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Video: Willcom's D4 Vista MID previewed
Akihabara News had the chance to take the Atom-based Willcom D4 / Sharp WS016SH for a spin in Tokyo. Although they only got hands-on with a near-final, engineering prototype, the kids at Aki came away impressed. Sure, the yet-to-be-optimized hardware still struggled a bit with Vista. Nevertheless, Aki remains enthusiastic about the OneSeg device toting a sliding / tilting 5-inch, LED-backlit 1,024 x 600 touchscreen display with WiFi and Japanese W-SIM. With this, Lenovo's ideapad U8, and other Intel Atom-based MIDs on the immediate horizon, these bigger than a cellphone smaller than a laptop handhelds look to be fulfilling the ultra-portable 2006 Origami promise... finally, in the second half of 2008. Lengthy video available after the break.
Willcom's D4 MID pumps Vista on Intel Atom, into our hearts
Check it out, 'cause you're looking at what must be the world's smallest QWERTY device capable of running Windows Vista Home Premium SP1. At least it will be when it makes its debut in Japan come June. Measuring just 188 x 84 x 25.9mm and 470grams, all that power / battery conservation / smallness of the Willcom D4 (aka, Sharp-built WS016SH) comes courtesy of a 1.3-GHz Atom processor pumping away beneath that sliding / tilting 5-inch, 262k color, LED-backlit 1,024 x 600 touchscreen hiding a 64-key QWERTY keyboard. Inside you'll find 1GB of memory, a 1.8-inch 40GB disk, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, microSD slot, HD audio codec with mono-speaker, and Opera browser riding atop Japanese PHS (W-SIM) or 802.11b/g WiFi. Hitting Japan for ¥128,600 (about $1,254) -- a lot less with 2 year contract. And with Willcom experimenting with Android, don't be surprised to find this released in an alternate form later in the year or early '09. Engadget Japanese is at the launch event with plenty of hands-on images in the gallery below.Update: Whoa, weird. Our Japanese colleagues are telling us that there's an optional Bluetooth, companion handset for making calls over W-SIM. Gallery updated with new pics.%Gallery-20501%[Via Engadget Japanese]
