USI introduces MID-160, 'world's thinnest' with an Atom

Size definitely matters for MIDs, what with the whole Mobile moniker in there, but features matter too, and USI's upcoming MID-160 offers most of the important ones. It's got a 5-inch 800 x 480 touch-screen, connectivity over 802.11b/g as well as HSDPA and WiMAX, plus GPS and Bluetooth, served by an (unspecified) Atom processor and 512MB of RAM with 8GB of flash storage (expandable via microSD). All that's delivered in a package just 15mm in thickness and 250 grams in heft, but sadly missing one thing we tend to use a lot when surfing the web: a keyboard. Nokia's N810 WiMAX Edition has one, plus most of the other goods (lacking the Atom and 8GB of storage), yet manages to be just as thin and even lighter -- not to mention available right now. By contrast we have no information on availability or price for MID's sleek, but perhaps unnecessary, successor to the M-150.

[Scotty Doo @ Oct 23rd 2008 8:45AM]

I'd like to this this product in action...

[Alexandre Emond @ Oct 23rd 2008 8:52AM]

Hurrying to be first? That deserve a little click on the red button.

[Scotty Doo @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:22AM]

No, wasn't hurrying at all. Simply a genuine grammar mistake. I have no desire to be first posting a comment, i just happened to be first that time.

[Hotrod @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:57AM]

@Alexandre

"That deserve a little click on the red button."

Hurrying to leave a smart ass comment? That deserves a little click on the red button.

[Scotty Doo @ Oct 23rd 2008 8:46AM]

I'd also like english lessons...

[jb909 @ Oct 23rd 2008 8:56AM]

Would this have a USB port? or do any MID's have a USB port?

[sinjinn @ Oct 23rd 2008 8:58AM]

yeah it should. probably on the left hand side. all mids have usb ports.

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:03AM]

The Nokia Internet Tablets can host USB devices, but practically they are incredibly clunky to set up and use.

[jb909 @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:30AM]

Thanks:
Anyone know of the smallest MID/Pocketable that can handle 2 USB inputs then? I'm trying to dump images from a CF/SDHC reader to and external drive on the fly with the smallest lightest (think OQO- but smaller?!) machine I can find...

[Macdelaney @ Oct 23rd 2008 8:57AM]

Why cant we have a N810 + Atom yet? Damn you Intel! DAMN YOOUUUU!!!

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:01AM]

It's a cool looking piece, I'll give it that.
(Lets see what it does.)

I owned a Nokia N810...briefly.
If it had an Atom processor I might STILL own one.

I ditched it for a netbook and didn't look back.

Do this thing properly and you could have a hit.

[scape @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:04AM]

512mb ram seems vastly limited to basic functionality. even 1gb would grant much greater flexability, the last thing I need is my MID to slow down in mid use

[jorvay @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:14AM]

512mb should be fine. Think back to the days leading up to the release of Vista, where 1gig of ram was a minimum requirement. We all thought it was nuts to require that much as a minimum. XP runs quite nicely on 512mb, especially when it's on a machine like this that won't be doing any heavy lifting or extreme multitasking.
In fact, I just googled the XP min requirments and apparently it recommends 128mb but only requires 64mb (with limited functionality).

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:16AM]

Don't be stingy now.
Let's be adults about this and put 2GB in the thing.

We all know it's what we want.

[Macdelaney @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:29AM]

"the last thing I need is my MID to slow down in mid use"
I see what you did there...
Also, 2gb would be great, but maybe that would get the price too high

[scape @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:56AM]

perhaps, but multitasking would be a bit limited. for instance loading, say, firefox and hulu to watch some semi-highdef might get this thing to start stuttering during playback, and with such a nice screen that is a bit of a disappointment-- but who knows, it may be smooth..all in all though, it sounds like an awesome mid, I just personally would want 1gb :p

[KilgoreTrout @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:26AM]

It may not be perfect yet but it seems like a mighty fine device to me.
I'm a firm beliver in the future possibilities of MID devices and if I never bought one until now is because they all sport either pathetic spec's or ridicolous prices (or often both).
But as soon as I will see one that will be able to substitute my smartphone/DMP, netbook and GPS reasonably well, I'll sure take it home with me.

[htd @ Oct 23rd 2008 9:39AM]

1G RAM probably wont take too much more space, hopefully xp driver is out there... even 512M is worth putting xp on. it looks like there's some port at the bottom, maybe it would be used for a keyboard addon? I also want this to be a phone, dont like the idea about a separate wimax device.

[Onetrack @ Oct 23rd 2008 10:08AM]

Wake me when its running osx.

[Kris @ Oct 23rd 2008 11:21AM]

I think its best for everyone if you keep sleeping ;)

[cocoviper @ Oct 23rd 2008 10:34AM]

"perhaps, but multitasking would be a bit limited. for instance loading, say, firefox and hulu to watch some semi-highdef might get this thing to start stuttering during playback, and with such a nice screen that is a bit of a disappointment-- but who knows, it may be smooth..all in all though, it sounds like an awesome mid, I just personally would want 1gb :p"

My wife's PC has 502MB of ram (10MB is allocated to integrated graphics) running WinXP and I can run Firefox or Chrome with 7 or 8 tabs open while also watching anything Hulu has to offer with no problems. I can't imagine needing to multitask more than that on a MID.

[Sarig @ Oct 23rd 2008 11:41AM]

n810 lacks 3g, and has infamously slow processing on its ARM processor. This device looks way nicer than the Aigo though, which looks too plastic-ish.

So, where's the Gigabyte m528 already :(

[john @ Oct 23rd 2008 12:15PM]

If only the N810 had a HSPA edition. These people at least got it right in terms of "deliver a WWAN option that people can actually use outside of a niche markets". Now if it just had a keyboard...

[Iziz @ Oct 23rd 2008 1:32PM]

Any videos demonstrating this thing?

[linuxamp @ Oct 24th 2008 12:14AM]

Neither summary nor article mention OS.

[FRZ @ Oct 24th 2008 2:30PM]

No keyboard? Useless!