Ultra-Mobile PC - Act 2: Vistagami

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/2100-1044_3-6076288.html' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/2100-1044_3-6076288.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"With the first Origami devices out the door, Microsoft is setting its sights on the next generation of tiny tablet PCs--products known within the company as "Vistagami" devices. The new minitablets are likely to resemble the first of the ultramobile PCs, though they will run Windows Vista, rather than XP. Hopefully, they will come with a lower price tag than the first devices, such as Samsung's Q1, which starts at $1,100."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20060529-UMPC.jpg" /><br /><br />Lower price tags would be nice, along with some improvements in hardware too. Are any of you looking forward to the next generation of <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/umpc/default.mspx">UMPCs</a> running <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/">Windows Vista</a>?

[Menneisyys]

Yeah, it'd be nice to have some really decent UMPC hardware, also capable of running Vista. The Samsung Q1 is, for me, a huge disappointment, especially at that price. (Native resolution only 800 x 480 at 7"? Only a touchscreen, instead of the much more reliable and durable (no glass touch screen to break) "cyberpen"? Only a Celeron M intead of Pentium-M/Centrino (let's not forget the latter supports Speedstep and, therefore, definitely lower power consumption, while Celeron-M's don't)? All this for $1100 (twice the price of what has been announced at the start of the Origami project)?)

Surely, some other UMPC's like the pocketable (!) Sony Vaio UX (http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&amp;p=814&amp;more=1&amp;c=1&amp;tb=1&amp;pb=1) seem to be much better than the Samsung - I'd even get one (if they weren't that expensive) as a nice companion to my Thinkpad a31p (alhtought, I'd stick to the latter for anything serious, mostly because of the keyboard, the screen and the excellent expansion - Ultrabay - capabilities).

[birick]

Yes, I am looking forward to the arrival of new and improved 2nd or 3rd generation units. I'd really like to have one now but the rational side of my brain is making me wait.

[alese]

If someone would give me one of the current models I would take it :-)

But rationally and I guess unfortunatelly, none of the current modes is really worth it, if you consider price and performance.

I guess I'll wait for next generation, and who knows maybe there will be under $1000 device, or maybe even a bigger version of HTC Universal, with 5-7" screen and Vista, now that would be cool...

[tnelson2000]

I find the voice recognition in Vista to be very promising as it is so tightly integrated into the OS. If these new devices come with docking stations (keyboard, mouse, monitor, USB, etc.), I can see them becoming my primary device. I certainly won't buy one until they run Vista. I will never bet on the ability to upgrade from XP to Vista on one of these devices; I have been burned too many times with PPCs.

[tnelson2000]

I find the voice recognition in Vista to be very promising as it is so tightly integrated into the OS. If these new devices come with docking stations (keyboard, mouse, monitor, USB, etc.), I can see them becoming my primary device. I certainly won't buy one until they run Vista. I will never bet on the ability to upgrade from XP to Vista on one of these devices; I have been burned too many times with PPCs.

Oops. This is a double post . . . and I cannot seem to delete it. Sorry about that. But don't worry; I will be reporting it to the Department of Redundancy Department.

[fone_fanatic]

The closest i'll get to a UMPC at this time is my Nokia internet tablet. Although i'm the kinda guy thats got to have the latest and greatest gadgets before anyone.. I'll hold out till 2nd gen and prices to go down a bit.

[KevinCTofel]

...when I bought a Toshiba e805, it set me back $600. My Q1 is just less than double that and has an almost infinite magnatude of greater functionality. It's not a perfect device by far; yes it's pricey when you simply look at the paper specs, but the ability to carry and use an XP machine in one hand is worth something too. As far as "vistagami"; I'm already running Vista 5381 on a separate partition on the Q1. :D

[Raphael Salgado]

My first and foremost concern is battery life (or ease of recharging), then processing power. Many times, I'm caught with little battery power left on my Pocket PC devices, that I'd dread to think how I'd be if I ran out of juice on my tablet/notebook/subnotebook PC.

If they can concentrate on how to implement a thin, retractable cord from the device where I could charge anywhere via an AC outlet or a powered USB/mini-USB port, or get the price point down on a solid-state hard drive, I might care a lot less if I was on a Celeron 900MHz. After all, these devices should be secondary devices (primary on-the-go, but backup to a desktop or home/office PC).

All the reason why my most used application on my Pocket PC Phone Edition devices is the LogMeIn Remote Client. I don't have to worry about whether or not Internet Explorer Mobile can handle the page, or if I need to do something that requires a lot more processing power.

[WorksForTurkeys]

Yes, I can't wait to have a device that runs Windows Vista as well and as quickly as my PDA runs WM5...

(somehow the :wink: smiley just doesn't sufficiently represent the stength of the sarcasm that I intended to accompany the above statement...)

[WorksForTurkeys]

My first and foremost concern is battery life (or ease of recharging), then processing power. Many times, I'm caught with little battery power left on my Pocket PC devices, that I'd dread to think how I'd be if I ran out of juice on my tablet/notebook/subnotebook PC.

If they can concentrate on how to implement a thin, retractable cord from the device where I could charge anywhere via an AC outlet or a powered USB/mini-USB port, or get the price point down on a solid-state hard drive, I might care a lot less if I was on a Celeron 900MHz. After all, these devices should be secondary devices (primary on-the-go, but backup to a desktop or home/office PC).

&lt;&lt;snipped>>.

I don't know if this will help with a UMPC device, but I've built a couple of portable 9-volt battery Altoids-box USB chargers for my current pda's and cellphones that work well in a pinch. The plans and some components are available at http://www.aarondunlap.com/blog/1130885615

[Patrick Y.]

i think UMPC has a lot of potentials but the current generation just failed to deliver the main features that users want. As others said, I'm looking forward to lower prices, better screen, battery life, and processor.

[ppcinfo]

Are the Origami or Vistagami devices "instant-on" devices? Or, do you have to wait for them to boot up whenever you want to use them like a laptop? If they work like "resume" mode on my Dell laptop, that still seems to take longer than I would want to wait (compared to my Axim x50v).

ppcinfo

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Are the Origami or Vistagami devices "instant-on" devices?

Nope.


Or, do you have to wait for them to boot up whenever you want to use them like a laptop? If they work like "resume" mode on my Dell laptop, that still seems to take longer than I would want to wait (compared to my Axim x50v).

Yup.

We're not talking about anything special here, apart from the size - Origami/UMPCs are not 'devices', they're portable PCs like laptops. And just like any PC, bootup times are measured in minutes. FWIW though, standby isn't that bad on a handtop (as opposed to laptop). The Vaio U8G comes out of standby in 2-3 seconds, which is more than tolerable. My Thinkpad takes 5 seconds.

[signothefish]

Well then that's why the Dual Cor is the ideal device.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Well then that's why the Dual Cor is the ideal device.

Ships with no wifi, no bluetooth and @$2000 - I don't think so.

[signothefish]

Yes, I forgot about all those points, especially the price. :frusty: As much as I like the Dual Cor, I'm afraid it is just another niche device. Without instant on and low power consumption, the UMPC and Sony units won't be able to take the place of a PDA either.

I feel like a kid in the back seat of a car on a long drive. Are we there yet? No! Are we there yet? No! Are we there yet? ...

[jlp]

[i]"With the first Origami devices out the door, Microsoft is setting its sights on the next generation of tiny tablet PCs--products known within the company as "Vistagami" devices. ...

Let's be realistic for now.

Current UMPCs are slow devices, barely able to run WinXP and at twice the price announced and twice the price of entry level notebooks (their "competition" giving performances and features).

And now they talk about Vista capable UMPCs?!

Most performing desktop and notebook of the current generation will be very hard pressed to run Vista as it is inteded, even much less capable are current generations of UMPCs.

So before expecting Vista capable UMPCs let them first handle XP with panache!!

[PDANEWBIE]

I don't suppose this is a UMPC that runs Vista with glass effects enabled? ;)

[Darius Wey]

I don't suppose this is a UMPC that runs Vista with glass effects enabled? ;)

Possible, yes. Practical, maybe not. The mobile hardware to support Aero exists, but it's just a matter of (a) whether manufacturers choose to use it in their devices, and (b) whether end-users are willing to shell out more dough for it.

[gohtor]

I'm in the market to buy one of these. too bad samsung q1 isn't available in canada. So far I've found only CDW US and Bestbuy US carry them. I'd like to see a faster processor and lower pricepoint of course.

[Pete Wilson]

I don't suppose this is a UMPC that runs Vista with glass effects enabled? ;)

Possible, yes. Practical, maybe not. The mobile hardware to support Aero exists, but it's just a matter of (a) whether manufacturers choose to use it in their devices, and (b) whether end-users are willing to shell out more dough for it.

I also think battery life would be affected by a GPU.

I am definitely interested, but the battery life needs to go up, I need outdoor screen visibility, screen rotation and fast power-on.

I started carrying my Newton instead of my iPAQ to prepare, and it boots from a cold start activating literally dozens of add-on packages in 30 seconds. Which normally happens when I forget to charge it and it loses all power, but of course no data. A warm start is practically instantaneous.