Samsung's Q1 UMPC reviewed

We know we've been giving the UMPC -- specifically the Q1 -- a lot of face time, but we have to admit, even though we're unimpressed with the first generation of these devices both in capabilities and having played around with 'em, we're still interested. And to our surprise an English site called Personal Computer World not only got and reviewed a Q1, but gave it some very high marks, citing its quiet fan, sleek form factor, and bright, clear display as high points for the device. In fact, they only knocked on it for having a "standard" battery life (huh? 2.5 hours is now standard?), smallish drive, and, of course, sucky Celeron-powered under-performance. Will all those 4/5-star ratings they laid down be enough to get users to plunk down £799 (about $1450 US) for one of their own? We don't know, but we didn't exactly find it encouraging that Samsung told PCW only "hundreds" had been pre-ordered.

[Via UMPC Buzz]

[William P. @ May 1st 2006 12:49AM]

Samsungs Time Warner Store in NY - Will have it on display very soon (this week hopefully) - The reps already have it in the back... Just waiting for word to let it out in the wild!

[ii @ May 1st 2006 1:17AM]

that's my thumb print :)

[Roy @ May 1st 2006 1:32AM]

I am personally looking forward to them posting the full benchmarks in a couple days. I want to see what other test they ran on this device and what it can do.

[Dylan @ May 1st 2006 1:50AM]

I'm curious what the purpose of these devices are? Where do they fall into the market?

[starwxrwx @ May 1st 2006 2:37AM]

You would think they'd have come up with some alternative UI for the smaller screen - look at how much space is wasted with that dog-ugly IE title/Menu/Menu-Buttons/Address bar combo, plus the status abd start bars down the bottom.

YUK

[Gihad Joe @ May 1st 2006 2:41AM]

For $1500, you can get a decent laptop that can do all that the Samsung UMPC can do and more. My reasoning says, that this device to be a big commercial failure.

[Intrepid @ May 1st 2006 3:39AM]

Gen 2 of these devices wil be where it's at. They will have much better battery life, Vista, and most likely Flash Hard Drives so that power usage will be much lower - plus that'll help with size.

[Nate Porter @ May 1st 2006 3:57AM]

Does anyone else think these things are terribley ugly? The thing looks like a SEGA Gamegear. Just my two cents.

[straylight @ May 1st 2006 4:45AM]

one would think, THINK that since this computer not only has, no keyboard and about 50% less screen, that you would get a signifigantly larger battery time.. thats really odd.
I actually considered that a selling point, so much so that where once there was mild interest I now have almost ZERO interest in entertaining the notion of purchasing one of these.
You can buy a decent tablet laptop for around $1200 now, and that has a keyboard....

-straylight

[burgle @ May 1st 2006 5:13AM]

starwxrwx - in Microsoft Office and IE you have full screen modes. In full screen mode title bar and start bar won't be shown and you can also hide other toolbars. So you can use nearly all of you screen to work. Windows already have the necessary options to work on a small resolution screen.

I guess this device is positioned somewhere between a laptop and a pocketpc. Compared to laptops these devices are very small. Many people do not use a desktop and use their laptop as their main computer so they usually prefer 15' and large screens. I would love to have a vaio TX to carry around but they cost 3000$. I use a loox720 to carry my office documents and mail and I think this device's battery life is still too short to replace my pocketPC. But if they have a longer battery life in the future devices I will buy one to replace my pocketPC.

[TZK @ May 1st 2006 6:07AM]

Crap. A big lump! I am curious about the Avertec/sidekick looking UMPS. Screw this traditional micro tablet stuff.

[Max @ May 1st 2006 7:39AM]

Well, after this post the only thing I can say is that I will never visit this English site, because it is a crap. Engadget forever :)

[obm @ May 1st 2006 7:39AM]

I didn't know these things had fans. The last thing I ever want on a pda-ish thing is a fan. P4 is a bad line of cpu and celeron is even worse, I wish these things had P3 descendant p-m s or similar. At this configuration it is just a (huge) waste of money.
I would consider a centrino tablet pc at that size even for that price though...

[Rob O'Daniel @ May 1st 2006 7:52AM]

With that chunky button-laden bezel, you're not really getting much more screen real estate than you'd get with a PocketPC - and for 3 times the price!

You're better off looking at true tablet PCs like those made by Motion Computing. Far more powerful & useful, far better screen dimensions, not that much larger...

[Alan Erickson @ May 1st 2006 8:02AM]

Like everybody else, I really don't completely understand the high cost of these (or how they think they're going to sell many at this cost). You can go to Dell and buy a 12" 710M for $999. And it has a keyboard.

[Kazolar @ May 1st 2006 8:50AM]

500 bucks is the max. I will spend more money on overpriced new tech toys than most people -- but honestly 1500 bucks is only if you can trick your company into buying you one. There is absolutely no way this thing will sell at this price. The market niche is between sub-notebooks and smart phone/pdas -- decent smart phone is 300 bucks (I know they are more -- but people look at real cost with cell contracts and all) and a nice subnotebook is about 1300 or so -- so split the difference 500-700 is where this thing should be. 1500 -- who are they kidding?

[LC @ May 1st 2006 9:06AM]

I can certainly see a use for these for people who like to travel and have many things consolidated in a small form factor. They can use it as a GPS device and a PMP with a nice screen size and storage. Web browsing and basic office tasks, use it as a note pad that is easier to carry than even the smallest tablet PC. An ebook reader, etc.

As others have said, I too believe that the Gen 2 devices are where it's going to be. They need to cut the price down to $500-$800 depending on features. Improved battery life and a PC card slot would be nice for those who are not near a hotspot but have an EVDO pc card.

[oshean @ May 1st 2006 9:41AM]

OMG!!?!?11 WFT!!1! YOu COulD bUy a lAPtop fOR THat mYCH!!!!1

If right now you can't justify the cost of a UMPC then you obviously don't have a need for one. You can wait until the prices come down then you can buy this as your toy.

You don't hear people crying....
OMG!!?!?11 WFT!!1! a blu_Ray / Hd-dVD plAYer is $1,000 !!!!1

[The1 @ May 1st 2006 10:02AM]

The UMPC should have been priced less than $700.00 as most expected. However, MS and others had to use the Intel processor to drive up the price. There is no way I would buy this product with a weak intel processor.

[Armen @ May 1st 2006 1:23PM]

I haven't read the review yet. But I've been dreaming of such a device for at least two years. Actually it started when I noticed I read more on the monitor than on paper, and I felt I read more comfortably on my comptuer (taking notes, marking things, etc.) and later I got my drawing tablet so I could write handwritten notes, mark, draw blocks, etc on text files (I did it in a graphic program on different layers). So basically I was writing on tablet and watching it on the monitor. The idea of such a device which you could carry around sounded wonderful, I could read ebooks and take notes easily by copy/pasting (goddamn DRM :/), surf the web, and I didn't have to sit in front of my computer all the time. Actually it's a GREAT idea, at least when you imagine it, we should see how it is in reality. But $1,500 is way too expensive for me. I live in a poor country so the price I had in mind was $500. If it was $500 I'd get one for sure. Even just for experiencing such a good idea (even if it didn't turn out to be that good in reality). I recently read that they have the intention to produce these devices around $500 during next year. Very correct pricing. Hope they'll acheive that goal. Specially because these devices are going to be used alongside with PCs at homes, not replacing them (unlike laptops that can replace PCs altogher at a home).

[Gin @ May 1st 2006 5:04PM]

wow, no dvd tray?, waaaack. *snore*

[Hey Alex @ May 1st 2006 11:07PM]

I'm at a large company, and we've been waiting for these for months. Think about it, a wireless system that's smaller than a laptop but larger than a PDA, operating Windows. We have an web-based application that should fit our needs perfectly. And trying to find one from any one of our vendors has proven impossible. Nobody seems to know anything about the unit. I've had to explain it to CDW, SoftChoice, OfficeMax (Boise Cascade), InSight... the list goes on and on.

[soupbun @ May 2nd 2006 10:09AM]

my HTC Universal was free with contract in the UK. And it offers pretty much all the stuff I would've wanted this UMPC crap to do (mail, outlook, MP3, DivX, wireless web, ebook, quickbooks, games), in VGA, with a keyboard and touch screen, utilizes persistent memory, and make phone calls too! Plus it fits in my pocket. This UMPC junk blows!

[flim @ May 3rd 2006 6:56PM]

Um, not sure what the comment on the battery life was supposed to mean, but I'd be rather cross if I got less than 2.5 hrs out of my laptop battery. Maybe running 230V A/C here in the UK gives us more juice from our portable devices...

[gozirah @ May 7th 2006 1:09PM]

What is the advantage of this form factor? Portable and light are great, but I would prefer something 8.5x11 like the rest of things I have to carry around. Why not just just make tablets cheaper and medium powered like these UMPC's?