It looks like we’ve hit another 7 inch requirement with very few solutions. Any more of these requests and i’m going to go out there and make my own ultra mobile PC and sell it to you all!

Mike contacted me to see if he could get some suggestions for an extremely mobile computer. It’s one that needs a full MS office suite and also needs to do duty as a support system in a light aircraft.

Here’s the breakdown.

·As an IT manager I use the MS Office suite, MS Project, MS Visio, and Firefox to do my job.

· I also travel by small plane for work and I need a unit that runs Windows so that I can use my flight navigation software (www.anywheremap.com)

·The yoke (steering wheel of the plane) can only accommodate a unit with an 8.9 inch screen without blocking critical flight instruments 7 inches provides the best fit

·When I land at the local airport I often use a car GPS for street navigation.

·I don’t use my computers for gaming or video editing, but I do need to have reasonably snappy performance in the office environment.

That’s a clear requirement. 7 inch, Windows and wallop! right into the no-devices zone.

I initially thought about leading with a device that had GPS installed but that can be problematic. In my car there’s a UV filter on the screen and it kills reception. Where reception is critical, a well-positioned GPS puck is going to be the answer. Bluetooth isn’t the most reliable of connectivity mechanisms but once set-up, it does work.

Now that we don’t need the built-in GPS, we’ve widened our scope ….

I’m looking at the Libretto W100/W105 as I did in the last CCC. Mike is in situations where power is likely to be available and in the plane he can use a power brick. Do they have cigarette lighters in small planes though?! As with our previous CCC, there’s also the Q1 Ultra Premium (2nd-hand) and the Viliv S7 convertible. It’s got a faster SSD, good battery life and is available with 3G. It might not have the oomph to run Windows 7 though. The same goes for the Viliv X70 EX

It’s the Windows requirement I want to get right in the suggestion though. A ultra mobile PC running Windows 7 really needs a fast SSD, a 1.6Ghz CPU and, preferably, 2GB RAM.  It’s why I keep thinking about the Libretto W100 but then there’s the screen area to think about on that. It could be too big!

I’ve got three more to offer-up though. (Click images for more info)

HP Slate 500. 8.9 inch screen. 1.8ghz CPU. SSD.  Includes dual-layer screen. The HP 500 does seem to be satisfying most people that buy it. At 1.8Ghz it’s got just enough more than a 1.5Ghz Z-series Atom, along with an SSD, to make Windows 7 work smoothly. Here are some more thoughts on the HP Slate 500.

Panasonic CF-U1. It’s an expensive rugged 7 inch-er ($2K entry price) but it’s a seriously good bit of kit.  It only has a 7 inch screen but it’s a fairly bulky 7 inch device.

Netbook Navigator Nav 7 (or even Nav 9). I heard from Netbook Navigator yesterday that the Nav 7 is about ready to launch and I’ve just put all the details of this one in the database. Obviously you’ll need to wait for some reviews before committing but it certainly looks compact enough. Unfortunately there’s no docking station or VGA / HDMI out but from your email, Mike, I see you’ve been using a USB-based docking station anyway. This might work for you. I’ll be writing more about the Nav 7 in an upcoming article. [Available here when posted]

So, Mike. What do you think? Will an 8.9 inch device work for you (HP Slate 500) or are you determined to go for a 7 inch device? Are you OK without VGA? Do you want laptop-style processing power?

Chime-in with comments people. Mike needs help!

I’m sitting in front of an ExoPC which is now referred to internally as the Exo-1 because they’re looking for new hardware for the next generation ExoPC device Product X

There’s a very open an interesting post up on the ExoPC discussion board about new hardware they’re testing. It’s clearly an Oaktrail-based device but they’re not giving the ID away at this stage because there’s some negative points being aired. It’s a thread that has already prompted me to post something on our own forum about Oaktrail and I’d like to bring it up here. Maybe it’s useful for Exo PC. Maybe it’s useful for readers.

Obviously if you’re going to bring similar looking / acting hardware to the market as a new model, it needs to be better than the existing product, right? If there’s one thing that’s worse than the previous model, it confuses customers and causes rumblings in the owner community. While the battery life on the Oaktrail-based devices might be better, the performance isn’t. An Atom N450-based Win 7 product will outperform a 1.5Ghz Oaktrail equivalent in most, if not all, departments. Even if you bump the CPU up to the new Z615 at 1.9Ghz, the GPU isn’t going to be better than the previous generation. It’s a problem for anyone that’s got a 10 inch Atom N-series in the market. Where do you go?

The problem is, the N450-based tablets aren’t exactly zippy and are not the best at battery life. Fan noise, weight and size are an issue so some progress needs to be made there. Oaktrail is not the solution here and until Cedar Trail or more Ultrabook-like designs (E.g. EP121) come along, there’s no solution.

The way to make for ExoPC to make a second device is to move to a new form factor  and / or a new operating system. Changing the OS is a problem for ExoPC because most of their business is wrapped up in their overlay software development, for Windows. Personally, I don’t use it but if it’s their bread and butter, it’s important.

So why not keep the user interface and apply it to a 7 inch model? The 7 inch Windows tablet market is small, yes, but so is the 11.6 inch Windows tablet market. In fact, there’s less competition in the 7 inch space, more importance placed on efficiency and at 7 inch, Windows needs an overlay more than it does at 11.6 inch Using Oaktrail allows you to make a different hardware product for a new market and it also brings a bridge to other operating systems that could boost hardware sales. Meego is an interesting option for an Oaktrail tablet and if your skill is in user interfaces, you could turn something round quickly and make quite a differentiator in the Meego market. Acer turned a lot of heads when they presented their 10 inch Morestown-based Iconia M500 tablet that’s due to be available in Q4.  Don’t forget the Windows 8 mobility path either. If you’re working with Oaktrail now, making the move to Clovertrail and Windows 8 should be easier later. It will make an even better 7 inch tablet platform and gives the company a product to focus on should Windows 8 kill the ExoPC software overlay business.

ExoPC should do two things. 1) Look at the 7 inch slate space where user interfaces become even more important. It’s currently a fairly empty space if you consider pro-mobile users and although niche, could allow ExoPC to become the king of it. Better to be king of a small niche than a bit-player in a large one. Asses Oaktrail devices and think about Meego, Windows 8 and even Android which we’ve already seen running on Intel. Look to break out a new product with a new customer base. 2) Take time to find a better product platform for the existing (10-12 inch) ExoPC market. Mid 2012 perhaps? Sandy Bridge-based tablet designs could be cheaper then as Ultrabook-style manufacturing matures.

Of course there’s a risk. You’ll need to investigate why the 7 inch space is empty for a start but the Galaxy Tab 7 sales (millions of them) say something about the form factor. There’s also the risk that someone else has seen this opportunity too. The Viliv X70 Slate design still exists (although the company appears to be going under) and we shouldn’t forget the ECS 7 inch slate design either. WeTab appear to be going through the same process so stay tuned here, ExoPC, for the latest news! (And good luck, of course.)

Here’s the discussion thread at the ExoPC discussion forum.

We had so many problems with the UMPCPortal forum earlier this year that I eventually had to close the forum for new registrations. After some thought we decided to completely re-build the site on a new system and today we’re readyto announce our new mobile computing forum! It’s clean, fast and has all the features you expect.

We’ve moved the new forum over to MeetMobility.com and expanded it to cover the segments that match our three main websites.

• UMPCPortal for pro-mobile and PC-based handheld devices [Forum section here.]
• Carrypad for consumer mobile devices [Forum section here.]
• Ultrabooknews for ultra-light mainstream laptops and netbooks [Forum section here.]

All the accounts and the 37000 posts from UMPCPortal have been migrated (all the way back to Origami in 2006!) and those that were regular members should be able to log right into the new forum and get going. Some users (those with 5 posts or less) will find themselves as ‘banned’ users. Contact us via the link at the bottom of the forum and we’ll get you up and running in no time. Unfortunately we had to lock out thousands of spam accounts and ‘real’ users will have got caught up in that process.

Forum pro’s might notice that some features aren’t enabled or optimised. We’re still tweaking the set-up so don’t hesitate to give us feedback and tips. Vbulletin is a new process for us.

We hope you get stuck in and enjoy the forums. Ben and myself are looking forward to mobile computing chat with you there.

Another tablet in the mix! Multi-boot possibilities set this apart from the ARM-based tablets.

The E-king range of UMPCs, by the company that bought the rights to the extremely productive (but very ugly) Wibrain B1/i1 and the slider M5 ultra mobile PC will soon have a 10 inch tablet offering called the Talent T9. It’s built on Intel’s Oaktrail and is said to be ‘the thinnest’ in the world. Whatever, China! What we really need to see is the device in action.

Specifications look OK with 2GB RAM, an impressive 650gm weight, an IPS screen and 3G options and there’s a big play on the multi-OS options that a traditional PC platform brings. It’s worth watching closely because Intel are working on Meego and Android official builds for this platform. The multi-OS claim is probably more important than thickness.

Click here for our tracking page including specifications, gallery and news items.

As for price and availability, we’re hearing about a September availability with some possible hands-on in August but as always, expect that to change. Pricing is completely unknown at the moment.

The E-King Talent T9 goes up against a number of other 10 inch Oaktrail tablets including the Lenovo Ideapad P1, Viewsonic Viewpad 10 Pro and the Samsung Series 7 Slider which we could see launched at IFA in September.  Here’s a list of all Oaktrail tablets.

With respect to Meego and Android for Oaktrail, look forward to news of that from Intel’s developer forum, also in September.

Update: We’ve had confirmation from Simon Thomas at Think4Mobile that this is real. They’re expecting a sample very soon.

Source: Industry contact and zol.com.cn

Go into our product database, select Tablet Devices (Windows), click the weight and screen size column headers and you’ll get a list showing the lightest 10 inch Windows Tablet. The only device that comes in at under 800gm is the Viliv X10 which, as we now know, isn’t going to happen. The Lenovo Ideapad P1will be dropping into that list very shortly as one of the lightest Windows Tablets there is. It’s a trend that’s happening more and more now that Oaktrail is here. The great thing is that battery life is going up at the same time and this one even has a digitiser layer. We broke news about the P1 when it was being referred to as the Ideapad Slate back at CES. Lets take a closer look.

Full gallery here.

Full specifications and news tracking  here.

The Ideapad P1 will go head-to-head with devices like the HP Slate 500 and Fujitsu Q550 as alternative dual-input slates but I have a feeling the P1 will get quite a lot of attention based on the name.

The 1.5Ghz Oaktrail platform is certainly not going to be a powerful one. Unzipping large packages will be a chore as will any serious multitasking but the battery life should compensate for that with something like a 6W average drain. Expect the P1 to last for 6hrs with Wifi on. The digitiser layer, 3G options, 2GB RAM options, 32GB or 64GB SSD storage, Windows 7 OS options, a docking port and a high-resolution 1280×800 screen mean this is likely to be interesting to many of our audience here.

The other interesting thing is the possibility of Meego and Android for the Ideapad P1. Lenovo have good relationship with the Intel marketing groups. The Ideapad S10 3T was used as a reference netbook for Meego development so there’s a good chance that the Ideapad P1 will get picked up as a reference Oaktrail device for Meego and Android and that could mean even longer battery life and a good reason to think about a 7 inch version. In fact, reading through the presentation PDF (Available here), it also looks like Lenovo might be offering an app-store. This could be Intel AppUp-based which leans further towards an Intel relationship and increases the chances of Lenovo exploring a Meego build. Yes, it’s a tenuous link but one we need to keep an eye on. Meego-based Chromepad anyone? Multi-boot on this tablet could give the user an important choice.

The Lenovo Ideapad P1 is, unfortunately, targeted for Q4 which means we’ll probably see it at IDF and IFA shows in September with availability in October or November. It’s a shame it’s taking this long to bring it to market as for those that see more than Engadgets fasion-focused eyes, this is an interesting option.

Just over a month ago AMD announced their tablet-focused Z-01 APU, a dual-core APU focused at the Windows Tablet market. On-stage at the announcement was MSI showing off the Windpad 110W. We’ve seen a video and had a taster of the specs and hints about the price but today we’re able to bring you something more official.

Remember the MSI Windpad 110W has the 1280×800 screen and integrated mouse pointer, 32GB SSD, HD decoder (via the 6250M graphics,) 2GB of RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium A well balanced feature set for a mobile PC. With a 2-cell battery we’re probably looking at 30-40Wh of power (unconfirmed) which is a 3-5hr usage time. If the Windpad includes some nice accessories (we’re assuming the docking port is still included) it could make quite a well balanced product. And good value too.

We’re seeing a 32GB non-3G model for €559 (Notebook.de) and a 3G model for €659 (also Notebook.de) The only thing missing is availability, and of course, a full test.

Our MSI Windpad 110W product page is here.

HTCs Flyer is one of the first Android Tablets we’ve seen that could find a place in some new niches; Namely, pen input. From the outset I need to make it clear that the HTC Flyer isn’t a professional handwriting recognition product. There is no on-the-fly character recognition. There’s also a disconnect between the digitiser layer, the HTC pen-enabled apps and the rest of the finger-controllable tablet.

What is interesting though is the way HTC have enabled 4 apps that could be perfect for many people.

• There’s a note-taking application which spans standard test, pen-based text and ‘scribbles’ image and audio that is backed by the excellent Evernote service.
• There’s a PDF application which allows you to highlight and annotate over PDF files and save in the PDF format. This is one of the easiest ways to sign a PDF that I’ve ever seen!
• Thirdly, and this one impressed me more than all the other pen-enabled apps, there’s a book-reading application that allows pen-based selection, highlighting, annotation and note-making. It’s powerful and I can see this helping students to study.
• Finally, you can annotate images in the gallery.

HTC obviously have an API suite for ‘pen’ on Android so I hope to see more pen-enabled apps soon. Enjoy the video.

Tonight, May 18th at 2100 CEST (Berlin) we’re holding a live review at Carrypad.com/live Join us for chat and get your questions answered.

As I mentioned in the brief post earlier, the Gigabyte S1080 appears to offer some great connectivity. We’ll get it into the database as soon as we can. Here’s the video hands-on. There’s a full gallery here.