Spot the difference. On the top, the Eking S515 available in China and through Mobilx in Europe. On the bottom, the PsiXpda (that’s Sye-Ex P-D-A) which has just been launched by PsiXPDA in England.
Yup, they’re the same device which is excellent news. Why? It means activity, availability and competition which is great for everyone. Lord knows we need some movement in this market.
PsiXPDA has been set-up to bring mobile computing to high end users according to Ewan Spence, a partner in the company. We did some work with Ewan on MIDMoves last year where he tested out a number of mobile devices in his ‘elements’ tour. He’s also involved with writing content for All About Symbian and a number of other websites. One could say that he’s a blogger that has brought a mobile device to the market where others have failed!
I spoke to Ewan earlier about the project and asked him about target markets, numbers, prices and the future and he was very clear to point out that this device isn’t intended to be a huge mass market product. “10’s of thousands” is the target here which, across a market of over 1 billion people, shouldn’t be too hard. It’s not going to be the only PsiXPDA product either. There’s room for more although Ewan wouldn’t comment on anything particular. We guess that they’ll be spending quite a lot of time going round CES and, hopefully, keeping track of UMPCPortal.
The PsiXPDA will be available from next week in Europe with the same specs as we’ve got for the Eking S515. The operating system will be Windows XP (sensible move in our opinion) and there will be an unlocked 3G modem pre-installed. Pricing is set at the 500 UK pounds mark which includes UK taxes. For a device with 3G included, that’s not bad at all. US pricing is not yet set although if you drop the 15% tax off the UK price and convert to dollars, you probably won’t be far off. PsiXPDA are also looking at Linux options.
On the question of categorization, Ewan held back from using the UMPC term preferring to call the device a ‘Pocket computer.’
One other snippet of information we managed to get out of Ewan was that there’s a docking station coming. We were wondering what that port was for on the bottom! They are expecting it soon and apparently it’s a fairly simple affair with 2xUSB and a VGA output. That’s all that’s needed so if it’s well priced it’s a must-have.
Our unboxing of the EKing branded version of the device is here. Full specifications and information on the PsiXPDA website as is the contact point for orders.
December 4th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
I am very interested in this netbook but no offense that is a dumb name. As dumb as *ist D.
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December 10th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
This is off-topic, I know, but I totally agree with you about the *ist D. I was trying to buy one used a few years ago, and boy, is it impossible to search the Web (or eBay or Craigslist) for something called ‘*ist’. It just ignores the asterisk completely. I found one eventually, but not without a lot of frustration.
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December 4th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
This is really good news!!! I like that their web site goes straight into talk about the “Pocket Computer”. Eking spends some time into putting some sugar around comparing with the viliv s5 and using fancy words. Some new companies like to buy our love first out of the CONCEPT of the devise solely without going into details. That way they pull more money out from our pockets without a serious commitment on future improvements to the devise. I still would like to see more specs laid out on PsiXPDA’s site. Buyers will compare improvements vs price changes and that will keep a healthier market. I just hope the trend of Fujitsu and OQO does not infect others. There is nothing wrong in making a lot of money but they also have to deliver.
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December 4th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Specs are different.
PsiXpda processor Atom Z510 1.1Ghz – old, don’t underclock
Eking Atom Z515 1.2Ghz – new, more eficient
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December 5th, 2009 at 3:12 am
Well spotted. I hadn’t seen that.
The 1.2 is indeed a good step up from the 1.1ghz.
I’ll check on final specs and correct the info when final.
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December 5th, 2009 at 3:55 am
Can I get one free then ?
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December 5th, 2009 at 6:08 am
So what’s the price looking like?
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December 4th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
And again – no GPS. What is going on here?!
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December 5th, 2009 at 3:33 am
We had 800×480 umpcs 4-5 years ago. Its unusable. Another umpc with too many design compromises though I recognise the price and form factor is good.
I’d want Windows 7 , a wider screen, higher resolution, and a better chip inside. Its just too much of a compromise as it stands right now.
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December 5th, 2009 at 3:38 am
Hm. With the placement of the optical mouse, and mouse buttons, how do you do a “drag” operation (just using the mouse, obviously the touch screen is another option)?
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December 5th, 2009 at 4:54 am
easy! you click and hold the mouse button the left side and then drag using the trackpad like thing on the right side. just like how you would do it on any computer.
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December 5th, 2009 at 6:05 am
i don’t see a trackpad on the right. not even in the much clearer pics of the white model. i only see the optical mouse like port right above the the mouse buttons.
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December 5th, 2009 at 6:59 am
if you read the entire article you’ll see that this is the same as the eking s515 (specs slightly different). there’s a link of the unboxing of it at the end of this article. chippy shows that the area under the buttons on the right side is a trackpad and the buttons on the left are the mouse buttons.
December 5th, 2009 at 7:11 am
Nice snarky name.
I did read the article before commenting. I already know that it’s the same as the E King. That alone wouldn’t have answered the question.
(I do not, however, watch unboxing videos, they tend to be boring and light on actual information — not saying Chippy’s are boring and light on info, just saying that, in general, across the blogosphere, they’re only useful for eye candy, not for actual information; box opening videos are basically “gadget-geek porn”; so I tend to skip them)
December 5th, 2009 at 3:39 am
It’d be interesting to see which version of Linux they choose. Ubuntu or Android on something that size could be interesting. Android, with the 3G module built in, might be useful with Google Voice though (then it could be my “one pocketable+phone” device).
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December 6th, 2009 at 12:14 am
Thinking about that more …
Changes I’d want to see:
a) Android as the primary OS. I’d probably also want dual-booting to Ubuntu. I can understand others wanting to boot it to some from of Windows, as well.
b) put the FN key where the CTRL key is, put the CTRL key where the del key is, and put an Android “home” button where the CTRL key is now, put an Android “Menu” buttonwhere the PsiX key is, and put an Android “back” button where the Alt key is. Maybe change the “FN” key’s name to “Alt”, but that’s of lesser importance.
c) potentially, change it from being based on an Atom CPU to being based on a TI OMAP 3xxx 1GHz CPU. That would alter the Windows choices, but would also greatly extend the battery life.
d) make sure it’s audio port is bidirectional (like a cell phone’s 3.5mm jack), for use with Google Voice, Skype, etc.
e) in the US, options for T-Mobile 3G, AT&T 3G, Sprint 3G, Sprint 4G (WiMAX), and Verizon 3G. Ideally, it’s just a PCI-Express-Mini card that the customer can install or swap as they see fit.
f) the antenna button should pull up a menu with 4 checkboxes: bluetooth on/off, wifi on/off, 3G on/off, and airplane mode (no wireless of any kind; dims the other 3 options without forgetting their state, so you can easily go back to your previous mode of operation when you uncheck this one later).
g) on Verizon, have a Mifi-like capability (there are Android apps for it already, just saying: bundle it). Ideally, it’d be on all of the units, but only Verizon seems to be tethering-friendly with their Android devices (in the US, dunno about other countries and their carriers).
h) hopefully, it also has KVM capability. If that IS a docking port by the keyboard, hopefully it’s DVI-I and not just VGA. And hopefully it has other USB-Host capability (the specs imply it has both a USB-mini and a USB port).
If it has all of that, I could see it maybe being my “one pocketable” device. I’d be a little leery of using Google Voice as my one phone capability. Better would be if they integrated full phone functionality (voice and SMS). But even without that … with a 3G module, Android, Google Voice, and wifi/mifi tethering, this could be an awesome device.
(and, yes, as a “pocketable”, it’s very much at the “upper end” of the spectrum for that … even for a big guy like me, it would be pushing the envelope of pocketability)
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December 5th, 2009 at 3:40 am
battery life? pls. it is my dealdecider.
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December 5th, 2009 at 3:42 am
Oh, and, is that an HDMI port under the keyboard?
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December 5th, 2009 at 4:00 am
no its a docking station connector. But would you want to dock a 1.1 atom?
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December 5th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
another dumb question that is answered by the article. either you didn’t read the article or you have a very short memory…
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December 5th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
The article wonders if it’s a docking station port, it doesn’t say it’s a docking station port. It looks more like an HDMI port, to me.
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December 6th, 2009 at 1:25 am
“there’s a docking station coming. We were wondering what that port was for on the bottom!”
It’s a docking station port.
USB2x2, VGA, power and VGA. I hope audio too.
December 6th, 2009 at 2:34 am
Ah, I read that as “we are wondering” not “we were wondering”.
VGA is ok news, but not great news, for the docking port. DVI-I would be much better (would give adapters for SD-composite-TV, VGA, DVI, and HDMI; VGA doesn’t give you DVI-D or HDMI compatibility, and HDMI or DVI-D doesn’t give you VGA nor composite display compatibility).
December 6th, 2009 at 2:09 am
I wonder if the docking station will be as similar to the Sharp D4 cradle – http://www.pocketables.net/2008/08/review-willco-1.html – as the device itself is to the D4. The D4′s cradle was crazy expensive but it had a built in spare battery charger plus all those ports.
Speaking of the D4, any chance for a size comp?
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March 10th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
It’s on sale in the US at http://www.netbooktabletpc.com
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