When the time to write the story of UMPCs comes Hugo Ortega will have a place in that book. His videos about why he selected the Samsung Q1 as his primary and main machine are just a classic. 
You wont find anything closer to the image of a modern Don Quixote than the photo of him holding his Samsung Organizer in his visit to the far land of China.
For me it was a logical move when Hugo switched his eo v7110 for the Samsung Q1, for a powerful user a powerful machine. And if that was understandable, I'm having a really hard time trying to comprehend why he changed his Q1 for a OQO 02.
No, I have not used a OQO 02 but that does not change anything.
You are right there is not way to compare both devices, this is why I asked Hugo what made him to change the full size keyboard of the Q1 that allowed him to post from anywhere at a higher speed for that small OQO keyboard where you can't type more than 30 wpm, the comfortable 7" touch screen where you can type using anything including fingers for that small size digitizer where you need to carry a special pen. A lot faster and powerful processor for a very hot and slow VIA. A machine using Vista for a machine using XP knowing that Vista recognition is better.
I would like him to explain with his magic, why he is using now the OQO?
Facts:
- VIA Processor is slower than a Celeron processor.
- VIA devices run a a higher temperature than Samsung Q1s.(°)
- OQO 02 is noisy compare to a Q1, the noise is produced by the processor fan, the same noise can be found in Amtek T700 and T770.(°)
- The integrated keyboard is slower than the full size keyboard included in the Samsung organizer.
- The OQO 02 does not include a digital pen and even if it is included there is not any bay or pen holder in the machine body to keep the pen. The digital pen needs to be carried as a separated item.
- Vista Recognizer is a lot better than XP recognizer.Hugo's OQO uses XP Tablet PC 2005 Edition.
(°)- Your can read about OQO noise, high temperature and absence of a pen holder here. I'm using this review as reference because it was written by somebody who loves his OQO, no by one of those "specialized magazine tech writers".
No mentioning that the this is the third machine, the two first broke on him. :(
ReplyDeleteFor me there is one big reason: The OQO 02 fits in your pocket.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's slow, but fast enough for most tasks (e.g. office, web, watching videos). I bought I stowaway keyboard for fast typing that I could carry around like Hugo's Q1 setup, but I find I rarely do because of the huge convenience of sticking a computer in your pocket and going.
Easy answer:
ReplyDeleteHe's a geek :P
Kenrick it´s small but it´s not pocketable. I owned the HP hx4700 pocket pc, which have a 4 inches display and even that was a problem if you wanted to carry it always in your pocket. On top of that if you carry with you the stowaway keyboard then you are defeating yourself the idea of carrying your device in your pocket. or are you carrying also the Stowaway keyboard in your pocket.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the stowaway keyboard is smaller then the OQO and it´s almost impossible to carry it in a pocket. Well, it does not fit in all pockets.
If you don´t believe me lets post a poll to see how many OQO owners carry their OQO in their Pocket.
Ctitanic, Kenrick said he doesn't carry the stowaway because it defeats the purpose of being able to fit it in your pocket.
ReplyDeleteBack in the original PalmPilot days I realized that what someone considers pocketable was not what another does. The OQO 02 can certainly fit in a jacket pocket, but if you are talking about a pair of jeans, then yeah, that's probably not very practical. Though you may be able to stuff it in, it's not pocketable in that sense. Still to me I would not even consider a device like the Q1 as I could never fit that in a jacket pocket or a pair of baggy shorts, which the OQO fits fine in.
(My geekness proof is that when I bought an original PalmPilot, I remained committed to the idea of pocketable computing and found a wallet case that held it and my money/credit cards and stuffed that into my back pocket. Made George Constanza's wallet seem tiny in comparison ;) )
What´s a jacket? We here in Florida do not use Jakets! ;) If pocketeable means something that fits in your jacket pocket then almost everything is pocketeable. Pocketeable means for me a shirt or pant pocket.
ReplyDeleteThe OQO 02 fits in the front pocket of my slacks just fine. I'm talking about normal dress slacks here, so the pockets aren't anything special.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, jacket is not something that we commonly use here in Florida, the sunshine state. ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat about baggy shorts in FL? :) I'm not talking Great Pockets, just normal, not-too-tight shorts. Here in Alaska we wear jackets a lot, so I suppose David is right when he says pocket size is relative to the individual.
ReplyDeleteRight now it's a nice sunny 65 degrees, though, and time for baggy shorts.
I use baggy shorts and I carry my Pocket PC in its pockets. But I do not think that to carry a 2 pound or near 2 pound device in those pockets is comfortable.
ReplyDeleteI just got my OQO 02 on Monday. It does actual fit into the inside pocket of a suit coat or sport coat just fine.
ReplyDeleteI played with the Q1 at Fry's. Not a bad device, but as a platform it doesn't look a lot different, form factor wise, from my old Sony U750P. I don't want another tablet like thing with no keyboard.
I chose the OQO over the Flipstart and Sony UX. The Q1 wasn't even in the running. The Sony UX had the worst keyboard I'd ever seen, and the Flipstart was too toy like and only had 512meg RAM.
Happy with the OQO so far. Will know more when the Sprint service is finally activated.
I realize processor-wise the Sony UX was faster than the OQO. No clue on comparison between the OQO and Q1, but using it for stuff sure seems fine and fun.
hi ctitanic,
ReplyDeletefor what it's worth I own both the Samsung Q1p and OQO Model 02. I prefer the OQO over the Q1p. You are right in all your points: The Q1p is faster, has a touch screen and a built-in pen holder and is noisier than the Q1p.
However, the OQO is simply much more mobile, truly ultra-mobile. This is it's biggest advantage over the Q1p. I can attest that I carry the OQO around with me much more than I do the Q1p. Volume-wise the OQO is significantly smaller than the Q1p.
Additionally, the pen holder is a no-op for me personally. I do not like the tiny stylus of the Q1p and since it cannot accomodate a larger pen in the pen holder, there is no real advantage to me.
WRT the passive vs. active digitizer, I prefer the active digitizer of the OQO. I understand that you have upgrade the Q1p's digitizer but I'm not willing to to that.
Also, I prefer the flat and flush screen of the OQO over the beveled Q1p's. I do a lot of inking and I find it easier on the OQO. The extraneous controls around the screen on the Q1p make it more difficult for me to write.
Processing power has not been a problem for me on the OQO. The Q1p is faster. No doubt but I do fairly heavy computational work like running th Eclipse Flex Builder and Flex server on the OQO with no problems. That's enough power for me.
WRT to fan noise. The OQO can be louder and frankly I thought this would be the biggest problem I would have with the unit. However, after speaking with the technical support manager at OQO, I learned that the control panel to set the fan to either quiet or cool does not in fact change the processor speed. This is great news as I now have the setting on the quietest which has significantly lessened the fan noise - to the point of being *almost* as quiet as the Q1p.
The OQO has built-in HDMI which is great. I have a 24 inch LCD monitor and the OQO can drive this at 1900x1200 HD resolution natively. This is an enormous productivity boost for me.
Finally, I simply like the overall asthetic of the OQO over the Q1p. The design is cleaner, uncluttered and refined. I cannot say that of the Q1p but asthetics are of a personal nature.
That's my 2 cents. Just thought I'd add it into the mix for discussion being someone who owns and uses both.
Cheers,
Neil
Thanks a lot Neil!
ReplyDeleteOh hey, that link to the average, everyday OQO guy is me! Funny that. Well, I gave you a mini-review here on your blog as well Ctitanic!
ReplyDeletedo you see, the world is really very small!
ReplyDeleteJust one clarification, the OQO 02 weighs a little under 1 pound with the standard battery, not 2 pounds.
ReplyDeletewell, that's probably 5 times the weight of my Axim.
ReplyDeleteAnyway... I agree that the best to carry in any case is like Hugo is carrying it hanging from the belt.
I have a Q1P but not an OQO. I can't imagine doing any significant computing on something smaller than the Q1. If I want THAT much mobility, I just take the Treo. In fact, you'll soon see a post from me that says even the Q1 is not a desktop (or laptop) replacement. It's nice to have, but there are some jobs it can't do.
ReplyDeleteCTitanic,
ReplyDeleteFunny, I live in Florida too (so my jacket comment was for the rest of the world!). I just got my OQO 02 today so I could finally try. Wearing whatever lazy shorts I usually wear around the house I put the OQO in my pocket just fine and barely could tell the difference between that and an Axim X50v. Holding in my own hands while using, I definitely notice the weight difference, but as someone said it's less than 1 lb, so not too bad.
I bought this device because though I work from home (via a detached separate office), my wife is home watching four young'ens and often needs me to come relieve her so she can run an errand or something. I find that throughout the day I miss out on an hour or two of work, that I'm hoping I can reclaim by keeping this in my pocket and going in and out of sleep mode. My kids tend to move a lot from room to room and so my old trick of bringing my laptop in was never very useful.
To me the biggest negative so far is the fan noise. I'm hypersensitive to fan noise on PCs and laptops, and this one is pretty noticeable. I just read the post above and based on that have lowered my fan speed down. Wish I could turn it completely off, but understand the need for one.
When I was considering devices, I thought about just getting a Toshiba G900 with the same size screen and Windows MObile 6. With that, I could use Remote Desktop and do all the work on my desktop pc and have a cheaper, cooler, and lighter alternative. And as a WinMo software developer my apps all run on that anyway. But decided on the OQO after considering all the factors. We'll see how it works out.
Keep me updated Dave!
ReplyDelete