ASUS R2H stripped down.

You’re not a ultra mobile PC nutter until you void the warranty. (I’m a nutter. So is Kevin Tofel and so is Hugo Ortega.) Mind you, Justin O’Dea does run ProPortable.com, an ASUS reseller, so I guess he’s probably got good support contacts.

He’s earned his company its ‘I’m a ultra mobile PC nutter’ stripes by taking the R2H apart and posting the details over at the NotebookReview forum.

He’s also given me permission to repost it all here so I’ll say thanks in advance and hand over to Justin. Oh one more thing, there are some notes from Justin about R2H supply at the bottom of the article.

Steve / Chippy.

ASUS R2H datasheet.

Inside the Asus R2H Origami ultra mobile PC (What few will have the stomach to do)

Regardless of the fact that an Origami ultra mobile PC is either out of your price range or simply impractical for you at this time, the fact remains that the technology most likely intrigues you. Now, I’m not going to review the unit or go through all of the functionality that can be left up to legitimate reviewers with no bias. Given its functionality and the limited production UMPC’s on the market, there are sure to be plenty of reviews that is, once there is supply for reviewers to get their hands on. Now, I’m as biased as they come, even though I can be the most outspoken and critical voice if Asus ever screws up, but this is one toy I’ve been dying for. Of course, once I was able to get my production unit, after a weekend of playing around with it and setting it all up, I figured I’d tear the entire unit down so that I could better know what’s really going on inside. As a totally new form factor, it’s just amazing to see what’s what. Below are a collection of images I took basically starting from the rear of the LCD panel and working back to the rear battery. I noted the images to point out some of the important things. Since I doubt I’ll see anyone else willing to do anymore than take off the memory door to check what’s behind it, I hope this is a treat into the inner workings of the coolest new toy on the block…. If you’re trying to keep up with the Jones’s you better have an R2H.
(Click for Enlarged View)

One reason I wanted to give everyone a view of the insides of my R2H was to help everyone understand what the Origami design was all about. Anyone saying that they think this should be as powerful as their notebook can look at these images and hopefully understand what the unit is configured as it is. The three things that I find are common always revolve around the CPU, RAM, and HDD. Looking at the thermal envelope in a unit of this size, this 900MHz cpu is all I’d want because even a 1.2Ghz would be too difficult to keep cool given the restrictions. In terms of the hard drive, the unit has a 1.8 inch hard drive, which is what some of the ipods used to have. Actually, it was the ipod that basically ruined this size hard drive for everyone. They ate up the entire world’s supply of 1.8 inch hard drives a few years back and because of that, they weren’t implemented in many notebooks and therefore stunted their growth… We’re limited with a 60gb/4200rpm Hitachi drive (no one makes faster, however Toshiba just came out with an 80gb/4200rpm). On to the RAM, some ask why 256mb is soldered onboard and there’s only one open upgradeable slot. As with some of the notebooks, I tell everyone it’s either that or only have the one slot available. This is because the soldered RAM chips take about far less room thickness wise (close to 1/4″ less). So think of the onboard RAM as something extra for video to compliment the so-dimm.

Just as a quick note about stock, we have about small quantities coming in every few days. However, the second large shipment won’t arrive here until the week of the 5th of November, with subsequent shipments coming every week or so after that. It’s my guess that over this time incoming supply will go to fill backorders, as I don’t think we’ll have stock in long enough to actually call it “in stock inch and have units available for same day shipping until after Black Friday. For more information on the R2H, we have plenty on our site, so feel free to look around:
http://www.proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=188