I’m a very lucky person. There are about 8 UMPCs in the house at the moment but at times it gets to be a pain because I’m swapping around too much doing tests and trying out my latest ideas. Sometimes it’s almost impossible to choose a device. The SC3 because its small, has a good outdoor screen and looks good? The MSI Wind because its comfortable on a table or the Everun Note because its so damn small and powerful?

Today though it was different and I really surprised myself. I had about 5 minutes to decide on a device for the journey to a family outing and there was no question that extreme Ultra Mobile computing was the order of the day. A 3 hour car journey with no power and no WiFi. There was only one matching weapon in my arsenal, the Samsung Q1b. Based on the original Q1 design but using a 1Ghz VIA C7 and having a built in factory fitted 1.8mbs 3G module. The 6 cell battery was fully charged so it was an easy decision. In ultra mobile situations you need the best antenna and the best battery life and that’s what the Q1b always delivers. It was the perfect choice on the rough going Solar UMPC Tour last year and it was the perfect choice today. Email inbox cleared on the way out. Reader, Mail and a GTalk chat with JKK on the way back. 3hrs battery life left when I got home.

Boom! Reality kicks. 6 hours wifi-on with extended battery, a strong factory fitted 3G module and a sub kg weight in a tabletable form factor. The screen res was actually ok in the car as it was a bumpy ride but I’m always happier to bump up font sizes on a higher resolution screen so 800×480 isn’t perfect. CCFL backlighting is pretty horrible in daylight too so its really got me thinking about my requirements again.

As I lie here in bed writing this I’m wanting an SC3 with built in 3G and 6hrs online battery life.  A 3g Expresscard wont solve the problem as you cant hold the device and thumb the keyboard as I’ve been doing with this article. An extended battery isn’t good enough as it only gives  4-5hours on online battery life. The Everun Note with the extended battery is even worse and I really want that tablet mode. M912M wont work either as the internal 3G slot is BIOS locked and its too big for thumbing or two-handing,. The U2010 has a 5.6″ screen that i find too small, doesn’t have a factory fitted 3G option and its simply out of my price bracket. Q1 ultra HSDPA is the nearest I can think of at the moment. It doesn’t have the keyboard of the SC3 or Everun Note but seeing as I almost exclusively use thumbing or an on-screen-keyboard now on my UMPCs, does it really matter?

I miss my old Q1 Ultra and keep revisiting the thought of having another. Lack of keyboard backlight and pathetic mouse aren’t ideal but Expansys have some B-Stock  HSDPA XPTE units at just over 500 quid including organiser pack which is tempting me so much that it hurts. Especially as I have a couple of spare batteries, an SSD upgrade and a 2GB stick that I’ve just taken out of my old, broken Q1 Ultra. I’ll make my decision tomorrow but if anyone wants to buy my Kohjinsha SC3, please say so now and make my decision easier. Cost to you? Just over 500 quid of course!

AMD have traditionally kept well out of the UMPC and netbook market but after recent news that they might have a value-oriented platform on the way, previous news that there was a 1Ghz part in the works and the appearance of the 1.2Ghz Turion X2 in the Raon Digital Everun Note I’m using to type this article, I’m wondering what’s really happening.

Image via CHW

It could be that AMD are simply able to offer multiple variants of existing cores for special projects. I’m sure if someone like HP knocks on the door, a lot of PowerPoint slides get produced, but maybe these are all variants of the same device with cores removed (or disabled) cache removed (or disabled) or clock multipliers locked.

I’ve measured the Turion X2 in the Everun Note as far as I can and when it’s locked at 800Mhz and with 70% cpu load, it adds about 7w of extra drain as reported by perfmon. At 1.6Ghz, 22W would seem a reasonable TDP figure to be quoting. Apparently, the new CPUs are to be paired with the 740 chipset but the 740 and 690 chipset from AMD are said to be pin compatible so is it possible that I already have one of these architectures here under my fingertips right now? For those that are interested, there’s an image from CPUID to the right here. I can certainly confirm that at 1.2Mhz, its much more powerful than an 1.6 Atom part so at 1.5Ghz, you’re almost competing with Core2Duos. (Not quite though, the Core2 architechture seems more powerful, clock-for-clock, than the X2 I have in the Note.)

Remember that Raon were the first people ever to get hold of the 600Mhz version of the AMD Geode LX, well perhaps they’ve got contacts in the right places and what we’re seeing in the Everun Note is exactly what’s coming to an AMD netbook soon.

There will be a lot of talk about this affecting Intel but I think the main problem is that this AMD CPU and Chipset is good enough for most notebook and even some desktop scenarios. Where Atom (Diamondville at 1.6Ghz) is good, it does have limits in everyday productivity use but the new AMD stuff will break that barrier and potentially, provide enough for a do-it-all cheap notebook, netbook or UMPC. That could really kill the traditional market and bring sizes and right down from 15" to 10 or 12." where people will be expecting sub $500 prices.

If you’re following the Raon Digital Everun Note (due here in a matter of hours now) then you’ll be aware that there’s an external battery charger/pack and, although this isn’t yet confirmed, a large capacity external battery pack. Mobile users are going to want something a bit more portable than that though so here’s what Raon Digital have come up with. Its a large-capacity internal battery with 45% more juice. It comes with 4 new feet to provide the necessary clearance but from the images below, you can see it only adds 2-3mm extra thickness. If Raon’s battery life figures of 2-3hrs are to believed, the extended battery will take you into the 3-4 hours range. You’ll also have the standard battery as a spare when you buy this so in effect, you end up with a potential 7-hours in under 900gms and total mobile flexibility. Don’t expect the battery to be cheap as, like the rest of this device, it’s pushing the envelope on miniaturization but at least the option is there for those that need it. Planned for shipping in October.

More images in the gallery.

Its these little features that make mobile computing so much easier. External battery chargers, flexible CPU and GPU configurations, desktop-quality processing power. Unlike some of the UMPCs of the past, the Everun Note looks like it could work out well as a 2-3 year investment.

Live session with the Raon Everun Note is planned for 2100 CET (GMT+2) start time here at UMPCPortal/live although the cam is likely to be on while I do the unboxing video so I’ll keep an eye on the chat session there and try and answer questions as I go along.

Update: Full review now available.

“This new machine from Raon Digital is designed for power users like you, not for children.”

So say Raon Digital’s marketing people via the sales brochure I just received for their new dual-core AMD-Turion based Everun Note . There’s nothing new in the brochure apart from new images showing the underside of the device (memory, disk and PCI-express mini accessible) and a revised weight (down to 748gm)

This balance of leading-edge power, battery life and miniaturisation doesn’t come cheap but in the world of pro-mo devices, this is really on-the-mark. The recommended sales price is $879 (US, before tax.) which means its way, way cheaper than the other high-performance UMPCs, the Sony UX and the Q1 Ultra Premium and it includes a 16mm pitch keyboard and easy 3G upgrade path. With Windows XP Home (yes, I know some of you would be looking for TE or Vista) it will really fly.

They are definitely targeting the pro-mo set and what better place to be sending a product sample than to Chippy at UMPCPortal. Yes, there’s one in the post and as I said before, when it arrives, you can expect a very long live session with it!

So what do you think of the price/feature balance? End users will be paying over $900 including tax and postage so it’s not cheap. Many of you will question why someone needs anything other than an Eee PC 901, why its been given a touchscreen and why there’s no mousepad (its an optical mouse) and you’d be correct in assuming that most people won’t be able to justify the cost of this but there are a great many people that need the power and are happy to pay for a 30% weight reduction, a 50% reduction in total volume and nearly double the raw processing power.  Does it resonate with you?

All four pages of the PDF are now in the gallery and I’ve updated the database to reflect the latest information.

Note: exact availability is unknown at the moment.

130+ comments seems to indicate a serious amount of interest in the Raon Digital Everun Note that we’ve been talking about over the last few days. There are concerns about the battery life and the credibility of the CrystalMark tests and slight disappointment that it doesn’t have a swivel screen but on the whole, people seem to be very interested. I’m guessing a lot of orders for the SC3 just went on hold until independent info becomes available and its probably because of the thought that there might be a UMPC on the horizon that satisfies even the most demanding of road warriors. (more after the pic…)

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Here I am siting in the middle of town outside a cafe drinking a nice Cappucino and I’m not using the Q1 Ultra. In fact I haven’t used the Q1 Ultra for about a week now - ever since I installed Ubuntu Mobile on it.

Ubuntu Mobile works fine and the Firefox browser is stable and fast but for some reason I keep picking up the Everun. I’m not sure if its because if the lack of WOW! factor with UME (its not built for end users, rather for OEMs to develop further) or the fact that it`s summer and I really want to travel as light as possible. It could also be because of my ever-rising interest in MIDs or perhaps I cant get away from using XP. Whatever it is, the Everun is certainly proving to be one of the most useful devices i’ve ever had. A little bit more oomph and a slider or clamshell keyboard and it would be perfect.

Maybe I should just shut up and be happy that I’ve got a choice. It’s Friday, the sun is shining and there’s a new Gigabyte M704 waiting for me at home!

Over the weekend I took delivery of a tiny digital TV tuner USB stick and naturally, it made sense to pair it with some tiny PC’s.

The �75 Terratec Cynergy Piranha has just been released in Europe and it offers support for DVB-T, DAB and T-DMB standards, not something thats going to be much use in America but in Europe, free-to-air DVB-T (terrestrial digital TV) has been around for a number of years and is now a popular way to receive TV. As you can see, the device is tiny and even includes a detachable mini-aerial making it perfect for attaching to a UMPC for the ultimate flexible portable digital TV and recording solution. Read on for more info and videos.

Click to go through to the gallery.

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