I’m looking at something I haven’t seen for a long long time here. A ultra mobile PC is number 1 on the product portal rankings. This hasn’t happened since the netbooks took over from the HTC Shift as the #1 viewed device in mid-2008. Not only do we have the Viliv S5 at #1 but there’s another ultra mobile PC at #3. The UMID M1.
Viliv S5 popularity graph. (Updated daily)
Lets hope that when we finally get to test them, they stay high in the charts! You can check daily rankings here and on the graph in each product page.
Tucked away in a press release about a 10″ 19mm-thick 10″ Atom-based Netbook to be launched in April is an announcement that Archos will be bringing a 17mm-thick 9″ Tablet to the market. It will be based on the Z5xx processor (the one used in MIDs) will include an on-screen keyboard and touch pointer mouse.
Translation from German press release
Following the product launch and the ARCHOS 10s, is in the 3rd Quarter
9”a revolutionary mini-notebook Tablet launched. This provides a
integrated, virtual keyboard and handwriting recognition. The new design
make the traditional mouse and keyboard redundant [uberfluessig] and
replaced it with a touchscreen keyboard and a TrackPoint mouse.
With the new 9”Mini-Notebook Tablet ARCHOS once again exceed the
Boundaries in terms of design, form and functionality. And with a device,
the only 0.8 kg and 17 mm thick. The 9 “Mini-Notebook Tablet
is thus one of the thinnest and lightest fully-functional
Mini-notebooks in its class. He is the great competitors in nothing
after and offers a disk size from 60 to 160 GB and has also
on the Intel (r) Atom ™ Processor Z5xx the series and the Intel (r) System
Controller Hub.
We assume that this will be a Windows-based device but given Archos consumer focus, is likely to be style-oriented and presumably, well-priced. The Techcrunch tablet team will have to watch this one. The press release then goes on to talk about a Moorestwon-based product in 2010.
The processing [advances] of the Intel Atom processor in the mini-notebook line
2009, showed that in the future ARCHOS want to work with Intel platforms, such as the
“Moorestown” platform of the new generation, and the new
Products will be launched probably 2010. The performance and the
Compatibility of the “Moorestown” platform makes it possible ARCHOS, the
Innovation with increasingly smaller, thinner designs and to continue the
Purpose of the devices to constantly expand.
It looks very much like Archos is keeping it’s fingers in both X86 and ARM pies. Their recent announcement of an Android-based MID device on an ARM-based CPU leads us to believe that they might look to cover all angles in the mobile computing space from netbooks down to smartphones. It will be hard to keep the device capabilities from crossing over each other but will give Archos every opportunity to see content through their back-end content systems and attract European mobile carriers and that’s probably the real long-term focus here.
Back in Dec we heard that the local launch price of the Viliv in Korea would be “(US$388 to US$543)” and today we’ve learned via an email from Viliv that the US retail price will be $649. Luckily, the Viliv S5 Premium that is going to be sold in the US (and I assume anywhere else that ultra mobile PC retailers can import and sell it) is a high-spec model running XP in 1GB on a 1.3Ghz Z520 CPU with a 60GB hard drive and a 1024×600 screen. I can tell you from my experience with the Wibrain i1 that runs exactly the same specs, it’s a pleasurable experience. The ‘Premium’ also comes with GPS, Haptic feedback and the Viliv UI and on-screen keyboard and that big, 17Wh battery which, again based on my work with the Wibrain i1, should return 6hrs screen-off/wifi off and 3-3.5hrs with wifi on, screen-on. That’s 3.5 hrs of very fast web access; [UPDATE: We’re checking on the battery specs. Previously we heard it was 24wh battery. We might have made a mistake on that 17wh figure.]24wh 22.9wh battery (confirmed) which again, based on my work with the Wibrain i1 should return 10 hours screen off/wifi off and 4hrs with wifi-on screen on.
The i1 returns an average sub 10 second-per-page web experience (Sub 5-second with the no-script plugin – 4 times faster than the best smartphones!) and in terms of javascript power:weight ratio, was the best that I’ve ever tested. There’s no reason to believe that the S5 will be any different.
In addition to the information that came in the email, we’ve managed to coerce some information about the missing 3G out of Viliv. Apparently the HSDPA version is still going through certification and is planned for Europe and for those with WiMax in their area, Viliv also have a model planned that will cover that too. In terms of pricing, the going rate for a 3G option runs at between 100 and 150 so $799 seems likely.
Overall it’s looking like a good price for what it is. The lack of keyboard is going to worry some but as a media consumption device, pmp, pnd and fallback PC, it’s really a huge step forward from what we saw even a year ago.
Update: US shipping expected at end of March.
Finally, there’s a new video available here showing the S5 running itunes and coverflow. Expect more videos and review information soon as sample devices have already gone out to Korean bloggers.
Maybe they jumped the gun several years ago when people set out to fit a full-featured computer that would fit in your pocket… it doesn’t matter though because that is all behind us now. Steve has already shown you the video, but I wanted to make sure it was dually noted, and share a few thoughts of my own.
Jkk has taken an Aigo MID, and done some serious customization work, turning it into a very responsive, attractive, and pocketable device. If you like the concept of a real computer in your pocket, don’t miss this video.
Jkk sent the unit out to get a carbon fiber graphic around the screen bezel, and had a matte coating put on so it wouldn’t be a glossy fingerprint magnet. These changes helped the Aigo suit jkk’s aesthetic taste, but some additional modifications make this enhanced Aigo unit a serious UMPC. He has attached a secondary battery to the back which manages to maintain a thin profile (sticking up off the back of the device by only a few millimeters) but bumping the battery-life up from 2 hours to around 5 hours. Using Windows XPe (embedded), jkk has managed to make this thing super-responsive and great for web browsing. I’ll tell you that I’m personally very impressed with the responsiveness of the unit; watch the video and you can see for yourself, multi-tab browsing with smooth touchscreen inertia scrolling. Remember, this isn’t power, this is response; the Aigo is only running at 800MHz but manages to look that good while doing it. The Aigo is also loaded when it comes to connectivity. Inside is WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, and GPS.
What strikes me about this is how great this modified Aigo appears, but at the same time, I wonder why it took the ability of one smart guy to make it happen when there hasn’t been something like it released from a company that has lots of money to put in to R&D.
Of course this isn’t the final solution. The Aigo is still somewhat lacking. The SSD in the Aigo is very small, and not too fast either. There isn’t a mouse pointer (as the unit wasn’t designed for XP), and jkk says the keyboard, while decent, could be better. I’m really impressed with the steps jkk has taken to turn the device into an amazing ultra mobile PC and I can only hope some companies out there take note: this is the type of device we want!
Pocketables summarised a week with the Vaio P a few days ago and seems quite happy with the device. I’ve been following some discussion between a few owners on twitter too and there’s a lot of positive feedback flying around.
One thing that worries me a bit is the 1.3Ghz processor on Vista. Although the SSD seems very fast, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with the heavy stack of Vista processes stealing very valuable cycles from my Firefox experience. I’d be much happier with the relatively thin Windows XP as a base OS but unfortunately that’s not an option. There is a 1.8Ghz version though and having tested Vista with the OQO 2+ that uses the same 1.8Ghz platform and a slightly slower SSD, I know it would be acceptable for most daily work…
I had the 1.8Ghz OLED screen version of the OQO 2+ with the 64GB SSD. It was running Vista and at 1.8Ghz it performed extremely well. I used it as a desktop with the stylish docking station and an external 1400×900 monitor and the fact that it was a ultra mobile PC was almost transparent in my usage scenarios.
We’ve got a chance to get feedback on the 1.8Ghz version this week as JKKMobile has just taken delivery of one from Conics.net. I spoke to JKK on Friday and I know he’s planning a lot of coverage and the first content out of the door is this unboxing video.
"UMID(www.umid.co.kr) announced the release of its MID(Mobile Internet Device) ‘M1’ in Korea market on February 20, which was unveiled during CES 2009. Adopting a 4.8-inch touch screen with 1024 * 600 resolution, the M1 features WiBro, HSDPA, WiMAX, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Powered by Intel Atom(1.1Ghz/1.33GHz) processor, the UMID MID supports DDR2 533MHz 512BMB/1GB memory, up to 32GB SSD and MS Windows XP/Vista/Linux OS. Weighing only 315g, it is equipped with a 1.3M camera, mini USB 2.0 slot and SD/USIM card slot."
We don’t see anything on the UMID website yet (apart from the hidden page we found last month) but this does tally with words we’re hearing through the grapevine.
We’ve requested a sample device and are in contact with UMID and resellers to get this one ASAP. A lot of people are waiting for it! As for pricing…we should have that info in a week or two. Maybe sooner.
Another offer from Expansys. This time it’s the Vye S41 which is one of the only netbook-style devices to offer a convertible screen and a DVD drive. We tested this and moaned about the price back when it was 1000 pounds but Expansys in the UK have it on offer now for half of that price making it much better value. It runs the Intel Stealey CPU platform (think 1.3Ghz netbook performance) with 1GB of RAM and an 80GB drive with Vista OS. The DVD drive makes it quite unique amongst UMPCs and Netbooks.
An email in from Viliv this morning highlights that the Viliv S5 will have haptic feedback on it’s touchscreen adding another feature that sets it apart from the rest. With XP and an overlay UI, a big battery that should see 4hrs screen-on, online use and 6 hours video playback (we estimate about 10 hours of audio) and 200 hours of standby (device not active) there’s not much that can touch it (ahem!) in the 4.8 tablet market. In theory, a slider keyboard would be nice but then you’d lose some of that battery capacity in order to keep the sizing sensible.
As a communicator, mobile browser, PMP, PND, storage device, ebook reader, dictionary and dockable PC, this is way up there with the best of the current choices. In fact, in a poll we started today, it’s currently level-second as the most popular of the current crop of UMPCs. On the product portal, it’s the number 3 most-viewed device over the last 7 days.
We’re expecting samples to start reaching distributors soon, an appearance at MWC (Booth 2A31)and Viliv say that people will be able to ‘touch S5 in March.’ I want to touch one now!
