Wibrain's B1 UMPC: hideous, yet strangely appealing

Ok, it's ugly as sin (and pretty thick, to boot), but we have to give props to Wibrain's new B1 UMPC. Besides coming equipped with a Via C7m CPU up to 1.6GHz, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, a VGA camera, HSDPA, and a full QWERTY keyboard and trackpad, the thing's going to sell for a mere 600 or 700k Korean Won (about $650 - $760 US) when it's launched overseas this October.

[Dillon Dixon @ Aug 6th 2007 2:59AM]

And the others weren't hideous?

[paloooz @ Aug 6th 2007 3:08AM]

It's not the device that's hideous, is that Fisher Price theme on XP!

[ssuk @ Aug 6th 2007 7:28AM]

Then install a proper theme.

[bob e @ Aug 6th 2007 3:46PM]

I use and recommend the Royale Noir Theme for XP... very Vistish like... and would give that UMPC a proper face.

http://www.winaddons.com/royal-noir-146/

[david kim @ Aug 30th 2007 7:24AM]

My name is David Kim, I was one of the first to be able to use this unit in korea. I found that the preformance is outstanding and much much faster then the ASUS i also have. its both touchscreen and touchpad and when i am sitting down the pad works great. I first thought that it was not needed to but you have to try it to see how well it works. I think it is great unit, i am just waiting for the optional accessories

[Daniel @ Aug 6th 2007 3:11AM]

Scientific calculators run windows now ?!

[JJ @ Aug 6th 2007 4:22AM]

I am vaguely reminded of the TI-92 now. XD

[L. Cyphre @ Aug 6th 2007 3:25AM]

At least noone'll try to steal one from you.

[Stan Winstone @ Aug 6th 2007 3:40AM]

so very goofy- call it an iPhone Kill.

[Jeff @ Aug 6th 2007 4:07AM]

one word - Emulators~

[Matt @ Aug 6th 2007 4:43AM]

Apparently I'm the ultimate nerd - at first examination, I don't find anything about it [i]particularly[/i] ugly. It's like a Nokia E70 on steroids - and I kinda like it.

[Mat @ Aug 6th 2007 4:45AM]

Come on man, we need to know what time the apple press event is

[BigD @ Aug 6th 2007 5:02AM]

Okay...you were spot on about the thickness, but if the scroll wheel looked a little less like a pie tin, we'd be in business. It's not all that ugly...just slightly utilitarian.

[Matt @ Aug 6th 2007 5:21AM]

For some reason, it also reminds me of the old TRS-80 PC-3 Pocket system I had back in the mid-80s.

http://oldcomputers.net/trs80pc3.html

[michas_pi @ Aug 6th 2007 5:32AM]

I was thinking it looks more like the Voyager-200, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

[Fred @ Aug 6th 2007 6:24AM]

Hmm. I see both a touchpad and a stylus. If this thing has a touchscreen... why the touchpad? If it only has the touchpad... why the stylus?

Also, note how it's running XP in every shot, except the one with the close-up of the camera, where it's running Vista.

[Pc_Madness @ Aug 6th 2007 6:32AM]

It has a stylus for writing on the screen (its touch sensitive), and a touchpad for controlling the mouse? Its called a UMPC..

[3rdsun @ Aug 6th 2007 6:56AM]

This is for big thumbed people with near sight

[synthaxx @ Aug 6th 2007 7:04AM]

"I hate this! It is revolting!"
"More?"
"Yes please"

My gadgy sense is certainly tingling...but does it run linux? ;)

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 6th 2007 7:43AM]

Indeed!
It has an odd kind of retro-ish charm to it.

-and yes, nowadays I also wonder what will run Linux.
Ubuntu is what I've been playing with, but one wonders about drivers...

[Michael Molin @ Aug 6th 2007 8:39AM]

Samsung Q2 Ultra.

[Torben @ Aug 6th 2007 9:08AM]

Where would I hide that beast? Its so huge, I need a suitcase for it!

[humpty @ Aug 6th 2007 9:28AM]

I like it... very retro looking.

[kenwshmt @ Aug 6th 2007 10:53AM]

Thats alot like the old TRS-80 model 2 .. i used to read bbs email on that thing.. ah the memories.

http://oldcomputers.net/trs80pc2.html

[apeguero @ Aug 6th 2007 11:29AM]

This thing looks very useful and seems to be cram-packed with everything one may want an ultra portable PC to have. Only thing I can question for now is the placement of the left and right click buttons. Why not the left-click button on the left and the right on the right? Instead they have the left-click button on the right and above the right-click button.

[Sir Loin @ Aug 6th 2007 11:34AM]

I like it! It's definitely 80's-inspired, a nice change from the standard shiny white/black designs of everything else nowadays. This thing looks like it would be durable for years.

[Ron @ Aug 6th 2007 11:37AM]

I don't usually think a device like this is very useful (usually because the design is so stylized and complicated, they're not very practical), but this looks pretty sweet! It looks sturdy. I wonder how heavy it is...

[Richard @ Aug 6th 2007 11:44AM]

You know what? It's really not *that* ugly. And at that price, maybe I just might import one of these babies.

[OddManOut @ Aug 6th 2007 3:42PM]

Another vote for TRS-80. It looks very '80s indeed...I'm surprised it doesn't have faux wood grain appliques on it...

But I must say a UMPC clocked at 1.6ghz for under $775 is pretty amazing (albeit, those are C7m ticks so they don't go quite as far as a Pentium M might at that speed, but still...). Any word on USB ports and SD/CF/Express slots ? HDD size ? SSD availability ? Battery life ?

But really, I wish someone would come up with an optomised gui for devices this size (preferably one you can enable and disable so you can have a normal desktop if/when you hook one of these up to a monitor). It's not even that it's hard to read, it's just that your standard desktop environment isn't necessary on a mobile device.

As for the size, it really doesn't seem all that bad too me. It's not that much larger than a PSP which most don't dispute is fairly portable (compared to a PS2 anyway). I hope Dynamism or Conics picks this one up (anybody know of a similar Gray Market vendor for Korean stuff ?).