How does a quality 7" 1024×600 ultra mobile PC for 385 Euro ($600) sound? If you’re a ultra mobile PC fan in Hong Kong right now you’re laughing because one of the best tablet-style UMPCs is now available in basic 800Mhz, Windows XP (Home) form for just 4690 of the local dollars. The Q1 U-C is part of a special promotion out there.
For the U.S. readers, that might not sound too cheap but in Euro-land, that’s about as cheap as it gets. Sure, you could buy an MSI Wind which is faster and has a full keyboard but it just doesn’t compare if you want to go mobile. Take it from me, a person who has just lost their Q1 Ultra to a broken external battery pack, the Q1 with 800Mhz and XP is a great device. Drop in a the simple SSD mod and you have something that’s as fast as any netbook out there and brings you over 3 hours online battery life.
Hong Kong is a long way away but I hope it kicks off a round of competitive pricing on the Ultra. As we move towards CES and a possible Q1 Ultra update, maybe it’s Samsungs plan to squeeze the last from the device before the new one comes in. Come on Samsung, bring us a sub $500 UMPC.
I won’t put this model in the database. Specifications-wise, it looks like the CMXP version is the nearest but with XP Home instead of TE (yes, some people won’t be happy about this) and I assume, no Bluetooth.
UMPCFever are the source of the information here and I find myself more than a little interested in this 1.6Ghz Intel Centrino Atom-based (Silverthorne + Puolsbo) device having read the article. The Fujitsu U2010 appears to be a significant step forward for UMPCs and a possible replacement for my broken Q1 Ultra (more about that here and later.)
Improved:
Keyboard
Wifi/BT on/off switch
Battery life
Screen Res
UMPCFever have measured 3 hours WiFi-on, full screen backlight playing a movie. Remember this is on a 20wh battery. 7W drain under those conditions is nothing short of impressive. Expect around 7-hours music playback, 5 hours wifi-off typing or 3 hours browsing. If you so wish, you have a 40wh battery option which will bulk the device out a little but double your battery life.
The U2010 has many of the components of the SC3 but it’s smaller (click the size comparison on the left,) is more powerful and has better battery life. In my book, that’s worth paying for so it’s the reason that the U2010 has gone right to the top of my wishlist. Anyone want to buy an SC3 from me?
UMPCFever have also got pictures of the device disassembled. Check out the internals here where you’ll see the good news that the HD can be swapped out and the bad news that the memory is soldered.
We’re tracking and linking all the U2010 info as we find it on the U2010 info page.
Last week I posted some tips on how to squeeze 3 hrs browsing time out of the Kohjinsha SC3. The method was a bit of a trick as it utilised a mobile phone data connection over Bluetooth but it was the only way to achieve 3 hours on the 20wh battery. It equates to an average 7W drain which is, even in ultra mobile PC terms, very efficient but it’s not as good as I hoped from a Z-series Atom-based system.
The reason why it’s not as good as I expected (and the reason why i’m not using the SC3 to write this post in my tent while the rain beats down outside) is that the Samsung Q1 Ultra (with SSD mod) is just as efficient with the previous generation Intel platform. As I write this post, perfom (try it, start->run->perfmon. Its fun to watch the battery drain) is telling me that the average drain is 6.9 watts. Meebo is running in the background, Friendfeed is updating, CPU utilisation is averaging 20%, brightness is set at 25% and I’ve got a LED lamp attached to the USB port to give me some light. With the standard battery, thats over 4 hours of online time. I’ve got the extended battery here which is showing 5.5 hrs @ 61% battery. (9hrs total)
With a refresh to a 1.33Ghz Atom processor and some tweaks to the motherboard, I’m sure Samsung could shave 20% off that drain figure and produce a 5-6 hr, 600gm device. They’ve proved themselves as one of the best at electronic design with their Q1 products and it excites me to think about what they might come up with next – as long as it has a lighted keyboard!
Jenn, now a Willcom D4 owner as well as an SC3 owner, has her first impressions up. As expected, the battery life isn’t good at all with the tiny standard battery returning 1.5 hours of use. Its efficient of course, but that’s not really enough is it. I really don’t understand how any OEM could convince themselves that it’s acceptable to expect people to buy a second battery.
Apart from that, the device seems to be performing well enough with Vista on the 1.33Ghz CPU.
The Willcom D4 never felt right to me from the word go and this review doesn’t change my opinion.
Meet the Vye S41 (Portal page for full specs). This is a mini-tablet / ultra mobile PC touting a 7 inch screen. Some of you may notice that it looks an awful lot like the Kohjinsha SR8. You would be correct in that observation; the S41 and SR8 are actually the same computer, Vye has adapted the S41 to be sold outside of Japan. The S41’s most unique feature is its built in DVD burner. It is very surprising to see the drive in such a small computer. Though the question has to be asked: Do you really need a DVD drive in a computer that is designed to be highly mobile? Find the answer to that and a whole lot more in the full S41 review below. (continue reading…)
I’m going camping over the next four days. Here’s the kit that’s going to keep me productive.
[The Wife and little-one have planned a last-minute camping trip together and I was due to stay home and work but I’ve decided to go along and make a working holiday of it. Dads – this is the beauty of Ultra Mobile PC’s!!!]
Many of us have been anxiously waiting for news about the VIA Nano (formerly Isaiah) processor from VIA. Previous leaked info indicated a 2-4x improvement in processing power for a similar power drain over the older VIA C7 processors and with the Atom processors barely improving on the previous platform in terms of processing power, pro-mobile users were looking for something to fill the high-end gap.
Eeepcnews.de have been testing, (yes, they had one in their hands!) a 1.8Ghz version of the Nano CPU which isn’t the CPU we’d be looking for in UMPCs but the results give us some new data points. Firstly, here’s the model range. (test results after the image…)
If it wasn’t clear before, it is now. [If the results are not showing, make your vote and you’ll see them.]
While some people will accept 3-hours battery life for an Ultra Mobile PC, 85% of people want 4 or more hours. 50% of people here see 5 hours as minimum battery life for a UMPC.
How does a quality 7" 1024×600 ultra mobile PC for 385 Euro ($600) sound? If you’re a ultra mobile PC fan in Hong Kong right now you’re laughing because one of the best tablet-style UMPCs is now available in basic 800Mhz, Windows XP (Home) form for just 4690 of the local dollars. The Q1 U-C is part of a special promotion out there.
