Update: Pricing has been posted on the Dynamism site: $2099

Is it really worth that without Bluetooth? Remember this is an import price though and I dare say that there will be people prepared to pay this.

It looks like the men with the fingers in all UMPC pies, the Dynamism gang, have secured a deal for the Fujitsu UMPC. I’ve just seen the info come through on their RSS feed. They will be offering two versions of the Fujitsu UMPC from Japan. One with XP Pro (English) and one with Vista Business (English.)

It will be available in June with either 20 or 40GB HDD (depending on which part of their site you read!) but there is no pricing yet. I assume this will be a Japanese import and will be offered with pricing that reflects the import and software re-install costs.

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Two people have asked me if I have any take-away banners that can be used on other sites. Sure! I’m happy to let people take info from the portal as long as it’s always linked back. Here’s a few dynamic GIFs (via feedburner) that I knocked up this morning but if you have a background image and you want me to overlay the news (either general or device-specific) send me the gif and i’ll create a dynamic banner. The banner gets updated with the RSS feed so its always up-to date.

 ↑ Grab this Headline Animator  

I like this idea! I’ll look into creating top5 devices, new device or even user configurable banners. If you’re interested in re-using portal information (how about having an up-to-date UMPC device list on your website?) then let me know and I can create the code for you.

↑  Grab this Headline Animator

↑  Grab this Headline Animator

Feel free to create your own images using Feedburners Publicize feature: Headline Animator. Just grab one of the site RSS feeds with your account and get creative!

Using the method described here, I’ve just tested the Medion / Gigabyte / Tango Wings UMPC keyboard speed. (Feet up on the sofa.)It’s as I suspected, about 0.4 times my normal typing speed.

Here’s the list of UMPC keyboards that I know about so far. Where do you think the Q1U will fit in? Having tested it, I think it will be faster than the Medion but not as fast as my favorite sofa surfing keyboard, the split keyboard on the PepperPad 3.

Can someone with an OQO Model 02 run the same test for me?

1. Full size desktop keyboard – 1
2. Eleksen Fabric Keyboard – 0.6 (chippy) 
3. Kohjinsha  SA1 UMPC (keyboard) – 0.55 (chippy)
4. PepperPad 3 (split thumbboard) 0.5 (chippy) 0.54 (jenn) 
5. Medion RIM 1000 & Gigabyte U60 0.42 (chippy) 
6. Sony UX (keyboard) – 0.37 (jenn)
7. OQO Model 01 (keyboard) – 0.34 (jenn)
8. i7210 + On screen keyboard (TIP) – CE 0.3 (chippy)
9. DialKeys on Samsung Q1 – 0.27 (jenn)

This entry written on the Medion UMPC.

A quick note about some new features I’ve built into the portal today. Firstly, there’s more details on the screens in the UMPCs. People have been asking about light-touch/heavy-touch/digitisers so I’ve added that info to the specification pages. About 60% of the devices have details added now and i’ll add the rest as the information becomes available.

The other change relates to ‘families’ of UMPCs. When you look at the specification page for a device that is either in a range of models from the same family or has a related OEM or branded model, you will see a link in the top-center of the page that, when clicked, will show you the related devices in a comparison window. (You can also use the underlying URL if you ever want to link to a product set in your own article or blog.) I plan to add model variants for the UK, North American, European and Australian markets to start with, For example, there are at least 5 variants of the Samsung Q1 Ultra.in the US so this facility will make it easier to find all members of the family. I’ll add the model numbers to the product overview page in the next few weeks but unfortunately, until I get the JavaScript changed (not my forte!,) the variants will all show up as the same model name.

If you have any suggestions as to how the product pages can be improved further, fire away in the comments below. 

Have a great weekend everyone.

I’m quite lucky to have been able to test a lot of UMPCs out over the last year. Most have been good in their own target markets but only some have been good for me. One of my favorites, the Kohjinsha SA1, an AMD based device is also one of the most-power efficient too and I took it to CeBIT this year where I used it exclusively for 5 days. It worked well and it demonstrated to me how much I might use a PC in one day. During the daytimes […]

Unfortunately, there’s no indication of the real-life performance of the Fujitsu in this mini hands-on review but there’s a general positive feel (which I’m getting from a lot of reports of the last few days) and some good hints about the keyboard.

The built-in keyboard, though small – a 14 mm key pitch, according to the publicity, with a fairly generous 1.3mm keystroke travel – proved relatively easy to use, even for my fat foreign fingers

There is confirmation that there’s no Bluetooth module and a word or two about sizing.. Apparently the unit ‘slipped handily into my jacket pocket.’ As I said, the reviewer seems fairly positive which is good because I think the Fujitsu UMPC is going to be a UMPC that many people will want to get their hands on. Its gone straight in as the 5th most popular UMPC in the product list. (based on the last 7 days traffic.)

In other news about this device, jkk found an image of the docking station. Its a real docking station with a VGA port, 4 USB ports and an Ethernet port. There’s a few other images there too.

Full details of the Fujitsu UMPC on the U-Series specification page.

Literally, during the time that the last post was posting, I received an email to tell me about a new online UMPC shop. I don’t post about shops unless there’s something to report and so, here’s the report.

The Gigabyte UMPC will be available soon in Europe for 100 Euros less that the equivalent Medion branded version. As I said before, Medion have something to worry about now. Where’s the differentiator? Why should I go to Medion instead of UMPCShop.nl? UK buyers could even hop on a ferry for a weekend in Rotterdam, pick up a UMPC and get home with money left over (Medion want to charge a silly £799 (1170 Euros) in the UK.) As far as I know, PCs are often sold in Holland with English keyboards and OS’s. I’m in touch with UMPCShop.nl and will bring you info on language, European availability and accessory info ASAP. The other thing to report is they’ve broken a new price record for UMPCs in Europe. They are offering the standard ASUS R2H for €759. That’s over 100 less than I’ve seen it for. Is it a special offer or an indication that products are being re-positioned? They’ve also got the Amtek T700, the Nokia N800 (good price) the Raon Digital Vega and the Samsung Q1.

Its nice and encouraging to see more specialist retailers coming online. Especially when they might be able to send me devices to test. Dag UMPCShop.nl!

Some of you asked on the forums to compare the P1610 and Q1 Ultra performance wise. Since the only benchmarks we have are those courtesy of Lazion in CrystalMark, I ran that on my P1610. Keep in mind that my machine has only 512mb ram compared to the Q1U’s 1gb.

As you can see, the P1610 performs two times better than the Q1U according to the program. There you have it. Keep in mind that these are just benchmarks…

Here’s a link to Frank’s Q1U vs Q1 page: Link