about an hour. arrived there i take some snapshots of my friend in front of the bear he killed while entering the back door of the shop. and start posting those pics on facebook, right there in front of the shop. now in the shop i see some good stuff although i want to check the prices first. no wifi here obviously so i use 3G to connect to all sites. i need to check my excel sheets with all the pivot sheets with price comparisons etc. alright, figured it’s cheaper on the other side of the town. going there, taking my friend and the dead bear with me…2 hours later i’m at home, finally, my MID is still on and has 2 hours battery left, right for a movie i downloaded while i was at work…

    now that’s not going to happen with the compal mid which will be dead on my already in the morning when I arrive at work…

  23. quazy says:

    Says 24whr on the products page http://www.umpcportal.com/products/Viliv/S5/ . If it is only 17whr and with the increase in price and the projected umid price It looks like a umid for me. As long as it has upgradeable ssd.

  24. Chippy says:

    Update. the battery is confirmed 24wh. Soory for the scare folks. I had the UMID info in my head I think!
    Steve

  25. deriuqer says:

    Now some infos about a high-cap/extended battery please. ;)

  26. Chippy says:

    See correction! Sorry.

  27. deriuqer says:

    No Chippy my fault,I confused you.Still need that info about high-cap/extended battery.

    WE NEED 8 HRS DAMNIT !!! (oh the meds take effect) :D

  28. Chippy says:

    Viliv just got back to us direct. The battery is actually 22.9wh. The figures don’t really change much from the 24wh we mentioned earlier (although make a lot of difference over the 17wh figure we had before!)

    Steve

  29. DrNick says:

    Hi Chippy. Do you know anyone going to MWC next week? If so maybe they can get some more info, pics, and video of the Viliv S5.

  30. TinShine says:

    it looks alot smaller while in that guys hands than it did in the pics by itself. i really dont care if its a little extra thick to stick a nice battery in there.

    does anybody know what physical controls it has? is that a mouse nub? what are the buttons on the right? what ports does it have?

  31. Chippy says:

    that controlnstick was simply a cursor joystick when i tried it.

    check out the video i did.

    http://www.umpcportal.com/2008/08/viliv-s5-mid

    Steve

  32. fab says:

    i don’t like this market situation…have been waiting so long for the compal mid and now with this one…waiting again? and then it’s available and somebody will announce/release something else…

    until the S5 will be somehow available in Europe it’s going to be May/June.

    Steve, what would you do?

  33. MIDFan says:

    No webcam for the S5?

  34. JonL says:

    Yeah, i noticed the omission of a webcam as well.

    Also, there’s no SD card reader as far as i can tell.

    I like to think that Viliv elected to omit this features in favour of focusing upon size and battery life.

  35. brook Zerihun says:

    Mobilx has something new :)

    http://www.mobilx.hu/mobile-internet-device-mid-/viliv-umpc-mid.html

  36. Austin says:

    so does anybody know whether it will support US 3G support??

  37. Wolle says:

    chippy: is it possible to use the regular XP desktop instead of the special cube gui?

  38. quazy says:

    I though you could switch between the two u.i.’s

  39. onadesert says:

    Villiv is coming !!
    Taking preorder at its website. Delivery is starting on March 3.
    There are four modles for sale in Korea.
    http://www.myviliv.com/common/notice/listbody.asp?gb=admin&cd=4&idx=28313&a_gb=admin&a_cd=4&a_item=0.
    Looks like international version may come with GPS at price tag $699.

    I found a review on production ready version on a Korean website. Take a look at just photos to see what are in the package.
    http://blogit.blogkorea.net/14125645/http://blog.naver.com/jegalcsh/80063051521

    Benchmark screen captures
    http://blogit.blogkorea.net/14125645/http://blog.naver.com/jegalcsh/80063051521

  40. fab says:

    US 699? before or after taxes? i have no clue, what about selling outside Korea? if a distributor picks it up, add another 200+ dollars. so around 900 USD for it. i will wait until somebody makes a move and mainly installs linux on it.

  41. TinShine says:

    XP Home & a touch screen, what kind of HWR software will it use?

  42. onadesert says:

    I just noticed that S5 doesn’t have a web cam and microphone. I guess we have to forget about using Skype on this device. How much does it cost to put a 1.3M web cam and microphone? It seems like a joke not having a web cam and microphone on a MID.
    I would rather have a microphone and webcam than a big HDD.

  43. Marcel Titieni says:

    Do you wanna be the first one to have an UMID M1?
    Preoder it at http://xenonshop.ro/xcart/umid-m1-mid-preorder-pr-16239.html

  44. Hoof says:

    Whats being released first the UMID or s5?

    Whichever one comes first I will most likely get.

  45. WENTWORTH says:

    Да уж… Куча комментариев и практически ни одного по теме :)

  46. Эммануил says:

    На громких заголовках и подобной шумихе можно делать и не такие успехи :)

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