Comparing the Origami to a Laptop

Microsoft is attempting to create a new category of mobile PCs with the Ultra-mobile PC (UMPC), a.k.a Origami. Will they succeed? Is buying an UMPC more cost effective than buying a full sized laptop?

Here is how the Samsung Q1 UMPC stacks up to a Dell Laptop:

There are three or four Dell laptops that fall into the price range that the UMPC is estimated to cost. 2old2play chose the Dell Inspiron E1705, which is one of the more expensive Dell laptops available in the price range.




By reading the table above, it is clear that Microsoft is trying to create a new category of mobile PC. However, Im not sure Microsoft created a worthy competitor to the already successful laptop. There are hundreds of configurations for laptops available for the same price or slightly more expensive then the new UMPC's. The Dell Inspiron E1705 clearly out performs the UMPC with the only downfall being it's weight category. Sure the Dell Inspiron weighs more then the UMPC but there are also many other laptops out there that are comparable in weight.

The Screen

The UMPC’s display is fairly small in size and has a resolution that is not even up to the standards of a typically formatted web page (couldn't view 2old2play). On the other hand, the Intel graphics card in the Dell Inspiron is capable of up to 1900x1200 and supports DirectX 9 and OpenGL for 3D graphics. Although it is not the most top end graphics card on the market Dell allows you to configure it with the ATI Mobility Radeon for an addition cost of $179.00.

Disk Space

With a disk capacity of 40GB, the UMPC’s drive is small compared to most portable systems on the market today. It’s slightly lower then a non-HD TiVo recorder for your television. The Inspiron, while not impressive, comes with a 60GB hard disk which for the cost of the lower end model is not too disappointing. Plus, the Inspiron can be configured online for a disk capacity of 100GB.

Gaming

The other big downfall to the UMPC is that it runs Windows Tablet edition. At this time there are only three games being developed for the UMPC. The game titles are Bejeweled2, Zuma, and Bookworm. Bejeweled2 and Zuma are puzzle games (also available on the Xbox 360) and Bookworm is a crossword/word jumble game. The Dell Inspiron laptop runs Windows XP Home Edition or Windows Media Center and has a graphics card that is capable of running many different genres of games that are already available at retail outlets. Games do not have to be developed specifically for the Dell Inspiron as they do for the UMPC. There are however a limited selection of games on the market that will also run with very low resolution on the tablet pc.

Conclusion

In the end I'm not sure that Microsoft will succeeded in making a viable market for the UMPC. It seems that with $1,000 to spend you could invest it on a customizable laptop and take the added weight while tackig on many more features. Will know more when we get our hands on it.

References:

Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 details can be found at:
http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/

Dell USA:
http://www.dell.com

More on UMPC’s:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/umpc/hardware.mspx