It seems like half a year since I added the HSDPA-capable CMXP version of the Q1 Ultra to the database. Oh, it was!

Samsung have finally announced it in the US but unfortunately the price seems to have risen to $1449 which I find a little but over the top for a year-old, $1000 device that many people have already retro-fitted with a $150 HSDPA card.

It’s almost the same story with the Q1 Ultra premium. It’s been available for months with XP but only now have Samsung decided to announce it. Maybe Kevin Tofel’s reports convinced them.

Now seems a good time to mention that the Q1 Ultra with XP is a good performer, has excellent battery life and can be upgraded a home-built SSD drive. I’m still using mine although I am missing the keyboard that I’ve had on the M704 and SC3 recently.

Via Engadget.

As you might have read, I have been very disappointed with the battery life figures on the Kohjinsha SC3. I was expecting a lot lot more from an Ultra Mobile PC built on Intel’s latest battery-optimised Menlow platform but it turns out that under normal use, this device is just as bad as many devices based on the previous platform. Over the last 24 hours I’ve spent a lot of time trying to analyse why and have finally come up with the reason. Invetec, the OED for this device, have cut corners. While the background drain (on the motherboard and power board) is better than on previous Kohjinsha’s, it’s no better than the HTC Shift, Q1 Ultra. All these devices can match the SC3 for background efficiency. About 4W minimum or 5-hours, is what you can expect with everything turned off but the processor.

OK, 4W is good but once the screen is on, boom! Up goes the battery drain by between 80 and 150%. This is exceptionally high drain for what appears to be a LED-backlit screen. Thank goodness that using the screen in a bright room requires only 3/8th brightness but it’s still about 3W of drain which is much higher than it should be.

The second shock comes when you turn the VIA, yes VIA!,  USB Wifi module on. Connecting to a hotspot will push the drain up by over 3W. It will settle back to 2W after connection but this is, quite frankly, pathetic. A wifi module that takes more power than the processor is a joke. There are far more efficient Wifi modules out there. Did Inventec think they were designing a cheap netbook?

So from a background drain of 5W, if you want to surf the net in a bright room over Wifi, the battery life drops to a depressing 2hrs. This is an average drain of 10W which is no better than the devices mentioned above.

Breakdown, tips and summary follow…

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Lets start this article with a poll.

If there’s one thing that always annoys me in the ultra mobile PC 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….

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The small size of this surprised me more than usual!

More information
on our SC3 info page.

Be sure to join me on umpcportal.com/live over the next hours (1900-2200 GMT) where I’ll be giving  overviews and demos of the device. The  chat  channel will be open for questions and I think JKK might pop in with a few Eees!

It arrived a few hours ago after a swift pass through customs over the weekend and it’s still sitting behind me, boxed and sealed. I’m very, very excited!

The Kohjinsha SC3 will be the first retail device based on the new Intel Menlow platform that I’ve been able to test, and test it I will. Battery life, video performance, Vista performance, typing, GPS, ExpressCard capabilities and much more. It all starts today and for most of it, I’ll be live in the studio so you can join me for a behind-the-scenes look while I do the unboxing. Later today I’ll be running a presentation so you can join me for a closer look and will have the chance to answer questions. I’ll be at the desk doing the unboxing video from about 1700 CET but doing the presentation from about 2100 CET. That’s 2000 UK, 15:00 New York and at 1200 in San Francisco.

See you on UMPCPortal/Live. I’m just off to put some suitable clothes on! ;-)

The Willcom D4 and Kohjinsha SC3 devices, the first to run on the Intel MID platform (Menlow) are reaching peoples hands through importers now and I’m happy to be one of them. I have an SC3 sitting behind me, still sealed up, that i’ll take a closer look at later. If you’re tracking the Willcom device though, and many are due to its tiny size and Windows OS, you’ll want to check out this unboxing from Wow-Pow. There’s no real hands-on yet and no word from them on battery life, a critical element on this device, but Wow-Pow have promised to bring a more hands-on focused video later.

Don’t forget to check out the opinions from Direct From Japan and keep an eye on Pocketables who are also expecting the device.

Details specs and up-to-date links are always available in the Willcom D4 info page.

I was just reading Kevin’s article about how big the netbook market has gotten in just a year. It’s really amazing to me how the category evolved and expanded. I have maybe once seen a ultra mobile PC in use in the wild. That was someone using a UX in a coffee shop. But that’s it. Now however, netbooks seem to be all over the place. In school I regularly see people typing away on Eees. Just last week when going through Airport security a woman behind me pulled an Eee 900 out of her handbag. What surprised me the most though, is my visit to the mall here in Italy. I went into a small electronics store and looked at the laptops on display. There were two Acer 15′ notebooks which looked pretty old and as if they were sitting in the store for a long time. In a big display cabinet however where 3 Olidata JumPCs proudly displaying their 299 Euro price. The JumPC is an Italian Eee-like device that runs on the 900mhz celeron and is marketed at children. I think it might actually be the Classmate design. Definitely not what I expected to find in such a small store! I might have bought if only it wasn’t slightly bulky and err… orange :)

I missed this one a few days ago. UMPCFever are reporting that NeoSolar, the new owners of the Wibrain brand, will market a new version of the Wibrain with Atom, HSDPA and a makeover. Apparently the info appears on a Wibrain website.

The styling on the rendering that appears on UMPCFever’s article looks a lot better than the old version. I hope the back and sides get the same treatment! It would probably have to be a Menlow platform to fit into the Wibrain casing and it would depend on the clockrate as to how powerful it would be. Lets hope for 1.33Ghz and above where hyperthreading and the 533Mhz FSB kicks in. The existing Wibrain has a big, 30wh battery so if they achieve some efficiencies over and above the existing device, it could be a 4hr in-use device. They might solve the heat problems too as it certainly isn’t the coolest and quietest on the block.

We’ve been in contact with Wibrain but haven’t had any response yet. One of our reseller contacts might have some more info for us next week though. Stay tuned.

In other WIbrain news, apparently the 32GB SSD versions of the existing version are arriving in stock in Europe (and we assume in other territories) this week.

Oh by the way, if you’re wondering what the big black lollypop stick is all about, it is probably a 3G antenna for use in fringe areas. A great idea.