Raon Digital's Vega UMPC unboxing / impressions

While a full-on review of a finalized unit has yet to surface, the folks over at CarryPad have withstood the lengthy customs holdup to give a once over to the oh-so-small Raon Digital Vega UMPC. Rocking a footprint and screen smaller than the already tiny OQO and Sony UX, those lucky testers were taken aback at just how minuscule this thing really is. They admired the sleek, black styling, and praised the LCD quality, but felt the maximum resolution of 1,024 x 768 was too microscopic for actual use, and found the native 800 x 480 option much more pleasing on the eyes. Windows responsiveness wasn't blistering, but did exceed their expectations, and ran several basic applications without putting too much strain on the 256MB of RAM; two other nifty features were its ability to boot into Linux successfully, and be accessed as USB storage when off or in standby. Possibly the most satisfying report comes from the battery life -- while not quite matching the longevity of the Newton MessagePad, the test unit survived three hours of active use, a few hours of standby, and still showed 20% of juice remaining. The biggest digs (and potential deal killers), however, are its apparent lack of WiFi without the style-hindering USB attachment, and the perplexing decision to omit Bluetooth entirely. While there are certainly areas of concern, CarryPad felt the Vega UMPC was "more impressive" than expected, especially in areas of size and battery life -- but if your plans involve heavy internet surfing or pairing it with the endless amount of Bluetooth possibilities, you may want to hold off.

[PiTT @ Sep 13th 2006 1:56AM]

no wifi? no bluetooth? hmmm, i think i will create the next big thing! a cell phone withour a radio. so no phone calls unless you get the optional attachment!

[Gaz @ Sep 13th 2006 5:46AM]

I think it's rather short sighted to slate a product because it omits one or two (admittedly useful) features. But this shows a promising future for UMPC, a long(er) battery life whilst remaining compact and relatively powerful. Later revisions will, I am sure, include the radio comms.

[Steve Paine @ Sep 13th 2006 5:52AM]

Steve here from Carrypad.
photoset has also been posted now at
www.carrypad.com/gallery

Steve.

[Ryan @ Sep 13th 2006 6:33AM]

I want one of these things but I also wanted to ask a few questions.
How was the feel of the silver mouse pad? Do you think it would work for light gaming like say for an nes emulator? Do the other buttons have any clicky or give to them and are they easy to press? Did you try hardware screen rotation yet? Is the device going to be too hot to handle for long use periods? Thank you.

[Blake @ Sep 13th 2006 7:01AM]

Agh, just like the DualCor. At first we heard it wouldn't have wi-fi built in, but nough complaining from the usr-base got them to chang their mind. Let's hope it does the same for Raon.

[Steve Paine @ Sep 15th 2006 3:13PM]

Yes, RaonDigital are already considering putting Wifi and BT into the next revision.

Steve.

[Helge @ Oct 16th 2006 10:29AM]

Do you already know anything about the next revision (seeing that the first revision did not even arrive in Europe...)?