It’s under 24hrs to the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, a 7” Android Tablet that’s getting a huge piece of the pre-IFA coverage and one that went straight to number 1 on our popularity charts. It’s not Samsungs first 7” tablet though. It’s actually their 7th. Yes, they’ve been in the 7” tablet business for over 4 years now and know a thing or two about tablet design. Their engineering skills are proven and they have access to some amazing electronic components. Screens, CPUs and storage that no other ODM has.

View all Samsung 7” tablets side-by-side.

Lets take a quick look at the history and then you can use the ‘Chooser’ to find out which one matches your requirements.

It was Feb 2006 when Samsung joined TabletKiosk, Amtek, ASUS and others to launch the first handheld tablets based on the Origami concept. They used low power laptop components coupled with CCFL-backlit screens and early 1.8” hard drives. The operating system was Windows XP Tablet Edition and you were looking at about 2.5hrs battery life – for over $1000.

A VIA version appeared at IFA in the same year and introduced 3G and LED-backlighting to save power. The Q1b was a good product and the one I chose for my Solar-UMPC tour in 2007.

After Intel re-designed their Pentium to make a ‘Stealey’ CPU aimed at ultra mobile PCs, Samsung redesigned the UMPC to include a split keyboard, 1024×600 high-brightness screen, 4hr battery life, SSD and 3G options. There was even an Intel Core model, the ‘premium’ which even today can still blow the socks off most UMPCs.

After that, Samsung took a break. They teased about new designs but in the end, the only thing they came up with was a VIA Nano-based device, the Q1EX that was good but not that different from the Ultra.

Tomorrow, we’ll see the next generation of Samsung’s 7” tablets. It will be running an ARM-licensed core architecture (Samsung’s own Hummingbird) and Android version 2.2. It’s a complete departure in terms of platform and will angle towards a consumer crowd. We expect great battery life, a very high quality screen and light-weight but we don’t expect a full internet experience. Flash may be included but it won’t be that smooth. The web browser will also have limitations. For the target market those problems won’t be an issue though and like most others, we’re excited to be getting a look at it tomorrow at IFA.

So which one is for you? I been through the main models and rated against various categories. All you have to do is choose your requirements and see what the winner is! Let us know if you get a surprise!

Product Chooser: Choose between a Galaxy Tab, a Q1 Ultra Premium, a Q1 and a Q1EX

The Q1 Ultra has been my main mobile device since I switched from the Raon Digital Everun some months ago. It has been a near-perfect solution for me and having the SSD, HSDPA mods and optimised Windows XP solution has elevated it above all the other UMPCs I’ve owned or tested. It’s even convinced me that a 7" Windows-based UMPC is more suited to my business needs than the 4.8" Carrypad device I wanted before. That’s a very significant change in my requirement that I’ve already started to write an article about because it means that i’m no longer looking for a MID as my single Ultra Mobile computing device. I’ll try and finish that article this weekend.

But…the Q1 Ultra is dead now (RIP, friend) due to an accident with my charging solution last Friday. The overheated MP3400 charger appears to have shorted and killed the battery charging circuitry in my Q1 so now the Q1 only works on mains power. The Q1 Ultra charging circuit appears to be beyond repair (see image.) so now I’m in the position of having to choose a new UMPC. Here’s what I’m looking for…

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How does a quality 7" 1024×600 UMPC for 385 Euro ($600) sound? If you’re a UMPC fan in Hong Kong right now you’re laughing because one of the best tablet-style UMPCs is now available in basic 800Mhz, Windows XP (Home) form for just 4690 of the local dollars. The Q1 U-C is part of a special promotion out there.

For the U.S. readers, that might not sound too cheap but in Euro-land, that’s about as cheap as it gets. Sure, you could buy an MSI Wind which is faster and has a full keyboard but it just doesn’t compare if you want to go mobile. Take it from me, a person who has just lost their Q1 Ultra to a broken external battery pack, the Q1 with 800Mhz and XP is a great device. Drop in a the simple SSD mod and you have something that’s as fast as any netbook out there and brings you over 3 hours online battery life.

Hong Kong is a long way away but I hope it kicks off a round of competitive pricing on the Ultra. As we move towards CES and a possible Q1 Ultra update, maybe it’s Samsungs plan to squeeze the last from the device before the new one comes in. Come on Samsung, bring us a sub $500 UMPC.

I won’t put this model in the database. Specifications-wise, it looks like the CMXP version is the nearest but with XP Home instead of TE (yes, some people won’t be happy about this) and I assume, no Bluetooth.

Details and source: UMPCFever.

Last week I posted some tips on how to squeeze 3 hrs browsing time out of the Kohjinsha SC3. The method was a bit of a trick as it utilised a mobile phone data connection over Bluetooth but it was the only way to achieve 3 hours on the 20wh battery. It equates to an average 7W drain which is, even in UMPC terms, very efficient but it’s not as good as I hoped from a Z-series Atom-based system.

The reason why it’s not as good as I expected (and the reason why i’m not using the SC3 to write this post in my tent while the rain beats down outside) is that the Samsung Q1 Ultra (with SSD mod) is just as efficient with the previous generation Intel platform. As I write this post, perfom (try it, start->run->perfmon. Its fun to watch the battery drain) is telling me that the average drain is 6.9 watts. Meebo is running in the background, Friendfeed is updating, CPU utilisation is averaging 20%, brightness is set at 25% and I’ve got a LED lamp attached to the USB port to give me some light. With the standard battery, thats over 4 hours of online time. I’ve got the extended battery here which is showing 5.5 hrs @ 61%  battery. (9hrs total)

With a refresh to a 1.33Ghz Atom processor and some tweaks to the motherboard, I’m sure Samsung could shave 20% off that drain figure and produce a 5-6 hr, 600gm device. They’ve proved themselves as one of the best at electronic design with their Q1 products and it excites me to think about what they might come up with next – as long as it has a lighted keyboard!

I’m going camping over the next four days. Here’s the kit that’s going to keep me productive.

[The Wife and little-one have planned a last-minute camping trip together and I was due to stay home and work but I've decided to go along and make a working holiday of it. Dads - this is the beauty of Ultra Mobile PC's!!!]

That’s a Samsung Q1 Ultra being charged from a Tablet Kiosk MP3400 which will be charged using a Sunlinq 25W solar panel. Also included are the Nokia N82 and a battery charging set. More details here.

Check out Solar-UMPC for some more mobile and solar-computing posts over the next few days.

It seems like half a year since I added the HSDPA-capable CMXP version of the Q1 Ultra to the database. Oh, it was!

Samsung have finally announced it in the US but unfortunately the price seems to have risen to $1449 which I find a little but over the top for a year-old, $1000 device that many people have already retro-fitted with a $150 HSDPA card.

It’s almost the same story with the Q1 Ultra premium. It’s been available for months with XP but only now have Samsung decided to announce it. Maybe Kevin Tofel’s reports convinced them.

Now seems a good time to mention that the Q1 Ultra with XP is a good performer, has excellent battery life and can be upgraded a home-built SSD drive. I’m still using mine although I am missing the keyboard that I’ve had on the M704 and SC3 recently.

Via Engadget.

Yesterday, I completed the final part of a series of upgrades that have been done to my Q1 Ultra to bring it up to what is close to my ideal all-round UMPC device. In this article I’ll outline what I’ve done and give you some detail about my most recent upgrade, swapping the 60GB hard drive out for an 8GB flash drive. The difference is quite remarkable. Not only do test results show up to 4x the read speed and 2x write speed but boot-times are quicker and the overall responsiveness of the system is improved dramatically. If you need convincing that SSD’s are fast before you take the jump, check out the video at the end of the (long and media-rich) post. Note that much of this applies to other devices that use 1.8" drives. The Sony UX, Fujitsu U810, HTC Shift and others.

Read the full story

Following the introduction of what appeared to be a value-pack in the UK where the 600Mhz non-bluetooth Q1 Ultra was being packaged with the keyboard and organiser pack for 500 pounds [aff link] , it appears Samsung Germany are dropping prices too. The price for the 800Mhz Q1 Ultra, 60GB, 1GB with XP at Amazon.de has just dropped from 1100 to 899 which brings it nearer to the 850 price of the R2E. The HSDPA version is steady at 1200 which is very expensive in comparison now.

200 Euros is a great price saving but you’d think that after one year of sales, Samsung would have some flexibility and drop it into a consumer pricing zone. 900 Euros still isn’t attractive to most consumers.

Compare it to an Eee PC 701 and you get these features with my estimated end-user value in brackets.

• Higher screen res + Touchscren (100 Euros value)
• 60Gb storage (50 Euros value)
• Bluetooth (20 Euros value)
• Lighter and smaller (value depends on user but no keyboard offsets that.)
• XP Tablet edition (100 Euros value)
• 1GB RAM (50 Euros value)

That’s a total of 320 Euros value for 600 Euros higher cost. Personally I regard the Samsung Q1 Ultra as a much better device than the Eee PC and I put a very high value on its mobility and flexibility but for most people, that’s simply not the case.

Update: Marc points out that the 600Mhz version in the UK can be had for 449 pounds (565 Euros) making it very comparable with the Eee PC 701 + 40Gb HDD + XPTE + Touchscreen + Higher Res + 1GB upgrade + Lighter and smaller.

Here’s a question: If the Q1 Ultra was 599 Euro, which would you buy. The Q1 or the Eee PC 701?

Samsung Q1 Ultra Pro 800 Besar 7 Zoll WSVGA Tablet-PC (Intel Pentium 1GHz, 1GB RAM, 60GB HDD, WinXP Tablet PC Edition)

Its great to read this article. Samsung are going to continue developing the Q1 in the UMPC market and are aiming to have a refresh available for early 2009. According to the first in a series of articles over at TechRadar, Samsung sold 100,000 units in 2007 and are apparently happy with this result considering that the device is in a category that "put simply, many just aren’t convinced by."

I’m convinced and I hope others will be too because with a refresh, the Q1 Ultra that I consider to be the best all-round UMPC there is, will get even better. I picked up the news via jkOnTheRun where Kevin asks the question ‘how would you improve the Q1.’ I left some comments about what I would consider a good set of improvements that went something like this

• Backlit, improved keyboard.
• Atom 1.6 or 1.8Ghz platform and aim for a 4-hour standard battery life
• 5mp AF HQ cam on a premium Intel-Core version
• A low-cost entry level version running Ubuntu Mobile. $499 for 1Gb/40GB.
• A real docking port and docking station.
• Slicker looking design. Show the MBA fans what a slick mini computer can look like.

The big problem I see coming up though is the lack of Windows XP. The standard Q1 Ultras are useless with Vista in my opinion.

While we fuss about MID pricing, the cost of UMPCs is dropping quickly around us. The Q1 Ultra EL which comes with the 800Mhz processor, 1GB RAM and 40GB drive but leaves out the Bluetooth and cameras is available for $659 at Buy.com right now. With the lowest pricing in Europe at around 1500 dollars I’d recommend everyone in Europe who wants a Q1 Ultra to make friends with someone in the U.S. and get them to ship it over. Even after paying the tax, you’re going to save over $600.

One of my….no, let me start that again. My favourite UMPC, the Q1 Ultra Premium with its 1.3Ghz Intel Core processor and 6-hour battery life running XP Tablet Edition in its sub-2lb package, is coming to the UK and Europe via Expansys. Final specifications aren’t 100% clear yet but it looks like it will ship with the docking station (which is actually just a battery charger and USB hub) and the superb Samsung mobile keyboard which beats the Eee PC keyboard hands-down in desktop scenarios.

Its not clear if the UK model includes the fingerprint reader which brings a lot of benefits to UMPCs and is something I’d definitely like to have on a high-end model like this, and of course the price and availability is missing but if the price isn’t too extortionate I will seriously consider buying this as my next UMPC. I’m 100% sure that, apart from heavy video editing, a 1.3Ghz Core-solo based device will handle all my computing needs and with the 7" screen, can handle desktop style scenarios too. The only thing that might make me wait is a solution that had a real grab-n-go docking station but I don’t see anything like that on the horizon at the moment.

Link: Expansys. (aff.)