File this post into the better late than never category.
Samsung started into the UMPC market with the original Q1 [Portal page] from there, they upgraded to the Q1 Ultra [Portal page] which added a split keyboard, increased the screen resolution, and made some other upgrades. Now Samsung is getting back to its roots with the Q1EX which was spotted at CES 2009.
The Q1EX looks like a more refined version of Samsung’s original Slate UMPC, the Q1. They dropped the split keyboard from the Q1 Ultra and moved to the Via Nano platform for processing. They were able to get the price down to a pretty reasonable price, but they made some compromises like battery life and no more keyboard.
Laptop Mag got their hands on a Q1EX for a review session. They found the price to be more reasonable than the predecessors, but didn’t like the reduced battery life and lack of an effective method of text input. I would say that the unit is definitely an upgrade over the original Q1 which would be great for anyone who enjoyed using one. There is also a pretty cool organizer case which has a keyboard that attaches to the Q1EX to make text entry a bit easier (pictured below). 
March 28th, 2009 at 5:43 am
New article: Samsung Q1EX UMPC gets reviewed http://cli.gs/TX4WL5
March 28th, 2009 at 8:10 am
1) no USB slot on the top. The Q1 Ultra allowed you to hold it in your hands, AND use a 3G data stick. This one doesn’t appear to keep that capability.
2) I can’t think of anything about this one that is more compelling than the Q1 Ultra … not better battery life, etc. The dock/case is cool, but not enough to make up for losing the thumb keyboard and such.
Ok, the price is compelling. But I got my Q1 Ultra for $1000, and I’m fine with paying the extra for it, compared to this one.
March 28th, 2009 at 9:16 am
seems like a downgrade not even a refresh?
March 28th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
As a Q1 ultra premium owner I would miss the keypad and my 6 cell battery. But Samsung builds quality stuff and for the price it might attract those tweeners who want a tablet / netbook.
For me, the Q1 UP is pricer for the value I get over a netbook. Thats where this new model may struggle… who will they attract?
John Reply:
March 28th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
The article seems to say that it will have a 6 cell battery option. I agree on missing the keypads though.
The mouse nub can be useful for fine pointing work, too. More accurate than a finger, not as slow to deploy as a stylus. I’d miss that, as well.
Ben Reply:
March 28th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Ya I’m fairly certain there is a 6-cell but it doesn’t come standard.
March 28th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
What I would have liked to see in a new Samsung tablet:
1) 5 row keypads instead of 4 (ie. dedicated number row). That’s my one consistent frustrations with the Q1 Ultra — sometimes numbers just don’t work (some VNC applications sometimes don’t pass them on), and it can be easy to forget whether you’re in numlock mode or not.
2) Swap the “Control” and “Numlock” locations. I often need to control-w, control-t, control-d, control-x, control-v, or control-c. There have even been a few places where I needed to control-tab. It seems like all of the useful control-keys are on the left side … just like the control button. The result is: you can’t easily make use of the control key. Ideally, you could have 2 control keys, but the current layout might make that awkward. The other option would be for the control key to be a toggle, instead of a meta/modifier key, sort of like the symbol key.
3) The 5 way dpad is nice. But, at least under ubuntu, it’s not an actual dpad. It’s an arrangement of function keys around the enter button. I want a real 5-way dpad. (for those who don’t know, under ubuntu, the mouse nub becomes a dpad when you put it into joystick mode, but I don’t like having to choose between mouse and dpad mode).
4) 3 mouse buttons instead of two.
5) Lower power, lower heat CPU. I imagine that the Atom would be better here than whatever is in the Q1 Ultra. An ARM processor would be great, but it would only be acceptable to those of us who want to run Linux on it. Those who want to run desktop windows apps on it wouldn’t want an ARM version at all. I’m not sure about the Nano vs Atom for this category, but it would be nice to know.
(though, I wouldn’t mind seeing an ARM based version of the Q1 platform, 7″ screen, 800×480 or 1024×600, Maemo and/or Ubuntu and/or Android and/or WinMo, perhaps with the VMWare software recently demo’ed on the N800, very low power consumption, and a lot of the other ARM family capabilities; perhaps using the latest and greated TI OMAP processors)
6) retain the top edge USB port
7) since this model has a docking port, an interesting idea (in my mind) would have been a clip-on keyboard (like the TouchPad). The Carrying case for this one almost fits that role, but I mean “without the carrying case”.
9) a PCI Express Mini card slot, so that there aren’t multiple models which vary their WWAN support. Just make it a standard option for the entire product line. I am willing to bet that you couldn’t fit it inside the current model … but … with the Q1 Ultra, when you attach the 6 cell battery, the device becomes asymmetric in thickness. What if Samsung had made the right side of the device thicker to accommodate a PCI Express Mini card slot (or even a PC-Card slot that opens to the top), so that the device was symmetric when carrying the 6 cell battery. For the 4 cell battery, just make it physically the same dimensions as the 6 cell battery, just lighter. That way the 6 cell doesn’t change the device’s profile (and that new thicker profile wouldn’t make the device unusably thick).
10) integration of the camera(s) with Ubuntu. Probably more of an Ubuntu issue than a Samsung issue, but, just sayin’. Overall, seeing more integration and Samsung support for Ubuntu on the Q1 series would be very nice.
11) Even though the device can only display 1024×600, it would be nice to see its external display support more standard SD and HD resolutions. It would also be nice to see Ubuntu on this device support letter-boxing of the display when mirroring in those modes (ie. display the 1024×600 on a 1024×768 screen, with black bands at the top and bottom to fill in the extra area). Right now, Ubuntu does bad things when the external monitor doesn’t support 1024×600 (it wants to force you down to 800×600). Again, this might be an ubuntu issue, but it would be nice to see Samsung and Ubuntu work together on this type of thing.
12) And, while I’m the topic of Ubuntu and the display, Ubuntu doesn’t seem to actually do well with rotating the display. It would be nice to see that get fixed. And, just so this bullet item isn’t all about Ubuntu … it would be nice if this new model had had an accelerometer, for automatic screen rotation.
13) A Splashtop/Instant-On OS that supports both Windows and Ubuntu as the main OS (most of the ones I’ve seen so far only allow you to hand off to Windows … but I don’t run Windows). I would want it to be able to run at least Firefox and Pidgin, with the ability to integrate with the standard primary host OS’s Firefox and Pidgin (leverage/integrate-with their config files, log files, caches, plugins, etc.; as well as having some means to hand the session off to the primary host OS as soon as the user is ready to do that). I also sort of wonder if Android can be made to run in this role. On the G1, it can be a little slow to boot, but I wonder if that’s just a lack of fast-booting optimization; some of the other splashtop OSes out there are linux based, so I’d expect Android might be able to do better in this regard as well.
14) Android support (even if it’s not the OS for #13).
15) It might be very interesting to see #13 and #14 addressed with a light VMWare based Splashtop OS (like what they demo’ed on the N800, but obviously for intel instead of arm), so that you’d quick boot into a VMware environment (that may or may not have Firefox and Pidgin capabilities added to it), and then you could run Android, Windows, and/or Ubuntu side by side, quick swapping between them as desired.
I think I’ve rambled enough :-}
March 31st, 2009 at 9:40 am
I just don’t get it. Why not just reduce the price of the Q1 Ultra instead of making a new model? What market are they hoping to attract with this device?
If it was $499 then OK but it’s not.
My conclusion is that is was made for a big customer. But why the VIA design?
Baffled.
Steve.
John Reply:
March 31st, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Yeah, there’s not much about the Q1EX that makes sense. It may be that they were somehow committed to a new edition of the Q1 platform, but abandoned doing anything serious with it during the rise of the MID and netbook markets over the “Pro-Mobile”/UMPC market. So, this model ends up being the red-headed-step-child of the Q1 family.
If that’s true, then this will probably be the last model of the line-up … and that would be sad.