Only a few days ago, Medion were reporting 3 weeks delivery time for the Medion UMPC. Its up to over 4 weeks now which takes it towards May and well past the Intel IDF conference where 4 more UMPCs will be announced. If just one of those UMPCs is a similar form factor and price, the Medion will have some tough competition. Is it just me or does anyone else think that UMPCs take longer than they should to get to market?

For more info on the Medion UMPC and nearly 50 more Ultra Mobile PC products, take a look at the product portal.

Something I wanted to do today was to summarise a number of stories that hit the mainstream press over the last few days. I don’t need to worry about writing anything now though because Warner (GottaBeMobile) and Joe (OnlyUMPC) have just done it for me.

Read this and this.

A lot of indicators are changing for UMPCs now. We’re seeing more understanding of how the device can fit into various scenarios, we’re seeing clues that manufacturers are getting results from their market research work and at last (and this is one of the biggest indicators for me) mainstream journalists have stopped using UMPCs as a whipping-boy and are starting to do real research and reporting on it. 

CRN Australia have just posted a report about the Intel Solutions Summit in San Diego. Apparently, Intel said that the UMPC-dedicated CPU is currently under development using a 45nm process (‘Penryn’ architecture) and the first UMPC device to use it will be available later this year. It doesn’t quite tally with what Intel said last week in Hannover but its not far off.

At CeBIT, Intel announced that the UMPC processor would be ready for devices in 2008 and that it would enable, when coupled with technology from partners in the UMPC ecosystem, sub 4-watts UMPCs. No, not sub 4-watt CPU’s, Sub 4-watt UMPCs. About 1/3 of the power of todays UMPCs.

If you look at the 45nm roadmap, it starts with dual-core notebook processors so it makes sense to me that the UMPC version is simply (!) a single core version of those? This is what I think the 800mhz processor in the Samsung Q1 Ultra is too – Core 2 Solo – A part that has been previously announced at higher clockrates. (Celeron 523, Core 2 Solo U2100 and U2200) DailyTech reports this which I tend to agree with based simply on the current roadmap and gaps in the announced products list.

The Q1 [ultra] offers an 800MHz Core 2-based processor and Intel’s 965 chipset.

The 965 chipset, however, uses the X3000 GPU which is not what we saw/heard about the Q1 Ultra. I heard it was simply an Intel i945 (GMA950.) If you want even more confusing data, read this article at The Register where they say that ‘Steeley’ (originally planned for 2008) is a 65nm part and thus, not the UMPC-specific chip planned for 2008. They also think that the Samsung Q1 Ultra is either running on Tolapai or Core 2 Duo ULV. Tolapai info is here. I wonder if they’ve developed Tolapai into a ULV solution.

Its fun to try and work it all out but it really hurts my head!!! The only thing I can deduce is that Intel are accelerating the program to product Ultra Low Power platforms and VIA could lose one of their big advantages very quickly unless they get a C8-M out quickly.

One other snippet of info before I go and have a cup of tea. DailyTech reports that Samsung want to sell up to 300,000 units this year. That’s similar to what I thought I heard Samsung say in the press conference but I wasn’t 100% sure so I didn’t report it. (I’ll never make a real journalist!!)

The countdown clock has started ticking again for Medion Germany. Delivery time is down to 3 weeks and there’s a new set of info pages on the website. I’ve also received some press photos.

Click to view larger sizes.

Lets hope the clock carries on ticking this time because if it goes beyond April 18th, Medion might find themselves fighting against 4 more consumer focused devices.

I was told by the German product managers that the US, UK, FR and NL launches will be in a similar time frame to the DE launch but I will try and confirm this in the next 24 hours.

JKK just pinged me to let me know that he’s uploaded a video of the Mobits VX3 ruggedised UMPC. This is the OEM version of the one that is used by TabletKiosk and sold as the TuffTab. Put your sunglasses on because this one has a seriously bright screen!

Some points that jkk makes in the video:

• Light touch screen
• 2.5-3hrs battery life
• Runs hot
• jkk mentions IP54 (Ingress protection rating). I think its actually IP53 ‘on the front face’
• 2 programmable buttons
• Annoying hatch
• Good price

 Specifications and links on the data sheet.

Thanks jkk.

I just heard that the Q1 is being sold on Woot again. These are refurbished units with a 90 day warranty.

$699 seems pretty damn good…if you’re in the U.S. Europe will just have to put up with the low low price of 1099 Euro ($1464) today.

Thanks Matt.

The UMPCPortal gallery is approaching 1000 images now and is becoming a very popular resource. There are many photo-sets missing though and I’d like to fill in some of the gaps. It would be good to have photo sets of things like the old PSION 5, H/PC along with newer battery solutions, car solutions, mounting solutions etc etc etc. Have you got any UMPC-related photo-sets? If so, I’d love to have a copy of them in the gallery.

Look at some examples of the best images of last year.

In return you’ll get credit and a URL link-back to your web-site. I am even looking at ways to enable a Google-ad space on the contributors album.

If you have good quality sets of 5-20 images of a single device, accessory or UMPC-scenario, please contact me and then I can arrange to give you access to your own folder on the gallery. I can put single photos into a ‘Various’ gallery and you’ll get a link and credit on the single image.

Gallery RSS feed is available.

Is there another Ultra Mobile PC package in the world that can run for 10 hours, weighs under 1.5KG and costs under $1200? Just under 10 hours ago I plugged the TabletKiosk MP3400 Powerbank into the fully charged Kohjinsha SA1 and its just shut down. That’s 9hrs and 45 minutes of disk thrashing, movie playing, 100% CPU, WiFi-connected mobile goodness. (No easy tests here!) Without the movie playing or WiFi, I would get about 11 hours life.

The MP3400 has turned out to be a really good purchase so far. It can supply just under 60W/hr of power at 5,6,7.5,9,12,14,16 and 19v through a number of connector types (8 are supplied but you can get after-market extras) and it will charge through the Kohjinsha’s 19v adaptor so I only need to take one adaptor with me. You can even daisy chain the end device off the battery while the battery is plugged in thus charging both the PC and the Powerbank at the same time. (Use the supplied adaptor if you do this. The one supplied with the Kohji gets very hot!)

It looks good, is easy to use, comes with a coiled cable, a leather case with a flappy magnetic closure (you know the ones that you have to play with all the time?) and a nice drawstring bag for the adaptors. It also works with the Pepper Pad 3, the i7210 and if I had an adaptor, would even charge my mobile phone and N800. It would actually be hard to find a device that this could not charge given the right adaptor. The only quirk I can report is that you need to plug the adaptor tip into the coiled cable and plug that into the battery pack (making sure its not plugged into the end device) before you can set the voltage.

Weight is quite high at 450gm (15.9 oz) but for me, it means putting to one side a rats nest of cables and mains adaptors that weigh exactly the same anyway. Its weight-neutral at the end of the day. Size is 83x172x23.5mm (3.3×6.8x.9 inches) which is about the same size as three packs of cards. Charge time is 4 hours.

For those that are interested, the Kohjinsha averaged about 9.5watts drain through the test which is very good with WiFi, 100% CPU and 50% screen brightness. The movie was War of the Worlds at 528×288 in XVid format at over 2mbps.

Gallery of Powerbank images here

The MP3400 is highly recommended and available here through TabletKiosk in the U.S. I have also seen it on Expansys in Europe.