Smart Q7 reviewed, deemed fairly useful for fairly basic tasks
By Laura June 
posted May 27th 2009 11:25AM
posted May 27th 2009 11:25AM
The folks over at UMPC Portal have gotten a hold of the SmartQ 7 internet tablet for a nice, long review. The MID, which has a 667MHz Samsung ARM S3C6410 CPU, 128MB of RAM, and 1GB of flash memory, seems to handle its basic tasks -- MP3 playback, light browsing, PDF viewing, and viewing / editing documents fairly well. It also apparently has a pretty great battery life, and can stay juiced in standby mode for over three days. The tablet (which is somewhat reminiscent of the yet to appear in the wild CrunchPad) does, however, have plenty of drawbacks -- a touchscreen that often responds incorrectly, limited RAM and storage, and a bunch of other limitations we're used to associating with MIDs in general. There's a video highlighting some of the SmartQ 7's apps after the break; hit the read link for the full review.
Nice Wookie legs.
where? i dont wana watch the whole 16 minute video
lol OH
in the picture. my bad :)
i've seen worse...
those are called man legs
First time i've had my sexy knees on the front page of Engadget!
A girl once called them lucky legs. I thought it was a compliment until she said 'yeah, lucky they don't break.'
Not too shabby.....but may be Q7 v2. will improve where Q7 v.1 failed.. who said it took 1000 times before the light bulb was made perfect?
I think I'm gonna stick with my iphone
Someone is going to negative rank us both for even mentioning the iphone, but the truth of the matter is, when you take an iPhone 3G and account for the fact you have instant downloading from itunes and app store + the ability to watch videos and listen to music, or use youtube...its pretty hard to make a case against simply having an iPhone.
For example, I am a financial manager for JP MORGAN CHASE in midtown and I needed a mortgage calculator.
My choices were:
A) pay $50 - $100 for one and have it shipped from an internet supplier.
or
B) go on APP store and download one.
I ended up getting one FREE from app store called "Loan U Later".
Took me all of 4 minutes.
How many phones can really compete with that kind of flexibility?
NOT PRE
NOT STORM
NOT anything else.
I do not fear down ranks because the truth has sent us 3G iphone users free.
word
Guys appreciate your enthusiasm but this is the Engadgets comment section. Nothing is more taboo than the iPhone. Prepare to be called fools for merely stating you like an iDevice.
QuantumPhysics, you really need to chance your name, because you're obviously a moron.
Who the hell would even consider something as silly as a mortgage calculator? Last time I checked, most mortgage sites have one already.
Personally, I like my iPhone, but morons like you make me wish mine was under a differ brand. Let's see, google.com, type in mortgage calculator, oh hey, there is one. Under a minute. iPhone exclusive? Nope. Any smart phone can use google. So by you're logic that likes to compare Apples to Oranges ( Pun intended ), google > your iPhone. Yes, you're iPhone, not mine though. Because I actually understand Quantum Physics, unlike you're moronic ass, so I can use google.
Isn't you're type of logic wonderfull?
@quantumphysics
you realize that not only are there a plethora of apps for palm, windows mobile, and blackberry devices but that they all have either launched or plan on launching their own respective app store.
I always find it amazing how people working in our main financial institutions are more ignorant when it comes to technology then the 13 year old girl who lives down the block from me.
Look, Iphone assholes. I LIKE the Iphone. It's a pretty cool device. They really got some stuff right, but you become assholes because you refuse to acknowledge that, THERE ARE OTHER GOOD THINGS OUT THERE TOO.
@QuantumPhysics: My 2004 fucking HTC Apache can run a damn mortgage calculator. Didn't cost me a dime. WINMO not only has an app store but an *APP FREE FOR ALL* ALL OVER THE INTERNET WITH THOUSANDS OF EASILY INSTALLED APPS.
So, please, Iphone fanboys, PLEASE stop acting like no other phone could ever run *INSERT APP I"VE HAD FOR 5 YEARS HERE* because they can. Yes, the Iphone is neat, awesome interface, but except for some neat motion games, it can't do anything productive that my 5 year old smartphone can't. NOT HATIN, JUST SAYIN.
"...a touchscreen that often responds incorrectly..." If this is the case even after calibration I'd probably have a Q7 shaped hole in my drywall after a few hours of use.
It's not as bad as it sounds. Using a stylus of being firm with nail-press cures the issue. Could be a fault on my device as I haven't heard anyone else having a problem yet. That said, there arent many people with this yet.
I can never remember what MID is short for and always have to think it out each time i see it. I need to play more memory games.
its a bit underpowered...
Is there even a market for this , since the invention of the iPhone ?
Yes, because it's 800*480.
I'm planning to use one an ebook reader, and allways on hand internet browsing device.
The Iphone is cool, but it's not the be all, end all device. Thankfully. I like my devices not tied down to ATT or an "app store." I'll stick to devices that let me install whatever software I like without having to meet someone else's "approval process." Thanks.
Uggh, I really need to read my posts once through before I press Add Comment.
s/chance/change
Oh btw, We now know who on engadget to blame for the recession. Thanks for painting a target on your head.
Man, this comment system is usually nice to me, but it really doesn't like me today.
Anyways, this was in reply to my other post that was a reply to QuantumPhysics that was a reply to Guru.
Strangely this article seems to have left out the price which is $189 US plus shipping, or around $220 on eBay. And the fact that Maemo is being ported to it. What I would really love to seen on the Smart Q7 though is Moblin for ARM. BTW it seems to make an excellent eBook reader it comes with FBReader and Evince installed on the default Ubuntu Linux OS.
It's mentioned at the end of page 3.
I added better 'next page' markers now!
Not you Chippy your article was extremely in depth, I'm referring to the Engadget editor who seems to have made the minimum effort here.
BTW, Maemo is nice as is Android but i'd prefer a Moblin port, and barring that some version of OpenInkpot would be sweet.
Android is great for webphones, but for netbooks and web tablets the choice should always be Moblin.
Sorry for suggesting you didn't read the article!!
Moblin and Maemo are getting very close in terms of functionality now. One wonders which one will jump over to the other CPU architecture first!
If I was to bet on it, i'd say Maemo based on community interest but I know Intel and the Intel Foundation have a huge number of people working on Moblin. I do worry about a 3rd party app channel for Moblin though. Maemo seems better set-up for that, especially with Ovi store launching.
I'm skeptical. I'm glad to see Ubuntu on it, but how well is this version of Ubuntu going to be supported by the company (I was burned by the Nokia 770... no support from Nokia quite quickly and their implementation of Debian was full of bugs). Unless the support for this is built into Ubuntu proper so that you can easily just install from a new distro release, I'd have to really be convinced that this was going to be supported well into the future or had something I couldn't live without.
I'd rather get a $200 netbook - faster processor, not really that much bigger (especially if you're talking about using it on a coffee table), and the keyboard helps for instant messages and such.
I'm with you, Eddie, but I strongly suspect the netbook is a dead end in favor of tablets instead for low-end computing, smartphones to be phones with a tiny bit of computing, and the more powerful laptops tathered to a desk at home for all but a few road warriors.
At the moment I still hate touch screens, but manufacturers have been trying to roll out tablet computing since the late 80's and the technology is finally getting to the point where it's realistic and usable.
At this price point, the device is almost to that sweet spot. With the SDHC card reader in it, they just need to tweak the touch screen and get the processing power up to levels to handle video and then it would be very functional for many people.
So far WinCe6, Android and Mer (Maemo port) have been shown to be running on the device.
Almost as useful as my iPhone.
if you can have a screen that size with fairly usable PC underneath (netbooks) whats the point of this, I truly don't get it, cuz its about 200 bucks no?
explain why will ya steve
Hi Webon
It's about usage scenarios.
Netbooks are relatively comfortable on the spfa but this is like a paperback book.Worlds apart. It's so comfortable in one hand. 1lb where most netbooks are near 3lb. Bed, Sofa, Kitchen, Car, Toilet. Think about the battery life too. 6-12 hours depending on use. 3 day standby.
You can leave instant the instant messenger connected and running all day on this.
This doesn't replace a netbook at all. You can't type more than one line of text on the bloody thing to start with, but if you're looking for a lazy-boy device, this is better than a netbook.
I only wish it had a built-in IR app like the old PepperPad did!
It might be faster than the Nokia N810's built in Micro-B web browser, but it's not even close to the optional Tear browser using webkit when it comes to speed.
I'm waiting for a Mer port to become available and stable and then i'm definitely going to try tear out.
Why do these devices still exist? MIDs I mean. Or at least why do they still exist in the form that they do? Smartphones are capable of web browsing now. Why buy another device not small enough to fit in a pocket, but not big enough to be useful?
I've got one. You know what its useful for? Giving to a 2 year old to play his Youtube playlist (Paul Hogan for the win!) .. no keyboard mashing fuss, no stress. Just plain sits there and does what its supposed to: display the Internet.
The iPhone? Man, my kid crashes it and ruins my address book and deletes apps and somehow .. darn it .. manages to download all kinds of rubbish. The iPhone is *NOT* useful in this regard. Hello, Apple, make a KID MODE please, geeze, is it so hard to believe kids wanna play .. ?