ASUS R50A UMPC reviewed -- same internals as the VAIO P, runs Vista poorly

ASUS's R50A UMPC has been sort of lost in the company's flood of Eee PCs, and maybe for good reason -- the crew at UMPC Portal just reviewed the $2,000 handheld and came away unimpressed. Although the software package overall was described as "atrocious" and the lack of a keyboard was annoying, the biggest problems were all essentially related to running Vista on the 1.33GHz Atom Z520 CPU with 1GB RAM -- you can delete bloatware and use a bigger stylus, but you can't fix "pretty bad" performance on the lowest possible graphics settings. Ruh roh: Sony's upcoming VAIO P supposedly has a similar 1.33GHz Intel chip in it and runs Vista. Here's hoping Sony's got something a little more impressive up its sleeve for us than what ASUS managed to put together here -- otherwise the full R50A review at the read link might be discouragingly prophetic.

[FILA @ Dec 29th 2008 4:25AM]

and why do they think people are going to buy this shit.

[Arkenklo @ Dec 29th 2008 4:31AM]

Well, who can blaim them if they tried running Vista on a Atom.

[Temple @ Dec 29th 2008 7:33AM]

Engadget should do their research:

Intel has 1.33Ghz Core2Duo U7700 and the cheaper 1.33Ghz Atom 520. The Core2Duo can run Vista perfectly fine (it has two-cores and 2MB of cache, the Atom has a single core and 512k cache).

Its not determined yet if the VAIO P is using one or the other, just that it has 1.33Ghz.

[dan @ Dec 29th 2008 12:15PM]

It runs perfectly on a 1.6 Atom with 2GB RAM.

[Markarian @ Dec 29th 2008 1:26PM]

Vista Ultimate runs fine on my 1.6GHz Diamondville Atom netbook fine with 1.5GB of RAM too. I have to agree that I think Sony will be using the 1.33GHz Core 2 Duo. It just makes sense. They used lower-clocked Core Solos for their UX line of pocketable UMPCs. They can't get away with charging this kind of money using an Atom. However, Sony has failed time and time again, so I wouldn't put it past them.

[loosely_coupled @ Dec 29th 2008 8:00PM]

@Temple

Thank you for saying what I was going to. I keep making that point in all the Sony P articles, and the stupid writers NEVER acknowledge this fact. I highly doubt Sony would use a 1.33Ghz Atom in a netbook/ultraportable that will undoubtedly come at premium cost, not to mention the incredible display.

[eggothewaffle @ Dec 29th 2008 4:35AM]

When will companies learn to save all of this for Windows 7, which is clearly far better suited for low resource platforms like these?

Take the time and energy to refine and improve hardware design and features instead of pushing out poorly performing and poorly designed products.

[TR47 @ Dec 29th 2008 4:39AM]

Still hoping for ULV in Sony P-series ;)

[L @ Dec 29th 2008 5:14AM]

I'm think they'll use an ULV Core Solo. If it was an Atom, they'd certainly not offer the 1.33GHz variant...

[MattyG @ Dec 29th 2008 4:45AM]

screw vista then, get linux on there

[Arkenklo @ Dec 29th 2008 4:51AM]

Exactly my thought, netbuntu should treat it really well.

[Andrew @ Dec 29th 2008 6:04AM]

+1

More companies should follow the example of Nokia and Dell.

[dzhiurgis @ Dec 29th 2008 4:51AM]

Redneck says: but can it run XP/Android/Linux/Crysis/iPhoneOS/Leopard??

[Bokal @ Dec 29th 2008 4:54AM]

Why already all this hate against the VAIO P?

Sony products aren't exactly cheap, sure. But they always deliver.

[matt @ Dec 29th 2008 5:02AM]

"Always Deliver"
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

[Arkenklo @ Dec 29th 2008 5:05AM]

I hate to do this, but I just can't help but compare Vaio as a brand to Mac, they are expensive, exclusive (sorta) but they are 100% high quality and design.

[Dillon @ Dec 29th 2008 5:17AM]

Anon approves.

[THJ @ Jan 3rd 2009 4:51AM]

Always delivers:

Bloatware
flimsy hardware
near-useless memory stick slots
OMG slow

Looks pretty in the store display though.

(note: this is only based on my experience setting up and maintaing about 30 VAIOs @ work. Constant PITA compared to the cheap HP 6510/2510s that the regular employees use.)

[Sarig @ Dec 29th 2008 5:11AM]

Having an intel cpu at the same clockrate doesn't mean it's the same one. There's what, half a dozen? different Atom ones.

[digitallysick @ Dec 29th 2008 5:22AM]

Windows 7 will save a device like this but sadly with vista on such low system specs i can't imagine. Maybe you can put xp on it

[Gad Get @ Dec 29th 2008 5:25AM]

As much as I enjoy using Vista on my well-equipped desktop, I groan every time I hear about another new UMPC (or netbook, for that matter) attempting to run Vista on a low-power processor and just a gig of RAM. These companies would be better off shipping their underpowered computers with some form of Linux, rather than being so overly ambitious as to actually think the device might be able to power a half-decent computing experience on Windows Vista. Haven't they learned their lesson by now?

[Damo @ Dec 29th 2008 6:29AM]

I am actually running vista happily on my MSI Wind U100 and the Atom is fine with the load for basic web surfing and games.

[Ram @ Dec 29th 2008 12:17PM]

I'm quite sick of all the Vista-bashing myself. The only problem with Vista is that it comes with a crappola of features that are turned on by default. Turn these off and it actually gives you better performance than XP!

http://www.liliputing.com/2008/07/msi-wind-runs-faster-longer-with-vista.html

[loosely_coupled @ Dec 29th 2008 8:03PM]

better performance than XP?? Not in the vast majority of typical usage scenarios...

And who the hell actually "enjoys" using Vista? Talk about a fanboy...

[max_lux @ Dec 29th 2008 6:46AM]

Vista doesn't care about specs. It runs badly on ts own.

What I don't get is why anyone would try push a device like this out the door with such a hated OS... and 1 gig of RAM??? Are they gauging how many people still have more money than brains?

[patriotsn1 @ Dec 29th 2008 7:02AM]

Weird, my Vista runs just fine and I enjoy it quite a bit.

[KIFF @ Dec 29th 2008 7:22AM]

Dear Engadget, do you actually know for a FACT that the Vaio P has the same internals as this UMPC?

[Patriks7 @ Dec 29th 2008 7:37AM]

Of course they don't. But they won't be able to afford it, so they have to bash it! Or maybe they bash it cause it'll fit into a smaller envelope than their beloved MacBook Air?

[SPOKE @ Dec 29th 2008 7:25AM]

It runs like a pile of dicks because none of the sites that revies it can actually accord one to check out, so they build a replica with cardboard and an original gameboy CPU, and wrapped it in bacon in case they got bored.

Jusy buy an OQO :)

[gettingmymacon @ Jan 2nd 2009 10:11PM]

mmmmmmm, bacon

[Jesse S @ Dec 29th 2008 7:42AM]

In this world of Netbooks, can someone tell me what the point of UMPC's is anymore? Netbooks seem to fill their niche for much less cash...

[Zadillo @ Dec 29th 2008 9:19AM]

Form factor would probably be the big one; the UMPC form factor is clearly different from the typical netbook (which is more like a mini laptop) - although to be fair, there have been UMPC's like the Fujitsu one which also essentially just have a mini-laptop form factor, so it's definitely a grey area. It does sound like next year this distinction will become even more meaningless though, as it sounds like Asus and others will be releasing netbooks which borrow more from the tablet pc form factor (with a touchscreen and swivel screen, so it can be used in a slab or tablet-like format, just like a UMPC).

Realistically, netbooks have taken over most of the purpose of the UMPC format, which was about providing a more portable laptop experience. The remaining functions for UMPC's have probably been replaced by the ideas for MIDs, which are a bit more focused on things like web browsing and video playback and less on providing a full laptop experience.

[KilgoreTrout @ Dec 29th 2008 9:28AM]

2000 $$$ ????

I don't belive that such a savvy company as Asus would try to market this outside Dubai and Brunei.
Besides Vista is made and geared expressely to deliver multimedia on desktop (or desktop replacement) machines, and (now, finally) it's great at doing that; but to install it on such a support is like to try fixing an M16 jet engine on a Mini: ridicolous and very stupid.
Even my pimped up MSI wind, which is great with XP, became a sluggish nightmare when I tried to run a (simplified ) Vista version on it, I can just imagine what kind of computing experience that thing would deliver.

And 2000 $$ ??? .
My company (yes it's mine) sells a digiframe which is a much better MID than this one for a third of the price.
It's got wifi b/g/n, push email, Gmail, 10" touch screen, 16GB SDD, DTV-B, voice control, web cam/ microphone, Skype/VOIP, landline speakerphone, internet radios & TVs, bluetooth, IR, it plays ANY audio or video file you throw at it,etc,etc.
Basically it's a full PC using the 10" touch screen interface and Voice control as inputs (if you really want you can add a BT or IR wireless desktop) it runs an icon based version of ubuntu linux, and we sell it for less than 700$ including 1 month full support.
Maybe we should revise our prices, or maybe Asus should get lost

[Down @ Dec 29th 2008 10:10AM]

Brunei? wtf? why?

[TR47 @ Dec 29th 2008 11:48AM]

Make yourself a bit of advertisement and tell me name of your product/company.

[dan @ Dec 29th 2008 12:18PM]

Yeah, that thing sounds awesome.

[KilgoreTrout @ Dec 29th 2008 2:41PM]

@ Down : Brunei and Dubai supposedly are the countries with the highest ratio of wealth to population.
As for advertising my creature, unfortunately I'm still not able to do that (not if I want to avoid to be submerged by lawsuits that is); but the day will come dude, the day will come...

[loosely_coupled @ Dec 29th 2008 8:05PM]

Digiframe MID? WTF?

[cnycompguy @ Dec 29th 2008 10:15AM]

why did they make it so ugly and cheap looking?

I use an Asus R2H, and it runs vista just fine, no aero, but if that surprises you then you haven't been paying attention to the vista ready lawsuit.

My concern with this one is that it gives the appearance of a cheap Chinese toy, and if I actually picked it up I might break it.

[Shugg @ Dec 29th 2008 12:44PM]

I just ordered it on Asus.com free shipping., cool

[Shugg @ Dec 29th 2008 12:45PM]

We finally found the apple "touch-killer"yesss,.now if we could only find the "iPhone-killer",.,.