Comments on: Smart Devices Q7 Unboxing video. (Updated)

By: Zavandor

Zavandor — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:25:30 +0000

I have ordered one from Electoworld and should arrive soon (5 days since the order, it should ship today).
I’ve seen that you have installed a different linux distribution on the device. Are you going to publish an howto?

By: raaiman

raaiman — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:23:22 +0000

Tried with bluetooth DUN it works perfectly.

By: Miron

Miron — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:36:57 +0000

Has anyone used this device with 3G/HDSPA modem?

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:15:20 +0000

Hey, did a Nokia Charger work for this? I think you didn’t try it in you Q&A. It would be great if it did because you could charge it in your car.

By: corticalsam

corticalsam — Mon, 25 May 2009 06:09:54 +0000

That’s great news. Thanks for the fast reply. I can convert my videos to Divx easily.
I am waiting for your full review.

By: Chippy

Chippy — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:42:38 +0000

1.5mbps Divx seems to work well. I need to more tests though.
If this is the case, it will be good enough for most situations as long as you can convert to the correct format.

By: corticalsam

corticalsam — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:09:07 +0000

Hi:
Chippy, can you send a video overview about video playback quality and performance? You said it’s poor but I wonder how bad it is. Does it mean that the device is not suitable for video at all? I am planning to order one this week and I want to know more about what I will get.
Thanks

By: Chippy

Chippy — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:52:36 +0000

raaiman. Thanks for that feedback.

I’m just writing a little overview article and then i’ll be writing up a full article over the next few days. So far I haven’t had any instabilities and i’ve been messing around quite a bit (as you saw over at hiblue.com!)

By: raaiman

raaiman — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:03:52 +0000

The device is great, Found that the cramfs that it uses is not stable at all, keeps crashing. Had to re-install it overagain but the guys at smartdevices didn’t have the english firmware so had to hack the locale.dat and locale.txt to bring it up in english using the chinese firmware. Don’t even try aptitude, it will fill-up the entire root dir and leave the system with no space at all (just only 32mb after firmware install), once you fill-it-up, you can’t even login. Works well with bluetooth, but doesn’t work very well with WWAN usb modems. Connecting bluetooth DUN is simple, works flawlessly. battery indicator is not very accurate, says i have 25% left but turn off and on again i have about 75%, after installing some .deb arm apps, the fs will crash and you can’t even logout normally, that’s when you’ll find the reset button handy. great stuff to have stuffs on the go with you, where you can just msn to them. why not email? well because all yourmails will be stored on the user directory which is no more then 200+mb, which will be filled up in an instant. Haven’t found a way to set the directories to the home/user/disk. The good thing is… reinstalling the firmware is dead simple, just place the SmartQ7 image in the sdcard, reset the device hold down the button below the up/down (yes the move windows button) untill the light turns amber, then it’ll say something in chinese like please wait while we install your firmware. then get the locale.dat and change the locale.txt to en_US that’s it.. midori does it’s job as a webbrowser. As reviewed by chippy, the keyboard/mouse over a usb hub will work on first go, but make sure you just don’t plug in the power cables or plug-out, it will crash the unit. Tons of other bugs you will find, in a short 1 hr, especially when you use keyboard/mouse the PowerManager will just shut off the lcd even if you are using your mouse. so just go to the brightness control panel (in chinese) just slide everything to the max (yes that’s to the right for all you non-chinese reading folks) and hit the center option which i think says apply. setting up the time is also a pain, but.. same thing goes, remember the center button means apply. One thing that you shouldn’t do, don’t drop the unit, the case will crack but amazingly the device still works haha. Changing the battery will be simple as it’s easy to dismantle the unit just 8 screws and that’s it. you just remove the back cover and everything will come out. Don’t think you can upgrade the memory it’s Surface Mounted. The 1gb NAND is from sandisk, 2×64mb ram, not sure if you are able to upgrade or not, yup as advertised it’s using the SAMSUNG arm11 chip. Good thing is… there is a space for a pad for the bluetooth chip i wonder why they didn’t include it and opt for external. Wifi uses the USI chip WM-G-MR-09 i think can’t really see it clearly. Well hope this sheds more light for the smartq7. overall a good device.

By: som

som — Sat, 23 May 2009 14:17:31 +0000

what is the exact weight of q7? i am also curious about the real life of its battery. thanks inadvance.

By: CorticalSam

CorticalSam — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:03:13 +0000

Does KOffice work on this version of Ubuntu? For example Kexi looks to be a nice database which could be ideal for my needs.

By: pl_here

pl_here — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:38:14 +0000

The Q7 is available on ebay now for US$199 + shipping:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-smart-Q7-Mobile-Internet-Device-MID-UMPC-Q5_W0QQitemZ230343831402QQcmdZViewItem

By: turn_self_off

turn_self_off — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:36:39 +0000

you should really try tear or webkit-eal for the N810 then, as its basically the same engine.

By: CorticalSam

CorticalSam — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:11:10 +0000

That’s what I am waiting for impatiently. The best way to choose is to compare.
Thanks

By: CorticalSam

CorticalSam — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:10:07 +0000

Thanks. But that one is a little pricey for me! Even if I can’t have a excel for the device I will ask a programmer or one of my friends to make a spreadsheet like app for me. This way it may even worth more for me.
I should mention that hospitals (which my office is inside one) are tricky places. Any device may fall down on a very hard floor easily, plus I prefer not to use a device more that 6 months (even mobile phones) because of many tough bugs that can stick to the device corners or holes and scratches.
I know there are some special Tablet Pcs made for physicians (like what motion computing offers) but I personally feel they are too expensive for my use. They are great if the hospital pays for them!
Anyway thanks for the reply. Waiting for more feedback messages.