Samsung's Q1 UMPC down to $580

[penguinbait]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/14/samsungs-q1-umpc-down-to-580/

Thats a real good price!!

[Drewvt]

maybe that inexplicably short battery life won't bother you so much when you're only shelling out $579.99

Ha! More likely it'll still be enormously frustrating.

UMPCs are such a complete failure. They never abandoned Windows, most of them still have spinning hard drives, and they still haven't got the price down (even at $600 bucks, you still don't get a built-in keyboard like the N810 has.)

[aleksandyr]

I'd call the EEE PC superior in every way to the current crop of UMPCs, honestly.

[sevo]

We'll see the remaining 1st generation UMPCs unloaded at even lower prices real soon now - they did not even sell when they were new, and by now they do not only face the fierce competition of more usable micro notebooks and non-Windows small devices, but 2nd generation UMPCs as well.

Once the holiday shopping season as the last possible time slot where it might be pushed onto the clueless is past, just about any price will be welcome to rid the shelves of them.

Sevo

[rickh]

Ha! More likely it'll still be enormously frustrating.

UMPCs are such a complete failure. They never abandoned Windows, most of them still have spinning hard drives, and they still haven't got the price down (even at $600 bucks, you still don't get a built-in keyboard like the N810 has.)
I just recently got what I consider to be a UMPC - it just doesn't run Windows, although I think you can load it if you wanted to - a Pepper Pad 3. I also got the Samsung USB keyboard (feels and acts just like a Thinkpad keyboard/mouse pointer).

For me, it's not been a failure at all, at least not yet. Why did I get it? I wanted a 2 pound machine that I could travel with and do my work, which primarily involves OO.o. Schlepping around a 6 pound laptop sucks for more than a couple of airports. I no longer have to worry about taking a laptop out of my bag to be scanned. I've yet to be asked what it is by anyone scanning my messenger bag. I suspect it would be the same for any other UMPC.

And when I don't feel like using it as a laptop replacement, I can lay on the couch and surf using the built-in thumb board and stylus.

You're right about the price point though. I paid 600 USD for it, and think it was about 100 more than it should be.

I still take my N800 out with me when I'm out and about, but don't really use it that much in the house anymore. It mostly stays in my jacket pocket until in needs recharging.

R.
==

[bunanson]

eeePC 2G model is MSRP $499.99, $300 more than the initial announcement in 6/07.



bun

[johnkzin]

I just recently got what I consider to be a UMPC - it just doesn't run Windows, although I think you can load it if you wanted to - a Pepper Pad 3. I also got the Samsung USB keyboard (feels and acts just like a Thinkpad keyboard/mouse pointer).

For me, it's not been a failure at all, at least not yet. Why did I get it? I wanted a 2 pound machine that I could travel with and do my work, which primarily involves OO.o. Schlepping around a 6 pound laptop sucks for more than a couple of airports. I no longer have to worry about taking a laptop out of my bag to be scanned. I've yet to be asked what it is by anyone scanning my messenger bag. I suspect it would be the same for any other UMPC.

And when I don't feel like using it as a laptop replacement, I can lay on the couch and surf using the built-in thumb board and stylus.

You're right about the price point though. I paid 600 USD for it, and think it was about 100 more than it should be.

I still take my N800 out with me when I'm out and about, but don't really use it that much in the house anymore. It mostly stays in my jacket pocket until in needs recharging.

R.
==


Yup. If I get an UMPC, it'll probably be a pepper pad. It's the right form factor (same as the Samsung Q1, really, though the very first Q1, the one on sale, didn't have the keyboard).

I just wish it had a Express Card slot, with drivers for EVDO and/or HSDPA cards.

As for the other post about UMPCs failing, partially due to hard drives, the didn't someone just release a new line of 1.8" and 2.5" SSD hard drives? So I expect that might change soon. And, Pepper isn't the only linux based UMPC:

* the OQO has semi-official linux support (they document it as a how-to, but don't fully support it)
* the EB MIMD runs linux (technically, it's a MIMD, but umpcportal.com calls it an umpc, along with the Nokia ITs, and the Asus EEE)
* and, for that matter, the Asus EEE PC runs linux as well.


I think a pepper pad, with an SSD HD, and an EVDO or HSDPA card, would make an interesting personal gateway. Throw it in my backpack, access its SSD HD via bluetooth, access the internet via bluetooth ... don't know if I'd ever use it directly, though. (in fact, I've thought about buying one just for the bluetooth storage, since it seems to be taking forever for Seagate to release DAVE, and Agere to release the BluOnyx) If Pepper were to adopt maemo, then that'd be rather interesting.

But, the one reason why I'd never pick an UMPC, even the pepper pad, over an NIT, is that it's too big to put in my coat pocket.

[rickh]

If Pepper were to adopt maemo, then that'd be rather interesting.

You know, for all the flack that Hildon (not specifically Maemo) gets, it's a pretty nice interface. Certainly better than the current Pepper Keeper - that interface is one of the most brain dead I've seen. I think Hildon would look fantastic on a 7 inch screen.

Pepper supposedly is coming out with a 4.0 release that looks pretty nice too, though.

As it stands, since the PP3 basically runs Fedora Core 4, I've put IceWM on it and it's much easier to navigate. It's also x86 compatible, so pretty much anything out there installs without any hassle.

R.
==

[4 o u r 5 i v e]

Wow i'd rather buy a Nokia n810 that has a keyboard and $100 cheaper!

[sherifnix]

eeePC 2G model is MSRP $499.99, $300 more than the initial announcement in 6/07.


bun

Actually its 249 for 2G Surf, 299 for 2G, 349 for 4G Surf, and 399 for 4G.

I picked up the 399 Model and haven't looked back! Can't wait for the Intel MIDs... They look amazing, with a full firefox implementation.

[Noneus]

I just don't see myself getting one of these UMPCs. They are way to big. I want something like the Nokia ITs. Small that I can put in my trouser-pockets. The only reason getting one of those is proper office applications. Oh wait. The missing keyboard... The EEE is way better for this and not much bigger. I just don't see the point of UMPCs...

For Intel'S MIDs I would wait and see. If you look at their promo stuff to this date... None of this stuff fits in my trouser-pockets. Also the moblin screenshots (their OS) are not very promising.

[Ray]

Ha! More likely it'll still be enormously frustrating.

UMPCs are such a complete failure.
No, not really.
Most people don't need an UMPC,
but for people who like these gadgets,
there are some nice ones, the best one beeing the OQO 02 IMHO.

Don't forget that the Nokia 770 and 800 are not UMPC's,
but blown-up smartphones without (GSM) phone capability.



They never abandoned Windows,

I'm glad my current UMPC is an XP machine.
This way I can use the full version of Firefox,
which never really made it into the Nokia 770.

And I can also use Emu48, my favourite HP-48 emulator.
X48 is _decades_ behind, so it's not a real alternative.



most of them still have spinning hard drives,

Not a real problem for me. My OQO 02 has a 60GB HD,
so I don't have to hassle with shitty small and expensive
Flash drives.

It also has 1GB of RAM, so these low memory conditions
usually occuring in the Nokia 770 don't ever happen.



and they still haven't got the price down (even at $600 bucks, you still don't get a built-in keyboard like the N810 has.)
That's right, they're still too expensive.
But after about two years of waiting for better devices,
and many frustrating experiences with the Nokia 770,
At some point I had enough from these promising devices,
like the 770, which never held what what they promised,
and took much of my time just to find out that they
would never be what was promised in the beginning.

So I finally bought an OQO Model 02.

Same footprint as the Nokia 770, double the thickness,
double the weight, but *MUCH* better screen, a very good keyboard,
and a real mouse replacement with left and right mouse buttons.

This thing simply works as expected, no crashes, and it is fast!

Ray

[Drewvt]

I meant that they are a failure (commercially and in other ways, but especially commercially) compared to the Asus Eee, not compared to the NITs.

(Because this category can't really be compared with the NIT. Tell me, how long can you hold that thing in front of your face using only one hand? But if on the other hand you don't mind a bigger and heavier form factor instead of a NIT, then more power to you.)

[ch88xy]

Got a refurbished Q1 vista for $300 a month ago, upgraded the ram to 2gb to do Vista justice. I must say that it made me appreciate my N810 even more. The 7" screen sounds nice, but the smaller N810 is actually crisper. The native 800x480 is not acceptable--with a 7" screen, why am I still doing horizontal scrolling? The input panel takes up almost the whole screen (although the hand writing input is pretty good). The battery lasts only slightly more than 2 hours. With the 2gb ram and the Pentium M processor, online video still not smooth. Unlike the N810 with its flip stand, I can't figure out how to hold it in my hands. The only good things are vga out and the joystick and D-pad on each side of screen that make Web page navigation easy. Overall N810 really has much better build quality. I am debating whether to put it on Ebay.

[johnkzin]

I bought a Q1 Ultra on ebay last fall. And then I promptly installed Ubuntu-UMPC on it. I forget which exact CPU it has ... it's faster/newer than a Pentium-M though (I think it's 800MHz, but it might be in the 1GHz range), 1GB RAM, and the 60GB HDD.

In some ways, it's like a giant N800, but with split-thumb keyboards, and some quirks.

The resolution on the Q1U is 1024x600, on a 7" screen, which I like. But the dpad isn't mapped as a arrow in Ubuntu-UMPC for some reason. It's used for certain function keys. Instead, the mouse/joystick knob is mapped as a mouse/dpad (in one mode, it's a mouse, in the other mode it's a dpad). It took me a while to figure that out, though.

My main frustrations have been:
1) Ubuntu-UMPC isn't nearly as polished as Maemo ... in some ways, I hope Mer is able to advance enough to replace it.

2) The 4 row keyboard makes number typing awkward. But, along with using my 5 row G1, it has at least convinced me that only 5 row keyboards are worth while. 3 row and 4 row thumb keyboards are, frankly, pointless. (the N810 is at least slightly better because it allows you to toggle a single button press as a number, where the Q1U only has a conventional numlock in this regard)

3) The external display, in mirror mode, only seems to support 800x600 and 1024x600. The former re-sizes the internal display. I don't know if this is the Q1U's fault, or Ubuntu-UMP's fault, but "letter boxing" doesn't seem like such a bleeding edge technology that no one thought "Hey, lets have the 1024x600 display capable of displaying on a 1024x768 monitor!" ... but apparently that concept is too advanced for anyone who was involved in the overall process. This pretty much keeps me from being able to use it on a KVM (but, I did figure out how to do a sort of "reverse VNC" process; I have a script which opens an ssh session on my mac, doing the opposite port forwardings that you'd usually do, and then running a local VNC server on the Q1U ... then the VNC client on my mac just connects to those local ports... not exactly like having it on a KVM, but good enough).

4) Screen rotation doesn't work. The mouse and touch screen's x and y axis' don't properly re-map during the rotation, and it becomes impossible to casually use the screen, and difficult to use it enough to un-do the rotation. So it's basically a useless option for the Ubuntu software to offer. Which is a shame: being able to use google reader on a rotated screen would have been rather nice.

But, otherwise, it's a great device. I use it for reading my RSS feeds every morning on the bus to work (the bus I take, which connects San Jose, CA to Santa Cruz, CA, has free wifi). Google Reader on the 7" 1024x600 screen is MUCH more readable than it is on a 4.1" 800x480 screen.

At some point, I'd love to put in a 2GB RAM module, a 16GBish SSD, and have Mer on it. But right now, I don't have time to do all of those modifications.