Kohjinsha SA1F00B scores English review

We finally have an english review and video of that hot little SA1F00 ultra-portable from the company behind the budget Sotec line-up of PCs in Japan, Kohjinsha. It's all what you'd expect: lots of love for the portability, spec-sheet, "nice" keyboard, and pivot screen for tablet folding action; knocks for "cheap looking" materials and a 500MHz Goede LX800 processor which Akihabara assumes won't be up to decoding DVD and DivX videos with high resolutions and bit rates. This was not tested in the review, however. Now, as Carrypad points out and we're happy to underscore, both the Raon Vega and PepperPad 3 which sport the same LX800 chipset can handle XViD/DivX at over 2Mbps just fine -- no frame drops. Still, everyone agrees, that little Geode is all you need for web surfing, email, and common MS Office tasks and should help eke-out 5 hours from the battery in the process. With a $1,000 pre-order from Dynamism, it's also the cheapest 7-inch ultra-portable, UMPC-like, XP thingy out there with a QWERTY keyboard. Now get over to Aki for all the pics and video.

[Via Carrypad Journal]

[alexq @ Dec 11th 2006 9:21AM]

Conics.net have the basic model (XP Home, 40GB HDD, 512MB RAM) up for US$836 :

http://conics.net/catalog/product_info.php?currency=USD&cPath=22&products_id=196

:)

[Bob Spencer @ Dec 11th 2006 9:27AM]

Make it Vista ready and count me in.

Maybe with a flash hard drive too!

[Alan Strangis @ Dec 11th 2006 10:21AM]

Doesn't seem TOO bad actually, but according to Dynamism, no touchscreen which means a no deal for me. Tablet mode with a pen would make this an awesome device.

[jessew @ Dec 11th 2006 10:36AM]

Vista ready on 500MHz....
I laugh at you sir.

Linux could run on it quite easily though....

[Fishd @ Dec 11th 2006 12:31PM]

I can confirm that my little Vega, using the 500mhz Geode, will play (using bsplayer, for some reason VLC barfs after a few seconds) mp4's ripped by Handbrake, at native DVD res & 1,500kps bit rate, brilliantly.

XP runs quite well too, as long as I keep the mem usage low enough so it doesn't hit the pagefile.

All in all, considering the great battery life this processor allows, I'd say for e-mail, webbrowsing and a little light Office apps... it's a good processor.

[Dave Pevsner @ Dec 11th 2006 9:10PM]

of course a 500MHz geode can handle DivX, my 9 year old brother's portable DVD player can too...and i promise you said DVD player is using a generic chip at a much slower speed.

[Dave Pevsner @ Dec 11th 2006 9:16PM]

however, this thing is more the size of an ultrathin laptop than a UMPC, and even at that price, the only UMPC i would want is something that can almost fit in my pocket.
sizeasy.com comparing this to the size of the Vaio UX, you can tell it's a nice bit thinner than the UX, but is the size of a portable DVD player.

[Nilch @ Dec 11th 2006 9:45PM]

Its the nicest small footprint ultra portable (or UMPC) that I have seen and I have decided am going for it. Quite seriously I need portability (already have a Zaurus) and effective power / battery life mix. I don't need a Core 2 Duo on my ultraportable for going on the internet and checking emails and having FTP / SSH connectivity after all.

A very detailed and point to point review is here by Dave Kessler
http://superdave.blogdns.org/superdave/KohjinshaMiniReview
along with photos comparing with normal laptop and a Sharp Zaurus beside it. According to him, Video plays smoothlly as long as its from Ripped DivX from the HDD.

Read the review for more details.

[John Laity @ May 22nd 2007 12:15PM]

Youcan now buy English Versions of the Kohjinsha, with UK Keyboard, manuals, drivers, warranty, etc. It is marketed in Europe as the "mini-v' by Vye Computers Limited: www.vyepc.com / www.vyecomputers.com

Most interstingly the site shows the Intel / Vista version - S37 !!!

[Lasse @ May 12th 2008 4:57PM]

I have had a Kohjinsha SA1 since February 2008.
Currently running with Windows XP Professional, Swedish version.
DivX, Xvid is running fine.

Apple QuickTime player should however be avoided since it uses to much cpu power.

I bought to have a light weight computer to carry in case I would need it.
It does it job.