pythonista
Shared on Thu, 04/27/2006 - 03:50[ NOTE: This was originally posted as a response to the UMPC review posted on the front page of 2o2p, but I cant post it as an article response without it getting truncated before the halfway point. So, here it is as my first blog entry. Enjoy. ]
Its one thing to compare a UMPC to a laptop, but to suggest that the UMPC genre has a dim future because a UMPC wont be able to do typical laptop tasks as well as standard laptop is a little shortsighted.
Heres a task for someone out there. Hunt down an ultraportable laptop that costs <$1000. Ultraportable generally means 12" or smaller screens. Now compare those to the UMPC, which is billed as an ultraportable device. Do the same thing with tablet PCs. A couple issues youll find with pricing this - most ultraportables are not your average consumer machines, and they arent priced as cheaply as average consumer machines.
The one thing I do agree with is that the 800x480 resolution makes it less comfortable for web browsing than some users would be willing to accept. I think the resolution they should be shooting for here is XGA, or 1024x768. I dont think its unreasonable to expect a 7" panel to reach that pixel density, given the remarkable native resolutions that are available in 15" form factor these days.
That being said, 800x480 would still do a great job for the task I most often use my Toshiba e800 PDA (VGA screen) for, reading documents offline, such as books in PDF format, large HTML documents, etc.
Id also be curious to know if battery life would be similar if the unit used an Intel Core Solo CPU. Id be much happier to see battery life at 5 hours or better. (eg., something that could be used for most of the duration of a nonstop US coast to coast flight without having to switch batteries or find an outlet)
Its one thing to compare a UMPC to a laptop, but to suggest that the UMPC genre has a dim future because a UMPC wont be able to do typical laptop tasks as well as standard laptop is a little shortsighted.
Heres a task for someone out there. Hunt down an ultraportable laptop that costs <$1000. Ultraportable generally means 12" or smaller screens. Now compare those to the UMPC, which is billed as an ultraportable device. Do the same thing with tablet PCs. A couple issues youll find with pricing this - most ultraportables are not your average consumer machines, and they arent priced as cheaply as average consumer machines.
The one thing I do agree with is that the 800x480 resolution makes it less comfortable for web browsing than some users would be willing to accept. I think the resolution they should be shooting for here is XGA, or 1024x768. I dont think its unreasonable to expect a 7" panel to reach that pixel density, given the remarkable native resolutions that are available in 15" form factor these days.
That being said, 800x480 would still do a great job for the task I most often use my Toshiba e800 PDA (VGA screen) for, reading documents offline, such as books in PDF format, large HTML documents, etc.
Id also be curious to know if battery life would be similar if the unit used an Intel Core Solo CPU. Id be much happier to see battery life at 5 hours or better. (eg., something that could be used for most of the duration of a nonstop US coast to coast flight without having to switch batteries or find an outlet)
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