Why I preordered a TabletKiosk eo V7110?

Lets start saying that I want a Tablet PC with a price of a laptop or less and smaller than a laptop or a Tablet PC. When Microsoft said that UMPCs would have a price tag of 500 dollars my first reaction was that's too good to be true. Just think about it, HP is selling a Pocket PC, the hx4700, for around 600 dollars. So there is no way that a company will sell a UMPC for less than 600 dollars. I was always sure that at least in this first generation the price was going to be around the 1000 dollars and since I saw the pictures of the first two origamis, the Samsung Q1 and the Asus, I knew that that was what I was looking for: something in between a Pocket PC and a Laptop, but with the same capabilities than a laptop.

Both the Asus and the Samsung use Intel Celeron processors at 900 MHz. That was something that I did not like from these two. The Intel Celeron processor does not have stepping and it's less powerful than a Pentium. When the TabletKiosk Origami specification was released the first thing that I noticed was that this one uses a VIA processor at 1 GHz. VIA did not have too good reputation in the pass but lately I have been reading a lot of good words about their mobile series of processors. And Via processors has stepping so that could result in a better battery life. Another point that I liked was the position of the battery. Having the battery located in the top seemed to me a good chance for bigger extended batteries.

Taking in consideration all this, I preordered one with 1 GB of RAM and 40 GB/5400 RPM HDD. Later, after investigating the impact that more RPM could have in the battery life and having concluded that the Hitachi 7200 RPM HDD does not consume more power than the 4800 or 5400 RPM, I changed my order to include a 7200 RPM, 40 GB HDD. Total Cost: $1,363.00


I'm ending paying for my companion PC the same amount that I paid for my main PC, a Compaq nx9010, P4 at 3 GHz with 1 GB of RAM and a 4800 RPM/40 GB HDD. Then why I decided to pay that for the companion? Because my laptop weigh 7 pound and my Pocket PC does not run Visual Studio 2005. Of course that I would be happier if I could buy the eo for less than 1000 dollars. But the eo V7110 with 256 of RAM and 40 GB/4800 RPM HDD is just a joke. 256 MB of RAM is not enough for Windows XP. A computer with that XP and that amount of RAM will end accessing for long period of times the Hard Drive and with a Hard Drive at 4800 RPM the whole performance will be a disaster. So for me to order 1 GB of RAM was a MUST DO and the 4800 RPM HDD was out of the question too from the beginning. I won't buy any mobile device to run XP with less than 1 GB of RAM and a HDD spinning less than 5400 RPM.

Is there anything better or closer to the eo V7110/1 GB RAM/40 GB 7200 RPM HDD in the market? No, for the closer thing that you will find in the market you will end paying at least 300 dollars more and it will be a less powerful device:

• LifeBook P1510D - 1.2 GHz Pentium - 512 MB of RAM and 30 GB/4200 RPM HDD. Price: $1549. If you change the configuration to 1 GB of RAM and 40/7200 HDD you will end easily paying $1800 dollars. Without this changes, sorry, but this machine will perform worse that my preordered eo.


• OQO - 1 GHz processor, 30GB HD, 512MB RAM. Price: $2099 dollars if you include XP Tablet PC Edition. This is just crazy. Technically this device performs a lot worse than the eo V7110 in the way I preordered (1 GB of RAM, 40 GB/7200 RPM) and I'm paying 700 dollar less for the eo!


• Motion LS800 - Intel Pentium® M Processor ULV 753 (1.20GHz), 256MB RAM, 20GB HDD - Price: $1699. Once again, this Pentium 1.2 GHz/256 MB of RAM will not perform better than a device with 1 GB of RAM and a 40 GB/7200 RPM HDD. I read in somewhere somebody saying that there is not way to compare a touch screen with the magnetic screen included in the Motion LS800, I agree. But… sorry, that reason is not powerful enough for me to pay 2000 dollars for the LS800 if I want it with 1 GB of RAM and 40/7200 RPM HDD. And besides that... I'm an experienced Pocket PC owner.

Could I buy a Tablet PC with 1300 dollars as powerful as the eo that I preordered? May be, but it's going to be a bigger and heavier Tablet PC and I want something no heavier than 2.2 pounds. Something small and easy to carry. Sorry, but out there does not exist such Tablet PC yet, and when they are small they end with a price tag from 1600 to 2000 dollars.


That's why I ended buying the TabletKiosk eo V7110 with 1 GB of RAM and a 40 GB/7200 RPM HDD, because out there you wont find a better deal.