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!

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.

I’m in the ‘BUX (as my fellow US-based bloggers say!) with the SC3 and having a fun, productive time. Watching that battery level of course but really enjoying the form factor. To most people round here I guess it looks like ‘one of those small notebooks’ but they are so so wrong!

Things you can’t do with a netbook..but can with an SC3.

• Thumb the keyboard. Yup, it feels comfortable for one-lines, IM, passwords and URLs.
• Hold it in one hand and drive it via the touch screen while leaning  back.
• Leaning back with a coffee in one hand and the SC3 converted to tablet mode reading feeds in the other.
• Slipping it into my ‘man purse.’ [Yes, a debateable advantage ]
• Bluetooth teathering to my phone (OK, some netbooks do actually have Bluetooth)
• Feeling really happy that you have one of the smallest and most adaptable PC formats ever.

Problems you must cope with…

• Battery life
• Keyboard not as good as a netbook but im happy to sacrifice a handful of words per minute.
• Vista keeps slowing me down with its disk activity and inability to be slim and fast. I checked out an XP-based 1.33Ghz Silverthorne-based device this morning. It was so much better.

I have decided to give the SC3 another chance. My Tekkeon and Samsung Q1U died last week so rather than shell out $1400 for my ideal Q1 Ultra, i’m going to get a slim, 30hw external battery pack that will fit in my gadget bag and provide some badly needed energy. When I get the chance, i’ll try out the Kohjinsha extended battery. It should save me $1000 while I wait for a new device. In the meantime i’ll have to put up with the rollercoaster of emotions that the SC3 gives me. 2hrs mobile happiness followed by massive frustration that device is unuseable without mains power! A bit like the HTC Shift but with a much, much better screen.

[Note about that rollewrcoaster: I was tethering to my N82 rather than using WiFi to save battery power and the battery on my phone died before I had a chance to post this. Battery life, battery life, battery life.  Grrr!]

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….

(more…)

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

Despite my little moan about JEITA battery life tests yesterday, the SC3 is looking very interesting as a UMPC. We’ve been in touch with Direct From Japan (DJF-Store.com) a company that operates out of the Akihabara district in Japan and they tell us that they will be able to ship the SC3 and from the 3rd of July. The SX3 should be shipping from Japan at the end of July.

Prices:

• SC3KP06A Black (and available in white) $989. (approx 640 Euros)
• SC3KP06GA Black (BT & GPS) (and available in white) $1049. (approx 680 Euros)
• The SX (8.9″, 1.2KG, DVD writer) is also available for $1199 (Black or white. Shipping at end of July)

Remember that you are responsible for import duty on the shipments. In Europe, you’ll have to pay your local sales tax/VAT/MSt etc. Shipping charges are also added to those prices [Update: DFJ offer free global shipping.] but with the dollar rate so low at the moment, the prices are looking excellent for Euro and Pound customers.

We’ve agreed to carry a DJF-Store advert in the SC and SX product pages (that will be up soon) in return for an early shipment and a discount so naturally I’ve placed an order for the SC3. I’ll be able to report on the DFJ service and detailed specification of the device (keyboard, language options, manuals etc.) and hopefully, get down to some hard work with Silverthorne. This could be one of the first Silverthorne devices to ship so there’s a lot to learn from it.

Click on the images below for full size versions of images that I pulled over from the Kohjinsha website into the gallery.

Click for SC3 and SX3 product details.
(UMPCPortal database.)