The Samsung Q1 has obviously been doing the rounds this week in Europe. A number of UK and Euopean websites have been running 'first impressions' reviews. However, Xonio.com a German website, ran some brief tests and had a short review available back in early April. Importantly, they ran some battery-life tests. Here are the results:

Working with text (Word) - 3.01 hours.
Divx playing - 2 hours.

The Samsung uses the Celeron processor (the least efficient of the mobile processors available in current Origami UMPC's) and these figures are way below my prediction for the VIA-based devices (4 hours / 2.5 hours respectively) and makes me wonder if I've over-estimated the battery life of the VIA-based UMPC devices. Especially as the Japanese itmedia only got 2 hours out of their VIA-based UMPC battery when playing a movie.

There are some more Eo (via-based) reviews lined up for next week on various UMPC portals so i'm hoping we'll see some battery life tests to determine once and for all if the VIA based Origami UMPC's are really more power efficient than the Celeron-based ones.

Other info from the Xonio web site are:

• PCMark04 result - 1.690
• Screen brightness - 187 cd/m
• Screen - wide viewing angle. 2 people can watch a film in a train or plane.

Steve / Chippy.

Since I set up the UMPC product portal , I've been tracking how many people look at each UMPC product.
Here's the top 10 UMPC's so far with percentage of views (from about 1500 page views.) Click to get more product info.

1. Samsung Q1 12.53%
2. ASUS R2H 11.91%
3. Tablet Kiosk Eo 10.68%
4. Amtek 700 9.65%
5. Founder Mininote 6.84%
6. Paceblade Easybook/Smart Caddie 5.95%
7. Avertec AHI 4.72%
8. Fujitsu P1510D 4.52%
9. DualCor cCP 3.90%
10. ECS EZ30D 3.76%

Of course its not an unbiased list. Some product pages could be better linked than others and some products appear higher on the product list than others. It's interesting, however, to see the Avertec up there after only a week on the list and also the rather expensive and unique DualCor.

Remember that the Carrypad definition of a UMPC includes devices other than 'Origami' devices. For a complete list and details of all UMPC's , check out the UMPC product portal.

I've been in contact with Paceblade this afternoon after reading some information on the German release of the Smart Caddie UMPC device.
It will be called the Paceblade Easybook P7 and i've posted a news article over at Origamiportal with the details.

As i'm based in Germany and the European head office is in Germany, i'll try to remain in contact. More info will be posted as we get it.

UMPC Buzz mentioned Dynamic Display Power Optimisation (D2PO) in a news item last month and at the time I didnt have time to do any research on it. Having just put the UMPC product database live, its now time to take a look at D2PO and other technologies to see how they could improve the battery life of UMPC's (and laptops) in the future.

Firstly, that D2PO story. D2PO is a display control technology rather than a display technology itself. (as far as I have found out in my research - I don't work in the display industry and I'm happy to be corrected at any point. Any LCD experts out there care to comment?) An LCD controller has been developed by TMDisplay that can reduce the power needed to control an LCD panel by up to 30%. It does this by dynamically changing the way a screen is updated according to certain image characteristics. For example, as I write this journal entry, only small areas of my screen are changing every second. The screen is updating at a high rate and at every update, each pixel is being set to the required colour. Thats an overhead. By changing the way that the refreshes are done (actually by reducing the updates) power is saved. At the moment, D2PO is beging developed in conjunction with Intel but, like other technologies, i'm sure that versions of D2PO will filter through very quickly to other CPU manufacturers under different names.

The first question you should be asking though is - how much power does a display controller use? Good question. It turns out that the controller used by TmDisplay in their test was using over 1 watt of power. That's a lot. As much as the average utilisation of a Pentium-M or VIA C-7 ULV 1Ghz processor.

What does it mean for UMPC battery life? Lets take previous research and say that a UMPC device is going to use about 8 watts under average use. If we reduce that by 0.3 watt (30% of 1 watt), we're talking about a 4% power reduction. Taking more research figures, that translates to about 6 min extra battery life on the best figures that we have.

6 minutes is not an amazing improvement but its the measure of improvement that we're going to be seeing across the board for CPU, Battery, Disk, Display, Wireless radio and system control over the next year.

Here's a summary of power-improvements we could see over the next 12 months.

• CPU and chipset power will be reduced by about 20% (based on some Intel Core Duo figures.)
  
• Battery life will be increased by about 10-15% (based on often quoted firgures for improvements in current battery technology)
  
• LCD display and controller power will be reduced by 10-15%
• Wireless chipset power will be reduced by 10-20% (based on higher integration and improving silicon technologies.)
  
• Disk power will be reduced by 10% (possibly more if flash memory prices keep on falling and users are happy to swap-out content as they need it - do you really need to carry 100 hours of video around on your device?)
• System control (power-saving control mechanisms and API's) will reduce overall power requirements by 20-30%

Can I make a prediction here? Carrypads law states that power requirements of mobile devices will reduce by 20% a year!

Taking our average load figures, here's what we get in real terms:

• 2006 - Average UMPC life 2.5 hours
• 2007 - Average UMPC life 3 hours
• 2008 - Average UMPC life 3.6 hours
• 2009 - Average UMPC life 4.3 hours
• 2010 - Average UMPC life 5 hours.

Lets put a marketing twist on those figures because just like all manufacturers do, we could use 'minimum load' figures:

• 2006 - Average UMPC life 4 hours
• 2007 - Average UMPC life 4.8 hours
• 2008 - Average UMPC life 5.75 hours
• 2009 - Average UMPC life 6.9 hours
• 2010 - Average UMPC life 8.3 hours.

..and hey presto - you reach the Intel target of all-day (another marketing twist of 8 hours!) of battery life by 2010.

I wonder how much the devices will cost in 2010 - we'll leave that for another Carrypad prediction!

Steve/Chippy.

Labels: Report

[Update: This is also known as the Paceblade Easybook P8.]

I thought that the smartpad journal entry had turned out to be a bit of a dead-loss (after hearing subsequently that it had been discontinued nearly 2 years ago!) but un unknown 'Simone' left an interesting comment on link on that post today to let me know about another umpc-like device.

The PMG quadpad from Tronic (and sold in Europe through Akori) has all the right ingredients. It runs on a VIA C3 processor (one generation older than the C7) but I can't see anything in the spec list that puts it far outside of Origami territory. The 8.4" screen is slightly bigger and the touch-pack software is missing but these are minor points. Manufacturers price appears to be over $2000 but Simone says its available for Euro1200. That still seems a bit high for a C3-based device considering its Origami competitors but it could be a 2005 price.
It supports screen rotation and has a PCMCIA slot which should satisfy those that want to add in their local flavour of mobile data interface.

Processor Via C3 Eden 1 GHz
Memory PC2100 DDR 512 MB DDR
Display 800 x 600 Touchscreen - Finger
Hard disk 2.5" 40 to 80 GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home or Professional

All the usual wired and wireless connectivity is there along with a 1.2kg weight and an 'up to 3.5hr' battery. A range of accessories is also available.

I've contacted the distributer to see if there's a U.S. distribution partner and any plans for variations of the device (perhaps using a C7 processor.)

Perhaps we'll have another UMPC on the market soon!

[Update: 15th April - Zupera Technology returned my email query for more information. The bad news is that they stopped producing this device a long time ago.]

Browsing back over some of my 'draft' blogs (of which there are many!) I found this article reference.

It dates from nearly 2 years ago and shows this little baby. Its the Zupera Technology Smartpad (nice name!) Zupera make industrial equipment but this doesnt look industrial to me.

Operating System - Windows CE.NET English Version
CPU - Intel PXA255 400MHz
Memory - 64MB Flash ROM, 128MB SDRAM
Display - 7" TFT color screen 16 bits, resolution 800x480
Wireless Communcation - GPRS/CDMA 1Xmodule, 802.11b
Expansion SlotCompact - SD/MMC
Microphone - In-built microphone
Speaker - In-built stereo speaker
Keyboard - PS 2 interface keyboard
Video Output - VGA
Communications - Host USB A V 1.1; Mini USB B, V 1.1
Network Interface - RJ45,10M/100M
Serial Port - RS 232C
Power Supply - Rechargeable li-battery 3600mAH, replaceable
Dimensions - LxWxH = 215mm X 125mm X 28mm

You could call it a grown-up Pocket PC but with the VGA-output, USB host capablity and 7" 800x480 screen, its not far removed from UMPC territory. Marketing-wise, this thing could go into the UMPC space at about 600 Euro. Its missing the keyboard but its oh-so-close to the Carrypad ideal spec! I like it!


Steve/Chippy.

[Update - 14th April - All product data has now been entered into the website.]

The product list that I had was gettting quite popular and had a few outstanding requests from users. I've re-worked the site over that last two weeks and the new version has just gone live.

The new feature of the site is product-specific web pages which contain as much information as I was able to get my hands on. This includes specifications, images and informational links to news items, reviews, videos and manfacturers. Sorting capability has also been added.

The issue of prices and availability is still outstanding. I've have the capability to do this, but becuase of a lack of real-time price partners and regional issues, I still need time before I make it live. I'll consider putting up MRRP prices in the meantime. Search facility will be added soon along with product-specific RSS feeds.

Updates will be added as I see them and as they come in from external sources. If you have information, spot errors, or have a product that you'd like represented on the site, please send me a mail.

Happy Easter!

Steve.

Last month, I posted journals about CPU comparisons and power utilisation in UMPC and Origami devices. VIAArena have now published a nice article by Van Smith from Vans Hardware with even more details about the C7-M ULV processor including the all-important battery life tests that I couldn't find for my article.The tests were done using laptops but from these results we can calculate likey UMPC battery life figures.

Importantly, It gives us the first test result that confirms, as we expected, that the VIA C7-ULM processor would be the best choice of processor for UMPC devices under normal work conditions. The Celeron, didn't do at all well in this test.

VIA’s midget processor extracts an amazing 7.31 hours of runtime out of a budget notebook using a 48.8 Watt-hour battery! The Pentium-M does pretty well, but still falls nearly an hour short of the VIA C7-M ULV processor.

UMPCs - 4 hours at minimum load.
By using a VIA C7, the results show 7.31 hours of min power draw. The maths are quite easy there because the CPU clockrate has a minimal effect on battery power at idle or low-load operations. As Origami devices have about 24 watt-hour batteries, the expected life is a little over half of that with the 48 watt-hour battery.

UMPCs - under 2 hours at full-load.
The full-load VIA example is just as interesting. The laptop tested gives 3.2 hours using a 48W battery. If you take into account the smaller disk drive, small screen and lower clock processor of an Origami CPU, I think you'll see about 55-60% of that figure for your VIA-based UMPC. That equates to about 1.8 hours under full-load. Using a Celeron, that figure will be about 1.3 hours.

UMPC's - 2.5 hour films.
In the real world, watching a film for example, you'll be making sure that your films are under 2.5 hours long with a VIA-based UMPC. If you're a Celeron user, I hope you're a cartoon fan!

Remember that the VIA processors have lower processing performance than Pentiums but for the average user, the C7-M ULV looks like the best choice for UMPC's

Here's looking forward to the real first side-by-side UMPC battery life tests.

Take a look at the report. Its a really good read. Well done and thanks to Vans Hardware.

Both Carrypad and Ultranauts carried journals about this - UMPC's could be subsidised by offering them in bundles with data or content packages.

I wrote mainly about subsidies with content (for example, offering TV content or Video Telephony packages.) but with the announcement that Linksys and Nokia have teamed up to offer a a wifi/tablet package, I can now see the opportunities for subsidies with data plans. Either broadband or Wifi.

I had thought that the Nokia 770 would really be pushed as a partner product for a mobile phone but this announcement shows that Nokia are not scared to take a step or two away from mobile carriers and look at other pricing models.

Could we see a broadband data plan with linksys router and Nokia bundled? Broadband internet marketing in Western Europe is going to get a lot harder soon as the sales move into more difficult demographics. Maybe a UMPC would make a nice sweetener. How about this for a product bundle?

The Carrypad Broadband bundle (not currently available!!)

• 2M Broadband connection (24 month contract.)
• Bundled Wifi router.
• Bundled UMPC.
• TV/Internet - 10 channels.
• TV/Air (DMB/DVB-T) - 10 high quality TV channels.
• Audio and Video telephony flatrate with incoming number.
• Wifi hotspot contract

How much do you think that lot will cost? 60 Euro per month? More? Less?
Are you for or against bundling and subsidies? I'm not a great fan but as a springboard for these devices, it could mean the difference between success and failure.

(note: I appear to have been linked from Transmeta stock forums. I have no idea why. Sorry to those who ended up here unexpectedly.)

There's some news out today which relates closely to the Carrypad idea.

Fujitsu are showing this concept design at the latest Triennale di Milano exhibition. It goes against the current Origami grain and integrates a keyboard which, I say again, is critical in a portable device in order to allow for advanced and efficient input of emails, blogs, reports and the like. Its nice to see design houses testing this ground when the focus is on touch-screen interfaces and would be very interesting to see feedback.

I'd like to see that screen slide along and lock somewhere in the middle of the keypad and even slide completely off for a keyboard-free experience in order to achive the best keyboard-screen integration possible!

Do you think a keyboard is a requirement for a 'UMPC.'? Place your vote here.






Remember, as far as i'm concerned, an UMPC is any ultra-mobile PC. From a Nokia 770 to a Motion LS800. My list of UMPC's is here.

Original story from The Register.

Keywords: umpc fujitsu carrypad