The Olympian Online newspaper has published a review of the Samsung Q1U.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Despite making improvements to its UMPC, Samsung still has work to do. The underpowered Q1 Ultra is best used for on-the-go Web surfing, but there are better and cheaper devices for that specific task, including that new device from Apple you may have read about recently.
My guess is that the "the new device from Apple" is the iPhone. I know that I have been saying multiple times that the processor used in the Q1U is "slower" but it's just 10% than a Q1 Celeron running on Vista if you install XP on it and you optimize it. To say that the Q1U is just good enough for web browsing and compare it to an iPhone only tells me that the author did not do his homework. The Q1U could be slow but not enough to not be considered a PC. As in any PC you can install what ever program you like and you will get from the Q1U a acceptable performance to run 90 of all the applications in the market. But... as far as I know... You can't do that with an iPhone. All you can do with a iPhone is playing music, list pictures, use it as a phone and "browse" the web at the same speed or worse than in an old 56kb modem. Can you edit or change in anyway pictures saved in your iPhone. No, you can't. Can you rip a Music CD to your iPhone without using a PC? No, you can't. Can you even listen music in your iPhone without a PC? No, you can't. You need a PC to activate the iPhone before you start using it. Well, the Q1U can do all that and without the help of any other PC. So, no, the Q1U is not an iPhone, it's a UMPC and UMPC are meant to be companion PCs so for a large group of consumers the Q1U is powerful enough to handle all their needs. There are another group of geeks like me that need more performance but even this group is aware that you wont see the same level of performance in a UMPC like you have in your Desktop PC. The technology is not at that level of efficiency yet.
Why are you guys so worried about defending this platform or that one?
ReplyDeleteThe Q1U is unimpressive; the UMPC is unimpressive.
#1 problem - Windows as an OS. MS needs to tailor an OS specifically to these devices for performance and display.
#2 problem - Unix as an OS. The popular apps are windows apps. If unix had windows apps - game over.
IMO, the top two problems are OS/software related!
#3 problem - UMPCs need to be able to run Google apps and Skype. The Nokia Internet Table cannot.
#4 problem - Lousy battery life! If you can get a laptop that does 8 to 12 hours what's wrong with the UMPCs?
#5 problem - UMPC input may be the most important of these problems in terms of marketability. People want a keyboard - period. They want a real keyboard or something 90% or more of real. The Newton had a wonderful keyboard, Samsung has a beauty too and the NEC MobilePro & Sony PictureBooks were pretty good.
#4 problem - screens are unusable in bright light/daylight - there's technology to solve this problem.
Newton, NEC MobilePro, Sony Vaio Picturebook, the Toshiba Libretto and others were all lightyears ahead of the current crop of UMPCs in terms of usability.
Stop defending bad thinking and trying to make a lousy BLOATED OS try to run on these underpowered toys.
Newton was not. It was nigh useless.
ReplyDeleteAssuming the others are even PCs/Laptops, they are also too bulky
+ XP is not bloated, nor are most UMPCs underpowered. Gees there are UMPCs more powerful than the desktop I use.
Besides, who's going to be editing video on the go?
I'm sorry - have you ever actually USED a Q1U or a UMPC?
ReplyDelete#1 and #2. No. We've been there. We need a real OS that runs real applications. That means Windows - maybe MacOS (although you can run MacOS X on the Q1U). Unix and Linux just don't cut it because they don't run the apps people want to run.
#3. Uh - It CAN run those apps. It's a PC. It runs Windows. It uses the same browsers as any other Windows system.
#4. Show me ANY laptop that weighs 1.5lbs that has an 8-12 hour battery life and we'll talk. UMPCs are about 'carry everywhere' portability.
#5. You do know you can plug any USB keyboard into these things - or any bluetooth keyboard like the Think Outside Stowaway? Personally, I don't use keyboards - I like to stick to the onscreen inputs.
#4 (shouldn't that be #6?). Unless you're standing in a desert somewhere, the screen on the Q1U is fine. I've used it in direct, bright sunlight. You can also, I dunno - turn away from the sun and shade it with your body.
As for bloated - by what standard? I have the entire Vista Home Premium system installed with a ton of apps (including Photoshop, Painter, Office 2007 and a full install of Visual Studio 2005) on a 60GB HD on my UMPC and I still have 20GB left over. That's tons of space.
"Bloat" is only important when you have constrained resources. Which again, it the point of a UMPC - it's a real, full system. Lots of memory - lots of HD. No dicking around.
Samsung is quite similar however we need to consider brand loyalty before everything else.
ReplyDelete