UMPC Choices Pt.4

Part 4 of this series of articles I will talk about the the smallest of the UMPC's, the more "pocketable" ones. These would be the OQO 02 and the Sony UX series. Both are similar in design and price, but very different in overall features.

The OQO is sexy done right. Anyone can take a look at this machine and clearly see that it looks amazing. The various reviews on the internet praise the OQO for its good keyboard and excellent screen. Being that it has an active digitizer (a special pen is required to ink) the ink will come out more crisp and better looking.


No device is perfect though and the OQO is no different. The downfall is the VIA C7-M processor which has been regarded by many for being weak. Why yes it is no desktop replacement, and the graphics department is severely lacking, that is not what a UMPC is ment for. Also there is no place to add a memory card for external media and only one USB port on the bottom of the unit.

Sony's take on the 5" UMPC is their UX line (which is actually a 4.5" screen when we get technical) which sports a powerful Core Solo processor. This is one of the fastest UMPC's out there, passive digitizer, has a slot for Pro Duo memory sticks (which is mostly what all my memory sticks are), and a docking cradle included in certain model packages.



The major Achilles heel of the UX is its keyboard. I have actually had the chance to use the UX keyboard at a local Best Buy and let me tell you, it was horrendous. Not a nice user experience at all. Other than that and the lack of sexyness of the device I can find no other fault with it.

These UMPC's though have a hefty price tag ranging above $1500+, generally high for my budget. I love the pocketable form factor because as a kid I was out a lot with family events and I have fond memories of just me, my gameboy, and rooms full of strangers. Being able to have the ability to do what I wanted (which as a smaller kid was just play video games) where I wanted is a good thing to me. I will wrap up my search in the final post for this series.

UMPC Choices Pt.3

The next type of UMPC's available are the convertibles. These are what you see of the larger tablets today that have the standard laptop mode and can convert into a slate. These include the Fujitsu P1610, P1620, and the U810. As all of these are made by Fujitsu they have "heavy" touchscreens where you either have to use your nail or press pretty hard on the screen to activate something and as a result there is little to no vectoring when you lean your palm on the screen and write.

Now in terms of power the U810 (5.6" screen) trails behind with the A110 processor while the P1610 runs a Core Solo and the P1620 runs a Core 2 Duo processor. Now for me a UMPC will not have to be the power house of my desktop but it has to be able to run most programs with fairly decent speed.

Price is also a major factor of a UMPC. The U810 can go from $800-$1000 while the P1620 will run you up to $2000. That makes me wallet lighter by just thinking about it. Now eBay is my sweet place. You can find used P1610s for about $1000-. I don't mind if it's used as long as it gets the job done and is not horribly beaten up. Since P1610s are an older model they aren't manufactured anymore and any online retail place that still sells it will sell it for $2000 still which is just ridiculous.

So from the convertibles my obvious choice would be the P1610 for its bang for my buck. The Core Solo processor is still probably faster than the Centrino in my laptop right now, or at least it seems from some benchmark tests that I have compared and the price is decent. I like the convertible for the fact that when I need a keyboard I have it and it has a PC card slot which I can store a MoGo bluetooth mouse since the P1610 uses a trackstick instead of a trackpad. I could just never justify spending $2000 on a UMPC or $1000 on one that doesn't even do everything I want to do. As well on the plus side it has a SD card slot which is SDHC capable with the latest driver update.

Considering my choices so far, it has been narrowed down to the Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium and the P1610. The next line-up will be the 5"- screens.