I’ve been giggling for the past hour. I just can’t work out if that portfolio case is a masterstroke or just plain silly but one thing’s for sure, it highlights how small this device is.

We got hold of the Kohjinsha SK3 a few hours ago and ripped straight into it with an unboxing video that you’ll find below. So far we’re impressed with the build-quality, the size and weight, the features, the bright and crisp screen and of course that portfolio case. We’re not so impressed with what looks to be low-end battery life (largely due to the tiny battery) and the Japanese language XP build (a nice challenge!) although the speed of the device seems to be good. XP is helping here. The keyboard is exactly the same as found on the SC3 so you’re limited to pecking on the desktop although thumbing and single hand-hold pecking is also possible. The screen mechanism is solid.

Full specifications for the Kohjinsha SK3 along with links to the new gallery, videos and other articles are in the product database.

We’ll be testing more over the weekend so watch out for a full hands-on early next week. A live session is tentatively planned for Monday evening (Central Europe time.)

The Kohjinsha SK3 that we reported on yesterday has been formally launched for the Japanese market at a local price, including taxes, of about $730. Before I put some thoughts down though, here are the full specs:

• Model id SK3KX06GA
• CPU type Intel Atom (Silverthorne)
• CPU speed 1330 Mhz
• Graphics Intel GMA 500
• OS Windows XP Home
• Display Size 7″ 1024 X 600
• RAM 1024 MB
• Hard Disk 60 GB, 1.8”, 4200RPM
• Battery capacity 17 (Wh)
• Claimed battery life 3.2hrs (Jeita test)
• Weight 720g
• Size (w/h/d mm) 193/132/30 mm

Physical Interfaces

• ExpressCard/34
• Ethernet 10/100
• VGA
• Line-out / Headphone
• Multi-format card reader
• MIC-in
• Micro SD slot
• USB2.0 (x2)

Wireless Interfaces

• 802.11b/g/n
• BT2.0

Additional Specs

• WebCam
• WebCam 3.0mp
• GPS

We’re clearly looking at the evolution of a good quality UMPC here. The SC3 was well built and had an excellent (arguably the best in the market) screen making it downright stunning for 720p playback and very useful for high-end navigation duties. The SK3 will be just as good if it has the same screen. The size reductions are quite considerable considering it’s got a swivel screen and the weight reduction to 720g is class-leading for a 7” ‘laptop.’ It will be noticeable if you’re using it with one hand. The local price of $733 seems reasonable considering the huge array of connectivity options that the SK3 offers. Finally, it looks Kohjinsha might have changed the keyboard slightly. If i’m not mistaken it’s taken cues from the Everun Note keyboard and enlarged the main character keys. This will help a lot.

On the negative side we can’t ignore the extremely disappointing battery life figures. 3.2hrs battery life on a Jeita-based test is nothing exciting at all and will translate to between 2 and 2.5 hours, possibly less under heavy load. The battery pack is a tiny 17wh and there’s no indication of an extended battery option. This alone is going to be the deal breaker for many. Add the fact that it’s running a 4200 1.8” 60GB hard drive too and you’ve got too very significant reasons not to buy this and to wait for the Viliv S7 (much much bigger battery and battery life, bigger keyboard, ssd options) or even to go for the Viliv X70 and buy a portable keyboard.

Kohjinsha have a habit of creating impressive designs but losing focus on battery life. Two years ago when the SH8 was released I expressed disappointment at the 2hr battery life. That was 2 generations of device ago. Then, the SC3 was released and it was at that point we decided to run a poll. Under 3% of people found 2hrs to be an acceptable battery life. It looks like the SK3 won’t be much better and with new UMPCs turning in 5hr+ battery life, it appears worse than ever before.

We’ll be tracking specs, links and details in the SK3 information page. There’ are already a set of images in the gallery.

We’ve just had an unofficial tip-off that Kohjinsha will be launching a new 7” UMPC this week. It will be an improved version of the SC3, one of the few remaining 7” UMPCs with a keyboard. The changes look to be fairly subtle with differences in appearance, size and weight (down to 720gm) and the same 1.3Ghz Menlow platform with similar specifications. The GPS and SD card slot remain along with the PCI-Express, VGA-out and LAN connection that other 7” UMPCs don’t have. Wifi is upgraded with 802.11n support which is a good sign that they’ve dumped the horrible inefficient WiFi module that was in the SC3. Windows 7 support is also being mentioned in the information that we’ve got. The only significant new feature seems to be a dual camera but from the fuzzy Japanese-language info we have here, we can’t work out the resolutions. The letters ‘AF’ give an indication that the quality could be fairly high. There’s no information on the screen touch technology but the pen in the images indicates that its resistive.

Nice case. Looks much less deep than the SC3. No rear battery.

My immediate thoughts are that this is a good improvement over the SC3 and a better choice than the Raon Digital Everun Note if the battery life and disk speed is improved. The SC3 is hampered by a slow HDD so an SSD option on the SK3 is a must. Battery life also needs to be improved over the SC3. Notice that the there’s no rear battery on the SK3 indicating that Kohjinsha have switched to the  Li-Poly battery technology. That means they can design the battery into the casing which reduces the depth and provides a bit more flexibility. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that its a 30wh module that can drive the device for 4hrs but only a hands-on and price will reveal the truth and tell us whether this is a truly all-round UMPC that will compete with the ‘7hr’ Viliv S7 that we are also expecting to hear about soon.

It’s confidence-inspiring to see that Kohjinsha are continuing to push forward in the UMPC market. With Windows 7 on the horizon, we hope that others will follow the lead and we look forward to a busy Q4!

Update: Some new info is coming in. (See and thank Larry in the comments) “First the Screen is 1024 x 600 and it is a touch screen. It will be on sale from June 26th in Japan and should be in the 7-800 USD range with the current strong YEN. Same Intel Atom Z520(1.33GHz)CPU and Intel US15W Chipset. Sadly the battery is only rated at 2.3 hours. It will be selling with Windows XP Home SP3.”

If you had dropped by the live page earlier you would have seen me having some fun with the new publicly available release of Windows 7 Release Candidate 1. I’ve been testing it on the Gigabyte Touchnote T1028M and the Kohjinsha SC3 today and so far I’ve been impressed by how smoothly the install process has been. On both devices, almost everything is working and on the SC3, even the tablet features are available.

Gigabyte T1028M Touchnote.

I have a modified Touchnote netbook here with 3G, 2GB and SSD and it appears that most things are working out of the box apart from the 3G driver (fixed with standard drivers) the screen brightness and battery indicator. Smart Manager, the touch control panel, doesn’t install but Wifi, BT and WWAN can be enabled and disabled via the FN keys.  Installation was smooth and quick (expected with the SSD) and the touchscreen worked immediately.   The WiFi needed a Windows update but after that it was working perfectly. Standby, hibernation, SD reader, USB, WLAN, LAN, audio, multitouch pad, BT. Even H.264 and Divx videos work out of the box which is a real bonus. I haven’t tested the ExpressCard/34 slot but I’m not expecting a problem there.

Kohjinsha SC3.

The SC3 is based on the Intel Menlow platform which includes the Z-series CPU and the US15W chipset (AKA Poulsbo – Exactly what you’ll find in a Sony Vaio P) It also contains a VIA wifi module, GPS hardware and, as with the Touchnote, an ExpressCard/34 slot. The SC3 required some drivers from Kohjinsha but after installing all missing hardware, only the redundant DMB module doesn’t work. As a bonus, after I installed the Pen-Mount touch drivers, the Tablet features of Windows 7 were enabled which means floating tip, handwriting recognition and a few other features are now available. With rotation working perfectly and a very usable OSK, the SC3 has suddenly turned into quite a usable little tablet device. Slower than with XP but faster than Vista and with all the additional features that were missing from XP. One thing I really love about Windows 7 is that it connects with the hardware decoding on the chipset and due to the built-in H.264 codec/filter, it can play 1080p out of the box. I tested a 12Mbps H.264 1080p video and it was working extremely well with only a bit of tearing to distract me. Unfortunately, the HDD on the SC3 is as slow as an old dog and there’s still the 2.5hr battery life to contend with. Windows 7 isn’t a magic wand!

In terms of overall performance, Windows 7 has slowed both machines down slightly from their previous XP installations but with more going on in the background, that’s to be expected. On the other hand, its a much smoother and quicker experience than Vista and the trade-off could well be worth it, that is, if you have a fast disk of 32GB or more, 2GB of memory (to be safe) and the money for what will be quite an expensive OS. Clearly Windows 7 is a nicer working environment and I’m sure that after a while on the Touchnote I’ll find myself locked-in to those little extras that make all the difference but I can’t see myself using Windows 7 on a UMPC or MID simply because of the drive footprint, memory footprint and the number processes running. Which begs the question, what happens when XP is gone? I still don’t see a Microsoft option for UMPCs and MIDs beyond 2010.

I’ll be keeping W7 on the Touchnote, working through the Windows 7 features and trying to fix the important battery indicator and screen brightness. If I can fix that i’ll be using it as my daily notebook unless I find other problems. As for the SC3, its there, its working. I don’t use the SC3 because of the slow HDD and short battery life so that’s that for the time being.

Update: It looks like we got the model name wrong. It says S32 on the product info sticker underneath the device!

Kohjinsha weren’t present at CeBIT but we found a few of their products on the Taiwan Excellence stand. The SX3 was there (Sascha and JKK have a video of that that they will post soon) but I took the time to take a closer look at the SC32 having heard that the pricing has been slashed and that a 3G version is now available in the UK. You can see in the video how Kohjinsha have implemented the 3G module. After we did this video we popped off the battery but couldn’t see a SIM card slot so I can’t guarantee that this is how it’s happening with the KJS-UK version. Looking at their spec sheet (PDF) it shows images of a removable 3G card so it could be the same. We’ve got a query out with KJS-UK to confirm this.

With the built-in 3G module and rotating screen, this could make an interesting car navigation device or photographers tool (great screen, geo-tagging with the GPS, good storage, fast SD slot) but with just 2hrs battery life (standard battery) its difficult to use it as a long-term mobile device.

More details, along with our review and images are available on the
SC3 information page.

Vye Computers in the UK have long had a relationship with KJS/Inventec who design and manufacture the Kohjinsha range of Ultra Mobile PCs and netbooks but they have now decided to tighten that relationship by becoming a direct distributor of the KJS devices in the UK.

We’ve spoken to Vye and picked up information on their first offerings under the Kohjinsha brand prior to their launch next week. The first devices will be the SC3 and SX4, 7″ and 9″ convertibles. While these might be known models (I have an SC3 myself and the SX4 is based on the existing SX3) there are a few important differences that make them more interesting than they were before.

• XP Home option
• Embedded 3g option
• Competitive pricing
• UK Keyboard

For example, the SC3 with Windows XP  and embedded 3G will be selling for an RRP of 699 pounds making it a much cheaper option than the Sony Vaio P that it shares many specifications with.

• 7” WSVGA Touch Screen (1024 x 768)‏ [That probably should be 1024x600]
• Intel Atom 1.33ghz
• XP Home
• Embedded 3G
• 1gb Memory
• 80gb Hard Drive
• 1.3 Mega Pixel camera
• Built in Speakers/Built in Microphone
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• 2 x USB, RJ45, Multi Memory card Reader, Express Card Slot, Ethernet
• WiFi, Bluetooth
• Dimensions (WxDxH) 189mm x 155mm x 33mm
• Weight 820g with Standard Battery
• Standard Battery Life 2.5 – 3 Hours
• Suggested Retail Price Inc Vat From £699.99

Other models will include GPS and Vista options.

Having tested the SC3 extensively I can tell you it’s got a fantastic screen (bright, rich) and the convertible touch screen rotation gives one of the best reading experiences I’ve had yet on a UMPC. The device can handle 1080p H.264 given the correct drivers (Cyberlink PowerDVD works well) as the chipset has built-in video codecs. The build quality is very good and there’s a good range of expansion ports. Memory is easily upgradable too. On the downside, the battery life can drop down to the 2hr level (an extended battery is available) if you use the device hard and there’s very little 3D graphics power. We’re going to contact Vye to see if we can get an SC3 with XP and 3G because it could be a good alternative to the Everun Note and Sony Vaio P and with XP, a much leaner and faster-booting system.

Launch is planned for 26th Feb so we’ll have reseller/url details then but in the meantime, check out our SC3 and SX3 product pages, keep an eye on http://kjs-uk.co.uk/ and follow http://twitter.com/lwrigglesworth on Twitter for updates.

Update: In related news, JKKMobile reports on lower cost SC3 import options.

A great overview video from JKKMobile on the SX3. Its attractive, has a good hardware design and impressive set of specifications and features. Does it perform though?

My take-away thoughts from the video are that its a stylish, useable form factor but if its going to use Vista, a 1.6Ghz is the entry point, not the 1.3Ghz provided. I also question the need to include a DVD player when they could have slotted a bigger battery into that space. Slightly too heavy for comfortable one-handed use. Inventec, Kohjinsha, Intel GET THOSE DRIVERS SORTED OUT! People should not be expected to put up with sub-standard drivers.

More info and links on the product page.

Source: JKKMobile

Following on form the previous highs and lows with the SC3…

HIGH

The SC3 really works well in portrait mode and
makes a great crossover e-reader / web reader.

About 3 hours later…LOW

 
The user interface, 10 minutes after booting. Mouse pointer and TIP only.
The problem appeared after I tried readyboost (which hung.)
Now trying to find a way to recover (safe mode has the same problem.)

SC3 specs, info and links here in the SC3 info page.

Direct From Japan, the guys I bought the Kohjinsha SC3 from, just pinged me with an unboxing video of the Kohjinsha SX3, the 8.9" touch UMPC based built around the Intel Atom platform. Again, Kohjinsha have squeezed in features that you won’t find on many other mini notebooks, let alone netbooks because this one has a DVD writer built in. Yup, its the same size as an Eee but has a DVD writer built in!

We also have some CrystalMark scores which show almost exactly the same results as the SC3 but remember that this one has the 3-cell battery rather than the 2-cell you find on the SC3. I don’t have any battery life figures yet but i’m expecting 3.5hrs with Wifi off and 3 hours with Wifi on. Official figures state 4.5hrs.

Other features include the 1280×768 hi-res LED-backlit screen, dual cams and ExpressCard slot. All in 1.2KG.

Read the full story

Meet the Vye S41 (Portal page for full specs). This is a mini-tablet / UMPC touting a 7” screen. Some of you may notice that it looks an awful lot like the Kohjinsha SR8. You would be correct in that observation; the S41 and SR8 are actually the same computer, Vye has adapted the S41 to be sold outside of Japan. The S41’s most unique feature is its built in DVD burner. It is very surprising to see the drive in such a small computer. Though the question has to be asked: Do you really need a DVD drive in a computer that is designed to be highly mobile? Find the answer to that and a whole lot more in the full S41 review below. (continue reading…)

Read the full story

Lets start this article with a poll.

If there’s one thing that always annoys me in the UMPC category, it’s a wasted chance. Be it poor design, poor software or poor hardware. If there’s one thing that annoys me more than that its when a company makes the same mistake twice. Even worse than that is when the device in question is high-quality in every other respect. Because of this I find the SC3 the most frustrating device I’ve ever owned. I want so much to love it and take it into my daily life but….

Read the full story

It arrived a few hours ago after a swift pass through customs over the weekend and it’s still sitting behind me, boxed and sealed. I’m very, very excited!

The Kohjinsha SC3 will be the first retail device based on the new Intel Menlow platform that I’ve been able to test, and test it I will. Battery life, video performance, Vista performance, typing, GPS, ExpressCard capabilities and much more. It all starts today and for most of it, I’ll be live in the studio so you can join me for a behind-the-scenes look while I do the unboxing. Later today I’ll be running a presentation so you can join me for a closer look and will have the chance to answer questions. I’ll be at the desk doing the unboxing video from about 1700 CET but doing the presentation from about 2100 CET. That’s 2000 UK, 15:00 New York and at 1200 in San Francisco.

See you on UMPCPortal/Live. I’m just off to put some suitable clothes on!

Jenn and I have been having a private race to see who was first to get the SC3. She won! On the upside, it’s made me even more excited to get mine. It’s looking like a real peach of a device. My worry about Vista is fading away too. Here’s what she says about that:

"Keeping in mind that my review unit has 2GB of memory installed, Vista Home Premium SP1 runs extremely well on the 1.33GHz Atom processor. I’d even go so far as to say that it’s downright zippy and on par with what I’m used to (which isn’t much). I’ve experienced no disk thrashing, lagging, or slow-loading menu items and icons. Anyone expecting Vista to perform on the Atom the way it did on the A110 will be pleasantly surprised."

This is in line with what JKK is experiencing with Vista on the Atom-based 901 and very good news indeed. Tablet lovers are going to get very excited as Vista brings significant advantages over XP where a touchscreen is concerned.

I’m looking through Jenns review and thinking…why would anyone by an HTC Shift, Q1 Ultra or Fujitsu U1010/820 now? It’s tiny!

Efficiency is in-line with what I extrapolated from the marketing figures. 2.5hrs battery life on a 20wh battery. Bear in mind though that the battery is smaller than one you’ll find on an Acer Aspire. The 4-cell version, still small, will give you 5 hours of work time.

A backlit keyboard, built-in 3G and on-frame mouse control would be the only things that would make this device any better for the pro-mobile user. The 3G requirement is arguable as you’ve got an ExpressCard/34 slot to play with on the SC3. Note also that the keyboard is relatively small. Smaller than the old Kohjinsha keyboards and the ones on the Asus 701/900/901. This may not suit those that need to input data over a long period of time. There’s also a heat-build on charging.

I’ll stop there as you need to go straight over to Pocketables to see it in all its UMPC glory. Well done for winning the race Jenn. See you on the next starting line

Specification and more links available in the UMPCPortal product database.

I just cant wait any longer for that Kohjinsha SC3 to arrive. The videos and feedback from early tests have proven to me that this could be one of the best UMPC / mini-notebooks yet. Its tiny, light, well-specified and looks great. The question we are all asking though is…”How good will Vista run.” We’re one step closer to the answer today because I’ve just recieved a set of CrystalMark test results from DFJ. I believe this is the first ever set of test results for a production Menlow (Silverthorne/Pulsbo) device so lets take a quick look and I’ll make some comments below.

Detailed results here.

The tests were done on a stock device (Vista Home Premium. 1GB RAM) and overall, its looking good. The CPU figures are quite impressive. Better, in fact, than any other UMPC platform. Only the Intel notebook-based CPU’s used in the Q1 Ultra Premium and the Sony UX are better. Memory speed is also good. Top marks! Looking at the disk (Spinpoint N, HS06THB, 60G, 4200 RPM, PATA(ZIF), 8MB CACHE) I see a high average which, if you look at the detailed results, translates to a max read speed of 30MB/s and a max write speed of about 27MB/s. For a 1.8″ drive, this is about as good as it gets right now.

Looking at the graphics scores shows some very low-end results. They dont quite tally with the Vista performance score we saw so for anyone looking at gaming on this - dont! For the 3D components in Google Earth and Itunes, we’ll have to see how it performs when we do tests. I suspect it will be OK.

For a big list of comparable CrzstalMark results, see the list that Frank keeps over at Tweaks2K2.

Note that the CrystaMark test doesn’t show us any video performance results. The Poulsbo chipset contains hardware acceleration for many common codecs and we wont see those results until someone does tests with a media player. In theory, results should be good.

So will it run Vista? The jury is still out on that one. Ive seen Vista Home Basic running acceptably on the HTC Shift but it wasnt exactly fast.  With some optimisation, i think Vista is going to be acceptable for most people. For others, upgrading the RAM to 2GB might be the answer and for a few people, it simply wont be good enough. The flip-side of the coin is that we know it would run XP extremely well. I hope, after time, a downgrade to XP will be possible. Ive taken the precation to include Vista Ultimate in mz purchase so at least i’ll have the license when it’s a possibility!

Thanks to Direct From Japan for the test results.

‘Atom performance better than expected’

‘Great battery life’

‘15mm keyboard pitch difficult’

Apart from the keyboard, which I’m prepared to adapt to if this baby performs, its getting better every day. This is definitely a UMPC and not a netbook!

Video from wowpow blog who haven’t announced this video yet so expect a new blog entry soon.

Click the image for more info on the SC3

Before we discuss, let it be known that this is only a performance rating!!!

These figures come from an image that Conics took of the SC3 yesterday. They’ve surprised me somewhat. Are we looking at a device that could be as spritely as a Q1 Ultra Premium?

Remember the SC3 uses a Z520 at 1.33Ghz (with 533 FSB and Hyperthreading) and the test was done with 2GB of memory installed and Vista SP1.

We’ll find out soon enough because our order is due to ship from Japan today.

Q1 U Premium scores from Frank.

Image from Conics

More info on the Kohjinsha SC3.

Kohjinsha will launch the S130WG, a slightly modified SC3 (DMB receiver instead of 1-Seg) in Korea.

Local price for the GPS version will be just under $1000. For more information check out our Kohjinsha SC3 coverage and the SC3 datasheet. We should have one of these a few days after they are launched in Asia (expected 2nd week July) so check back for hands-on news.

Aving.net