Details flow on Linux-based Porient H12 UMPC

Remember that Linux-infused H9 UMPC we spotted last year? Have a look at its proper successor, the Porient H12. The handheld packs a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 resolution display, a 520MHz Intel XScale PXA270 CPU, 2GB of flash storage, an SD / MMC card slot, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS and DAB / DVB-H / DVB-T tuners. The 10.6-ounce device also features a web browser, RSS reader, multimedia player, PDF viewer and an undisclosed office suite to boot. Pricing has yet to be announced for individual units, though these are available now if you're down with importing vast quantities. And you aren't, so that's that.

[Aarun @ Sep 21st 2008 9:29AM]

Cool device, nice idea certainly. If a big company, say Apple, were to design a really nice one (nicer looking, more functional UI etc) I can't see why it wouldn't really take off. Perhaps throw in a GSM radio for good measure...

[Juxtah @ Sep 21st 2008 10:19AM]

All Apple would do is put it in a rectangular aluminium box and stamp their logo on it. They would get the software side right though (as long as the people who work on iTunes are kept well away).

[ybd @ Sep 21st 2008 10:27AM]

blah blah blah Apple is the best blah blah blah Lowest Ranked blah blah Engadget is an Apple blog blah blah blah blah iPhone blah blah

[Scott @ Sep 21st 2008 10:58AM]

@Juxtah:

Yeah, this is exactly the reason I held off buying an iPod for years. And even now, I find my iPod Touch's OS to be quite nice, but the hardware to be quite lacking.

[nikto @ Sep 21st 2008 11:09AM]

If Apple just designed this, it would primarily be an iPod, you would surf the web WITHOUT Flash player although you could play YouTube flash video but only with their app, it wouldn't allow you to use the GPS with other maps than Google's online ones, and it would cost a fortune.

Not to mention that they would patent something inside it and have an exclusive right to build devices like that. Oh and nice interface? Don't you love Skype's one? It's done with QT (freely available on Linux).

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Sep 21st 2008 9:29AM]

Looks like a GPS to me...

[Christy McGrory @ Sep 21st 2008 9:57AM]

Exactly what I was thinking.

[austin @ Sep 21st 2008 10:11AM]

exactly what everyone was thinking probably.

[DeepKeeper @ Sep 21st 2008 10:46AM]

Just an oversized PDA with Linux, not an UMPC.

and there is no more Intel XScale, they are Marvell XScale...

[Sarig @ Sep 21st 2008 11:59AM]

Maybe even a MID, but definately not a UMPC. You'd think Engdadget would've learned by now; UMPC's are an actual defined category, unlike netbooks etc.

[JohnTitor @ Sep 21st 2008 5:56PM]

not an MID either, both UMPCs and MIDs use x86 processors
like the man said, just a big PDA, and there's been stuff like it before

[fischju @ Sep 21st 2008 10:52AM]

Now if Archos could not be idiots and allow changes to the 5's kernel, we could have a good looking and powerful UMPC for $350

[KilgoreTrout @ Sep 21st 2008 1:00PM]

It seems that Medion is working on a german UI to rebrand this thing with their logo and market it via european discount stores.

[john @ Sep 21st 2008 5:49PM]

Uh... what advantage does this have over my N810? Slightly larger screen, and that's about it?

My N810 has a qwerty keyboard though... Oh, and, I can actually use it because it's interface is available in languages like english.

[Kevin Laird @ Sep 22nd 2008 4:29AM]

I'd love something like this to have and run CDisplay to read digital comics.

[fischju @ Sep 22nd 2008 11:22AM]

The formats that CDisplay opens can also be opened with Winrar, so you can extract all of the images, and read them on just about any 800x480 portable device