Ben posted an excellent review of the Viliv S7 at Pocketables a few weeks ago and it follows my thoughts to the letter. The Viliv S7 has been working flawlessly here so rather than produce a copy of that review I’ve decided to take a different angle on the device and talk a bit more about the scenarios that best fit the S7 and the types of customers that might be interested in the device.
Firstly though, let me take you few of the key features in a short summary of the device. We have the S7 Premium here with 3G and SSD (non-rotating) storage.
The Viliv S7 is an extremely small and light laptop style PC; smaller and lighter than any netbook.
It’s not really an ultra mobile computer as it needs a table to get the best out of it. Micro-laptop is probably the best name for it.
The S7 includes a touchscreen that can rotate and close back on itself to create a ‘tablet’ that hides the keyboard.
The storage is based on fast SSD technology which is quieter, more rugged and uses less power than traditional hard drives.
The fast SSD also gives the device fast boot and return from standby.
Viliv have used the Intel MID platform which is more efficient than the netbook platform although the CPU is slightly less powerful than a netbook.
Viliv have designed a high quality battery pack that can support the device for 5-10 hours and keep the device in standby for many many days.
In the version we’re testing here, there’s an integrated 3G module.
On the negative side, there are two major trade-offs. Screen size and keyboard. Both are very high quality items but the size of them means that they can’t be used for long-term stress-free input or application usage. The S7 is, in essence, a high quality, highly mobile short-term use PC.
I received an S7 from Viliv a few weeks ago [unboxing and live session] and because of some commitments (and a white leather case that I wasn’t too keen on taking to the coffee shop!) I gave it to my Wife to test. To my surprise, she’s absolutely loving it and hasn’t used her laptop since. It looks like the S7 could be one for the ladies!
I’ve asked her to put some words together after her first two weeks and she’s just sent me this. Don’t forget, English is her 2nd language!
I am using this little white super-mini-pc since about 2 weeks and Loving it!
It’s light, small but not too small when it comes to keyboard and screen.
The white colour works out well, because us ladies get oily and sticky hands from kids and hand-lotion and things, so the white doesn’t show the smudges.
What I like the most is:
4 seconds to be switched on (I always leave it on standby when I am done and close it afterwards), another 20 seconds to be online/wireless and another 2 seconds to get to emails. Great!
Battery-wise its good for me, I use it maybe 30 minutes at a time and that 3-4 times a day so far, and: since those 2 weeks have charged it once!!! [That’s two full charges over the last 2 weeks – Chippy]
The handling [performance] is super: When I work with the internet its in my both hands or on desk and I use touchscreen and mouse and keyboard alternating and simultaneously: yes, women need to do things as they want at that time, so whatever I feel like I can switch to and do it. For example: scrolling with touch, choosing things in a webpage with mouse, then tip on mousepad or touch-whatever I am in the mood for-smile.
All in all: I have put my old, big laptop under the bed and found a better alternative. I am pleased.
OK. It’s early days and she might still be in the honeymoon period but there’s one thing I’ve noticed – I haven’t had to do any home PC support for the last 3 weeks. The S7 is turning out to be a reliable, quick and very handy replacement for my wife’s laptop.
I’ll be stealing the S7 back for a a full review but I feel confident that there aren’t going to be any show-stoppers on the S7. It’s got a great quality keyboard for the size, huge battery life, runs OpenOffice with no problems at all and seems to be reliable over multiple standby/resume/wifi sessions – a good sign.
Apparently white is not a girl’s colour. At least that’s what my wife and daughter tell me. “Blue or Red would be better. This is just going to get dirty.” Hmm, since when did women think about practicalities?
Despite that, I’ve managed to convince my wife to take on the S7 as a personal mobile computer. She works in the health and fitness industry and is often out and about at customer premises using Windows-based measurement and analysis software so she’s agreed that it would actually be quite cool to turn up with this.
I’ll be setting her up with a 3G SIM card and all the software she needs and she’s promised to report back in early October.
I’ll still be doing a full review of the S7 but as I’ll be away in IDF next week, expect that in early October too. Hands-on and first impressions thoughts coming before the end of the week. Don’t forget that the three-J’s are also testing the S7. That’s JKK, Jenn and James
As the Viliv S7 makes its way towards us here in Germany (as I write, it’s somewhere between Seoul and Cologne – expected Monday or Tuesday) it’s clear that other’s are ramping up for the big launch too.
Jenn downloaded some of the new press images [full set of 47 images here] and she’ll also be getting one next week. Dynamism have put the device up for pre-order too. Pricing is better than I thought with the mid-range 32GB SSD version up for just $659. I was honestly expecting (and worried about) pricing nearer 800 dollars. Of course it’s more than a netbook but don’t get me started on that one. I’ve a list as long as my arm detailing differences between a netbook and this UMPC. 800gm and 8 hrs of battery life is the best figure. 1hr per 100gm makes it extremely strong in battery life/weight ratio.
There are three versions of the S7 available at Dynamism
The entry level S7/60 with a 60GB hard drive and the 1.3Ghz Atom CPU with 1GB RAM and XP Home. A good combination for those that want to use the S7 mainly as a media player. $629
MID-Range 32GB SSD version. This is the version to go for if you want silent operation, a little more speed with boot-up and application access and the ruggedness that comes with having a PC with no moving parts. $659.
The high-end SSD/3G version obviously adds the HSPA (high speed up/down) modem which we understand is a voice-capable Huawei model as found on the X70 and S5. $799
For more information and to register for availability and special offers, see Dynamism.com
A few things to think about:
Battery life. 5-9hrs depending on scenario.
Small form-factor. Significantly smaller than an ASUS T91.
Light weight. 20% lighter than the lightest netbooks.
Convertible touchscreen.
Touch-typing capable keyboard. Not up to the sizes of 10” netbooks but around the same size as early 7” and 9” Eee PCs.
GPS Update from Viliv: No GPS on thess retail versions.
Fast SSD. The Viliv SSDs are fast enough to make a noticeable difference when compared to the HDD versions.
VGA, Component and S-Video out.
SDHC capable card reader for up to 32GB SD card expansion.
Despite the great features it has to be said that if you’ve got a netbook, the S7 may be difficult to justify but if you don’t have a netbook and want a UMPC to cover table-top, mobile, handheld, car and other duties, the S7 is a real multi-scenario mobile computing gem.
Live session with the S7.
The S7 is due to arrive on Monday or Tuesday here and JKK and I have planned a live session for Tuesday evening after the Archos press event. Stay tuned for more information.
PC Advisor have a Viliv S7 UMPC and have just released a hands-on preview. Largely positive, it highlights that the S7 has the potential to be a true personal and mobile companion.
Honestly, I was surprised. I expected some tech torture with the Viliv S7, but I find myself flipping up the screen and using it in odd situations: on the bus (to a couple of interested stares), at the local watering holes… and yeah, even sitting next to me at my desk. Admittedly a little imperfect, the S7 has the potential to become my digital sidekick. Tighten up the girth a little bit, and this could make a fine thumb-typing computer.
The reviewer isn’t so positive about the mouse pad though!
We’ve waited a long long time to see a production Viliv S7. An early prototype was seen at CES in Jan 2008 and the re-design was seen over a year ago at IDF. Finally the production devices are moving out the door. At least in Hong Kong.
One early adopter in Hong Kong, ‘bad_one’, has been providing some updates in the forum. He’s also sent over some images so it’s time for the first end-user ‘proxy’ review of the Viliv S7 3G (1.3Ghz)
The guys at UMPCFever have a sample of the Viliv S7 convertible UMPC (Viliv call it a handtop) a few days before the Hong Kong launch and have started to post reports. It’s an engineering sample so don’t take everything as final.
Before we start, lets take a quick moment to think about what we’re looking at here. The S7 is, using current terms, a mobile-focused netbook. It’s an ultra mobile PC. Lightweight, good keyboard, long long battery life, desktop OS, solid state drive and multi-scenario layout. In terms of efficiency this device is theoretically 40-50% more efficient than a netbook. Viliv are claiming 9 hours on a 34wh battery. If that’s true, this is a very special bit of engineering indeed. Whether that’s good enough to attract customers remains to be seen but I, for one, am very excited about the possibility of the Viliv S7 being the best all-round UMPC to-date. This is a device that will compete with the ‘all-round-capable Sony Vaio P and the ASUS T91.
To give you an idea of the sizing, that battery is about the same capacity as a three-cell netbook battery!
UMPCFever have a good set of pics and have written in detail (English language post) so I advise to head over there for the full details and to view the video. Here’s a few things I’ve picked out though.
Build quality is said to be ‘acceptable good.’ I would rate it slightly higher than that saying that the plastics are well fitted, good quality and attractively finished.
The comment on the keyboard is that it’s the same size as that on an ASUS 701, the original netbook. I, and others, have said that the 701 keyboard size is as small as you can go and still be able to touch type. Those with bigger hands might find it a bit stressful but for most, given a little practice, you can reach 80%+ normal typing speed. I’ve tried the keyboard on the S7 quite a few times now and it’s really good for a device of this size. I would have no problem typing this blog post on it.
No stylus. I rarely use the stylus on the X70 which has the same screen but it’s sometimes nice to have it for annotations and image work.
In the UMPCFever live battery life test posting (not completed as I write this) they are seeing about 10% drain for every hour of Battery Eater Pro testing. This is with radio’s off, but wow! Even if this reaches 8hours in the BEPro test, we’re looking at 5-7hours on-net usage time. That’s almost a full days work there!
As for the case lets just say it’s an accessory I won’t be taking into the coffee shop. The white finish of the device is going to be a problem for a lot of men too.
Keep an eye on UMPCFever for more information and stay tuned here too. We’re also expecting a sample.
Your Opinion? Assuming that this isn’t going to be a cheap device (we’re expecting pricing around $600-$900 depending on specs) how do you think this will fit in? Is the Sony Vaio P a better buy? How about the T91? Here are all three in a side-by-side comparison. Clearly the average consumer is going to be more likely to buy a netbook but what about the pro-mobile set?
As you might have seen from the ‘tweets’ and Flickr photos, we spent some time at the Intel Pavillion as they were setting up. One of the highlights was the Viliv S7, the ‘netvertible’ with the 1.8Ghz Atom processor and long battery life. Fortunately for us, the battery was charged and we were able to get a good video down.
The UI isn’t complete yet but you can see that Viliv are aiming for a UI that is very similar to the Origami Experience. The keyboard is high quality and usable as both a table top and thumb-style keyboard. The touch pad (top-right above keyboard) is well positioned for two-handed use supports tap-to-click. There’s a good range of ports and if the battery really is as high capacity as the previous reports and specifications have led us to believe, it will last for 5-7 hours on a charge depending on the kind of work you are doing.
More details, specifications and links for the Viliv S7 can be found on the UMPCPortal product page.
This video, taken at the Viliv launch event in Korea, shows some nice detail about the cube user interface on the Viliv S5.
It’s an interesting way to tackle the problems of using a desktop OS with a finger. Of course, when you get past the UI you’re dealing with the same old problems but these sort of layers could make XP more attractive and friendly to MID buyers and yet still give the power users the back-end they require to do productive work.
YouTube user ’59hjh’ has other videos too. The video playback demo shows KMPlayer dealing with a 16mbps 720p file and outputing it to an HD screen with no problems at all. The browser demo shows, as we’ve seen before on the Atom-based devices, a top-notch mobile Web experience.
S7 is still on the roadmap
Expect to see the S5 at CES along with two other Atom-based devices. We’ve been in touch with Yukyung Technologies and they tell us that the S7 will be appearing in working form. The S7 is the very interesting pro-mobile UMPC we had hands-on with at IDF (see specs and video) and looks like it matches rumoured Sony UMPC specs.
The S5 is derived from the X5 PMP so it makes sense that there will be an Atom-based variant of the X70 tablet-style PMP shown on the right. There’ll be a working prototype of it at CES codenamed X70-Atom. For a Slate 7″er to be well received in the consumer market it’s going to have to have something special so we’re looking forward to seeing what it’s key features are.
It looks like Yulkyung’s ViliV products are going to be ones to watch at CES. The designs and specs look extremely attractive so far and the prices that they talked about at IDF, very competitive. The only thing that remains is to find out about US and EU availability. For what it’s worth, I’ll certainly be encouraging Yukyung to get these devices out into these areas ASAP.
Ben posted an excellent review of the Viliv S7 at Pocketables a few weeks ago and it follows my thoughts to the letter. The Viliv S7 has been working flawlessly here so rather than produce a copy of that review I’ve decided to take a different angle on the device and talk a bit more about the scenarios that best fit the S7 and the types of customers that might be interested in the device.
