Great news. Following the Australian reseller, Justek (news) Dynamism have announced that they will be selling the UMID M1 Mbook and that it will be available from the 15th June.

For $599 you get exactly the version we tested. WIndows XP Home + 16GB of SSD. Good value? Yes. The UMID is truly a next-gen ultra mobile PC and, along with the Viliv S5, one of the best ultra mobile PC choices there is right now. It’s got a very fast web browser (we’re talking 3-4x the rendering speed of an iPhone here with full flash capability!) and a good video playback sub-system. From our review:

We’re impressed with the technology in the UMID Mbook, the processing power, the battery life, the screen and the fast SSD. We’re not impressed with the fiddly micro-SD slot, headphone and USB ports though and these, we’re sure, will be major issues for a lot of people. Build quality could also be better. Despite these issues, the UMID is a device that you keep going back to and keep wanting to take with you, even if you don’t have any ‘computing’ activities planned. It’s a very flexible, and fast, pocket companion. One might say, a pocket microblogging rocket!

Our full review of the UMID Mbook M1 is here.

Full product details including videos and links to other UMID news items on the ´net

Dynamism link.

Related articles in the right hand column ->

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

There’s an interesting line-up in the top 5 on the product portal today:

This is how the list of top 5 most-viewed devices looks on UMPCPortal today. Two UMPCs/MIDs and three low cost. lightweightm touchscreen notebooks.

The Viliv S5 has been #1 for a long time now and looks like it will stay there if recent reports are anything to go by. jkOnTheRun, Pocketables, JKKMobile, UMPCFever and yours truly have all filed positive reports based on testing experiences. Much the same is true of the UMID too. I’m guessing it would be #1 if you could actually buy one outside the Ebay channels because it seems to fit a more popular ‘microblogging’ niche than the Viliv S5. I could well be wrong on that one though so we’ll have to wait to see what the price is.

Positions 3-5 are interesting though. Over the last year, netbooks have totally dominated the UMPPortal charts with the Aspire One and MSI Wind taking the most viewings. These two both still appear in the top 10 but it’s these three new convertible touchscreen devices that are creating more buzz now.

Of the three, I personally think that the ASUS EeePC T91 is the most interesting for readers here. I was reading an advertising supplement from Stuff Magazine a few days ago and there was a lot of focus on the T91 as a Mobile Computer. They’re calling it the smallest, lightest TabletPC in the world which is actually incorrect but you can see where the marketing people are trying to push it. ‘Up to five hours’ battery life, 32GB SSD, fanless, multi-touch trackpad and GPS, 3G and DVB-T (options) in a very small sub-1kg package and an (expected entry-level) sub-500 Euros price has to be worth looking at.  The same goes for the EeePC T101H although it’s not going to be as portable. Bigger disk, screen, keyboard and CPU will increase the weight, size and price up out of the cheap netbook space. I suspect it might even come in at a higher price than the Gigabyte Touchnote T1028M that I have myself. Both are excellent choices though and if the extra size, weight and price is not a consideration for you, they will be more productive than the T91.

Bubbling under in the mobile convertible space is, to my eyes, an even more interesting mobile produtivity solution though. The Viliv S7 would go head-to-head with the T91. It will weigh even less, come with a range of CPUs up to 1.8 or even 2.0Ghz and have a similar battery life and keyboard. 3G and GPS will also be options. I tested a working model at CeBIT and was impressed.

It’s fair to say that all of these devices are new, all are getting a lot of press and that their appearance on the top 5 may not be long-term but touch is moving into mainstream computing very quickly indeed and it’s good to see sub 1kg options appearing at great prices. I feel sure that these devices will be around in the top 10 for quite a while and that we’re going to see more and more devices taking touch and mobility cues from the ultra mobile PC and Tablet PC world.

Here’s my overview and opinion on the UMID MBook M1 in 12 points and a seven minute video. It highlights what I think are the most important things you should be thinking about if you’re looking to buy it.

Negative

• Build quality. Plastics and part fitting is poor. Some creaking and poorly fitted casing components. *1
• Table or handtop use. Neither are perfect. If the screen folded back further it would be far more comfortable to use in hands. Too light for tabletop touchscreen use.
• One shift key is awkward in handheld mode. Strange layout for some keyboard characters.
• Wifi and BT default to off after standby and can not be individually enabled.
• No direct usb or headphone port
• (Not in the video) No mouse control other than touchscreen which can be fiddly with Windows XP.

Positive

• Smallest, most powerful notebook style pocketable pc available.
• Extremely fast to boot, resume and start programs due to fast ssd
• Good quality touchscreen with stabilisation software/drivers.
• Powerful enough for Skype video capability out of the box. Good webcam.
• Excellent battery life. (I’m currently running a full start-to-finish web browsing battery life test as I write this.)
• While not perfect in every scenario, can be used successfully in every scenario. A flexible device.
• Silent, cool operation.

Overall it’s one of the best ultra mobile PC devices available on the market and a great step forward for UMPCs but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

More information, links, videos, gallery in the UMID information page.

[*1 I am told that this is a retail UMID Mbook and not a prototype as I mentioned in the video. JKK has a similar problem with the one he bought from Ebay but there’s still a question about whether I have one of the pre-recall versions here.]

On of the key features of the UMID Mbook M1, apart from the processing power, form factor and battery life, is the speed of the SSD. What better way to demonstrate it than to show a boot sequence. Here’s proof that it boots in 30 seconds from pressing the button to being able to se the start menu. The OS is Windows XP Home with about 30 processes running. Update: One correction on the video; the UMID weighs 338gm (measured), not 490gm as shown on the video.

Detailed info, including a new gallery and links to review articles and videos are available in the updated UMID information page.

Clearly, one of the most interesting and attention-grabbing devices we had at SXSW was the tiny clamshell form-factor UMID MBook. It’s design, a combination of a familiar form factor and attractive styling, has been highlighted by commenter’s as a winning combination ever since it first appeared in Nov 2008. Between then and now, very few people have had the chance to get quality time with it. Lazion, a Korean website, teased us with some early hands-on last month and Slashgear got some thumbs-on with the keyboard at Mobile World Congress so now it’s time for me to try and knit all that info together with what I experienced and tested out in Austin.

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