Sinchun's 8.9-inch UMPC-891A holds onto the past with XP

Sinchun got the price right: 2999 Yuan (about $439 US), and the netbook-style specs make a lot of sense for this form factor. Unfortunately, Windows XP does not. Paired up against a stylus-driven 1024 x 600 touchscreen, Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and a variety of smallish SSD options, there's plenty of room for 7's touch enhancements to shine on the UMPC-891A -- but not enough expanse for them to choke up. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from slapping it on yourself. The biggest point of caution here is the 2 hour quoted battery life -- let's hope the Archos 9pctablet brings us a truly helpful amount of battery life in the UMPC space.

[Via Cloned In China]

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2009 5:27AM]

UMPCs are effectively dead and I don't believe any tablet to demonstrate any "truly helpful" battery life time. Merging desktop OS and portable hardware results in an unreachable balance, hence the devices are either considerably underpowered or their battery life is... but stop, has anyone ever seen a powerful UMPC?

And let's not forget about the long boot up time.

[Average White Boy Posted Sep 15th 2009 9:58AM]

Regardless of it's functionality, that tablet looks sweet. I'd rather carry that than a Kindle. At least I'd be able to watch some movies and listen to some music when I finished reading. Then again, with such a short battery life, I'd probably come up short while watching said movie. I guess I'd be able to swap batteries or carry a portable power pack. I could live with that.

[pika2000 Posted Sep 15th 2009 5:28AM]

Slightly unrelated, but I have a feeling a lot of PCs in Asia that use pirated OS are still on XP. I don't really think Vista is that widely pirated.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2009 5:31AM]

Well I guess Vista could have followed the path of XP, be it not an elephant in a porcelain store when it's installed on basic hardware.

[Fanman Posted Sep 15th 2009 7:11AM]

Presumably because of advances in security.

[Chris Aubeck Posted Sep 15th 2009 6:02AM]

2 hours might seem little but it could be just an honest admission. My HP 5101 doesn't get much beyond 2 hours (with the 4-cell battery) unless I turn certain functions off and dim the screen, and this was typical of the 2133 too.

[drumwiz86 Posted Sep 15th 2009 6:03AM]

Yo, Engadget, I'm really happy for you, I'ma let you finish, but magnadoodle had one of the best tablets of all time.

[mex Posted Sep 15th 2009 6:33AM]

Cool finally PAINT is going to be touch! I think I'll sell on ebay my CS4 license...

[ghatid Posted Sep 15th 2009 6:42AM]

Isn't this what they think the apple one will look like?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2009 7:38AM]

Indeed.
But just watch, all of the Apple fanboys (i.e. iDiots) will claim that Apple invented this design, and that every other Tablet that comes out after it will have copied Apple's.

[fatbencher Posted Sep 15th 2009 8:12AM]

At that price I'd buy it. Actually looking to rebuild my Wind into something similar because there is no such thing available yet. Affordably, that is.

[brdystyls Posted Sep 15th 2009 8:38AM]

Uh, I doubt Archos will bring good battery life. They will defiantly tout about 20 or so hours but always expect half of what they say they do.

[stridermt2k Posted Sep 15th 2009 8:45AM]

Do you see? It came with XP, but they're taking 7!

Vista is already being forgotten!

[Poop Chef Posted Sep 15th 2009 9:43AM]

Why is he drawing a dead robot?

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2009 11:03AM]

This is basically a before-the-real-thing KIRF of an Apple tablet.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 15th 2009 12:07PM]

Wow my IT department was looking for a low cost platform to arm all of it's field whatmacallit personnel with the ability to draw funny cartoons in Windows paint.

We are going to buy a ton of these.

[WisdomTooth Posted Dec 2nd 2009 1:11PM]

Ebay seems to have these, but way more loaded, and with Windows 7:

1.6GHz,2GB Ram,32GB SSD,1.3MP Cam,WiFi + 3G!

http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-8-9-Tablet-CELLULAR-Netbook-UMPC-w-Windows7_W0QQitemZ330381172084QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Netbooks?hash=item4cec409d74