Dynamism has two UMPC deals (good today only) that might be of interest:

• For $30 off the regular price, you can order the pink or black base model UMID M1 [Portal page]. Both have 512MB of RAM, Windows XP, an 8GB SSD and come with a case and 4GB MicroSD card. The pink version will run you $419 and has a 1.2GHz Atom CPU, and the black version is $469 with a 1.3GHz CPU.
  
• They also have a deal on the Viliv S7 [Portal page] which I reviewed over at Pocketables.net. I would personally take this S7 deal over the UMID M1 as you get $100 off the top end model, and Dynamism is already throwing in a spare battery — combined with the regularly included one you could run your Viliv S7 for nearly 20 hours straight (going for max battery life)! You can pick up this 3G equipped Viliv S7 for $699 today only, which has a 1.33GHz Atom CPU, 32GB SSD, 1GB of RAM, and runs Windows XP.
  

The Viliv boys pointed out that Dynamism will be selling a limited edition* pink UMID M1 [Portal page]. Though the UIMD M2 is due out sometime soon — I guess the more colors, the better!The pink UMID M1 is $50 less ($449) than the black low-end UMID M1 that Dynamism sells. Unfortunately no, they aren’t giving you $50 off just because its pink… the pink one has a slightly slower CPU – the Atom Z515 at 1.2GHz (vs. 1.3GHz for the low-end black model, or 1.33GHz on the high-end black model). Everything else, however, is the same as on the low-end black model: 8GB SSD, 512MB of RAM, and Windows XP. From the images it is a bit tough to tell exactly how glossy or matte the pink version is, but it appears to be more on the matte side of the spectrum, similar to the black one that I looked at.

*Dynamism has the pink M1 down as “limited edition”, but it isn’t exactly clear whether it is the pink M1 itself which is limited, or the deal currently running that includes a free pink pouch and 4GB MicroSD card.

You’ll probably recall that I got my hands on a matte black retail version of the oft mentioned UMID M1 a few weeks ago. In the initial unboxing, I noted that the build quality felt really good on the retail version. There were a few unsettling reports of some poor build quality on pre-retail models, but all of those seem to have been put to rest with the retail version finally sifting through to folks.

That’s great and all, but a well built blending machine isn’t going to bake good bread, is it?

I strive to find a viable use for the UMID M1 [Portal page] that isn’t already filled by a much better gadget. I really didn’t want to lambast the unit, it feels great as a device, but the moment you want to do something with it, there is a sense of “who the heck designed this thing and how did they expect me to use it?” There are glaring design and usability issues here that I just can’t deny, even if this is a pocketable computer that is capable of running a full desktop OS. It is clear to me that the designers of the UMID M1 must not have had a clear idea of who would be using the device, or what they would be using it for.

Keyboard

Aside from removing the keyboard all together, there aren’t many changes you could make to the M1’s keyboard that would make it worse. Before I even begin to explain, let me just set you up with a mental image: Skis on a car in place of wheels. Doesn’t make sense? Exactly. That’s what the M1’s keyboard feels like to me.

The device is plainly small enough that it should have a thumb-board. What is even more ironic about this is that the M1 is actually spacious enough to allow for a great thumb-board. However, the designers of the M1 managed to find the perfect balance of FAIL. I see the keyboard as the perfect combination of thumb-board and touch-type keyboard – if you were looking to perfectly negate the strengths of both and exemplify the weaknesses.

The keyboard is designed with touch-type keys. You know, the ones you are used to regular laptop. They are super small, but have a touch-type pitch (the distance the key moves up and down). This means that thumbing the keyboard is very hard. I wish it was more easy to explain, but the short of it is this: because your hands are gripping around the sides of the device to hold it – your thumbs come in on a very flat angle relative to the keys from the sides of the device, instead of nearly straight down as they would on a standard keyboard. The touch-type pitch means that it is really hard to realize when you’ve actually pressed the keys all the way down. It is especially hard to hit the keys toward the center because you must stretch your thumb to reach, and this brings them in at a near 90 degree angle, making it close to impossible to press the key without pressing another key, and let alone recognize whether or not you’ve landed a proper press of the key to register input.

Ok so thumb-boarding doesn’t work out, why not just touch-type? Unfortunately, I would go so far as to say that it is impossible to touch-type exactly as you would on a regular laptop using the M1. It is just too small. If you want to even consider touch-typing, you’ll need to drop a few fingers that you are used to using. So let’s say somehow you are comfortable touch typing on this thing. Great, now you run in to the next fail of design.

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It seems like Steve has had his hands all over the early white UMID M1 [Portal page], but I happen to have just received the official matte black UMID M1, courtesy of Dynamism, with twice the storage space (and a production model at that), oh and a nice case that Dynamism is offering with orders that even Steve didn’t get to check out! Let’s quickly review the important specs of the device:

• 1.33GHz Atom CPU
• 512MB of RAM
• 32GB SSD
• Windows XP
• 1024×600 4.8” screen

So you’ve probably seen Steve’s white UMID unboxing, so I’ll try to keep the unboxing pictures brief, but let you scope out the sexy matte black finish and the quality leather case.

There were reports of poor build quality on the early UMID M1s. I’ve only been playing with it for a few hours, but everything feels fine as far as build quality goes. There are only a few issues I have. The first of which is the included stylus and the silo that it is housed in. The telescoping stylus doesn’t slide in and out of the silo very easily, and for some reason it feels awful when used to stroke the screen. Tapping is fine, but if you are trying to run it across the screen it feels like you are drawing with a pencil on sandpaper. I’ve been using my similar UX stylus on the screen instead which makes alleviates this feeling to some extent. The keyboard is a bit squishy to a certain point, but it is within a reasonable tolerance. UMID said that they increased the angle that the hinge would open to as there were early complaints. After consulting an expert who had her hands on the earlier UMID (hat tip to Jenn from Pocketables), it doesn’t appear as though the screen can actually go back any further, though I’ve noted that the viewing angels are excellent, so this diminishes the issue to some degree.

I’ll be checking out this sleek version of the UMID for the next few weeks. Steve has covered much of the device already; drop a comment here if there is anything in particular that you’d like me to look at.

After a long wait and more than a little worry that UMID had gone out of business, the black Mbook M1, one of the most impressive of all the UMPCs based on it’s size, performance, speed and capability, is coming to Dynamism next week for $599.

Dynamism are also offering a free leather case (while stocks last)

The UMID runs XP on the same  1.3Ghz Intel Atom CPU asyou’ll find in the Viliv X5, X70 and Asus T91. It’s a proven CPU now and ideal for high-end mobile work with long battery life. Expect 4hours real-world usage out of the UMID.

The keyboard is good, the touchscreen is good and there’s even a 3G option available. This is the ultimate tool for the pro-twitter user. Tweetdeck and Firefox are a deadly combo!

Things to watch out for are:

USB ports require a dongle to adapt them to a normal sized port. The audio in/out is also on a dongle which is very annoying. There’s also a question about build quality and screen angle. We’ve heard that the casing design and plastics have been updated to eliminate the creakyness found in the earlier versions but we still haven’t had 100% confirmation that the screen angle has been improved. You can see the problem demonstrated in my demo video which gives a good overview of the good and bad points of the UMID

You can read the full review of the UMID M1 here. There’s a huge amount of UMID content here.

The long anticipated compact and cool — world’s smallest PC with refined matte black casing– will be shipping from Dynamism next week. While supplies last, we will also include a free leather case ($50 value) with each order. This UMID M1 is long-awaited and fairly limited, so we expect our shipment to sell out quickly. [ Dynamism]

UMID product page with external links to reviews and articles.

Some of the earliest pictures of the UMID M1 [Portal page] were of a glossy black version that had a highly contrasting white keyboard. Well, after the release of the initial white M1, it looks like a matte black version is on the way. Lazion.com has some images showing a UMID M1 which has a glossy black lid with a matte black inside and matching black keyboard. Jenn from Pocketables also points out that we’ve seen a pink and red version which have yet to be made official as well, so keep an eye out. I think the black version looks a bit better than the white version; your thoughts?

[Pocketables.net]

The UMID Mbook is a groundbreaker. The first pocketable clamshell device to be able to run Windows or Linux-based software on an Intel platform is a great achievement and a huge step forward in technology. It’s also an attention-grabber. People are immediately drawn to the form factor and immediately understand that this could be a fun, productive and flexible device. It first appeared in Nov 2008 and went on sale in Korea in late Feb 2009. After a recall due to build quality issues, it’s now appearing in Ebay channels. Resellers are also getting export retail samples and this is what we’re testing here. The UMID Mbook M1 in export retail finishing sent over by Mobilx.eu

Read the full story

While we still don’t have confirmation of a US release, the UMID M1 [Portal page] is already out in Korea, and has been demonstrated doing some multimedia tasks on video. Take a look at the videos below:

In this video you can see the UMID play a nice selection of games. Starting off with an FPS which appears to be Quake, then an RTS which seems to be Warcraft III. Then a more modern FPS, a racing game, and a 2D side-scroller. There is a good representative sample of game genres shown in the video, but most of them are fairly old and don’t have large hardware requirements, so I can’t say I’m exactly impressed with what the video is showing. The UMID M1 obviously isn’t built as a game machine, but it looks like if you are a lite gamer, you’ll be able to get your mobile game on, provided you use an external mouse at least.

In this video, the UMID M1 is used to play back an h.264 encoded video. Again, I’m not particularly impressed with the performance, as you can notice some dropped frames here and there. The rest of the video plays fairly smoothly, but may be a bit less smooth than a YouTube video can show us. Again, the UMID M1 isn’t supposed to be a serious multimedia device, but instead, a mobile web content consumer.

[Engadget]

Jenn from Pocketables.net has some interesting new info about the UMID M1 [Portal page]. Chippy has had some good hands on time with the UMID M1 and always seems to note that he wishes the build quality was a bit better. Luckily it looks like his wish might come true. From what Jenn tells us, it looks like the casing will be refined before the US release. But wait, there’s more!

1. Improved shell has smoother lines and a smaller battery that doesn’t protrude as much.
2. Release date in Australia and Hong Kong, the first to get the device outside of Korea, has been pushed back to May (conservative estimate).
3. US release is still unknown.
4. Model without HSDPA will be released before model with HSDPA.

There are a few additional bits of info that Jenn has uncovered, head over to her article on Pocketables.net for the full list.