Sometimes the comments on a news item are far better than the story itself and because the silly management system I’m using here doesn’t provide all-news notifications, I had to write a script myself. I’ve built a new RSS feed that simply tracks the comments on all news items on the portal. If you’re ‘in the business’ and want to hear what members are saying here, use this feed!

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 The Amtek T770 is one of those UMPCs that never had any shine. It is a solid device and as ViaArena said recently, sadly overlooked. When I tested it, the only things I could really find wrong was the fan noise and standard battery life of about 2.25hrs. Everything else worked pretty well.

JKK of JKKMobile has taken the T770 and pepped it up a little. In his latest video he talks about how he took the hard drive out, fitted an industrial CF card as the drive and even managed to integrate an HSDPA modem right inside the casing. He’s gone from having a handheld slate UMPC to having a true mobile PC. Once you’ve had 3G built-in, you just cannot go back! We hope the flu gets better soon JKK!

JKKmobile – Amtek T770 UMPC with SSD and HSDPA

Again, Mr Shift himself, Kaz, has come up with the goods. This time he’s scanned the official HTC product brochure and that battery life figure is there in white-on-green.

But hold on a minute. What’s this all about? 8 hours battery life?

Is it 2 hours, 8 hours, 53 hours or 11days? Man this is confusing. For 8 hours Vista operational time you’d have to have a motherboard that could idle down to sub 4 watts. Its possible if you turn off all radios, send the processor into advanced sleep and turn backlight down to near-zero. I’ve had the Q1b idling at 5.5W before and on a 30W/hr battery that is 6 hours. Have HTC pulled together the best engineering possible or is this just the most confusing marketing ever? Can someone PLEASE get hold of the damn thing and do some real life tests!!! According to the poll on the site here there are around 175 UMPCPortal guests making buying decisions about purchasing a Shift. That’s around 250,000 dollars worth of trade!

HTC, if the device is good, send me one and we’ll make it happen.

Kaz has the full scanned brochure at the Kaz911 blog.

I got the Kohjinsha SH6 back today. It has been with a professional photographer for a week (more about that soon.) Every time I look at the screen I’m just bowled over by its definition, brightness and colour balance. This picture (of the screen, not of the flowers!) was taken with my digital camera in macro-mode and is totally un-doctored. Of course, if you’re reading this on a poor quality screen, you won’t see it. You just have to trust me – its fantastic. Well done Samsung.

Click through for the full 2MB version!

As I reported back in January in the Mobile CPU Expectations report, Intel have introduced two ultra low voltage Core 2 Solo processors. The old 1.06 and 1.2Ghz (U1400, U1500 as seen in the Sony UX and Flybook V5) are being replaced with the Core 2 Solo (single core) U2100 and U2200 (again 1.06 and 1.2Ghz) The TDP is 5W (down from 5.5W) and importantly they support enhanced speedstep technology and all the nice ViiV, VT and other Intel enhancements. The new processors are based on 65nm ‘Merom’ technology and have 1MB L2 cache.  Sony like this end of the ULV range and I bet we’ll see new UX models before Christmas. Especially as there’s just been a big price drop on the existing UX models. Don’t expect any price reductions as these high-end CPU’s cost around $250 in bulk!

On the budget end of the Intel ULV spectrum there’s also some activity. The Celeron 523 has been introduced. This is at a slightly lower clockrate than expected, 933Mhz. Its also a 65nm part and is basically, as before, a cut-down version of the bigger brother although I’m seeing it listed with 1MB L2 cache. Speedstep and other goodies will not be supported. TDP stays at 5W which isn’t really that great for UMPCs. Especially as the chip alone costs $161 in bulk!

As for future developments, its Silverthorn’s turn next. Its the CPU that will drive the Menlow platform from Intel. This is the device that Intel says will enable sub-4 watt UMPCs. That could mean 6-hour UMPCs although VIA have that Mobile-ITX platform which UltraMobile Life says takes a maximum 3.5Watts.

News via Engadget. Original at ChannelRegister.

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Edit: I want to make it clear that this is a list based around the HTC Shift customer. Its not a general list covering all UMPC customer types. Sorry I didn’t make that clearer in the article below. Chippy.

Last Saturday was the point at which I’d gathered enough information about the HTC Shift to form a decision about the current state of the UMPC market. Thanks to Kaz911 we got the official specs and some new information direct from HTC. For most people it wasn’t the best news though. 800×480 doesn’t represent the best 7″ screen resolution. The Windows Mobile component turned out to be nothing more than a modem and email client and the 2 hours battery life was quite a shocker although if the battery is small, as I suspect it is, its probably quite an efficient device. When all’s said and done, the HTC shift is still a great bit of design and represents what I believe is one of the best form factors possible for mobile computing. The 800×480 screen is no worse than most UMPCs and the Windows Mobile component (or whatever they’ve got running on the 400Mhz Qualcomm CPU) was something that I was never really interested in. We also need to see about battery life. I would be surprised is the HTC marketing people are being cautious about the battery life claims but I guess its a remote possibility. Whichever way you cut it though, the HTC Shift doesn’t look likes its going to be the de-facto leader in the UMPC market. There are, as ever, issues to consider and to weigh-up against your own requirements. What I’ve done here is gathered some thoughts on the top contenders for a [edit: productivity] UMPC purchase today and tried to highlight the good and bad to help you make the decision that I know you’re wanting to make before Christmas closes in and the credit card fills up!

I’ve cut the list down to the following devices which represent the best of the UMPCs aiming at the same market as the HTC Shift. That’s basically users looking for mobility, mobile connectivity, productivity and style at a competitive price. The pricing and availability is U.S. focused.

Model	Model	Pro’s	Con’s	Con’s
	HTC Shift. Price IRO $1300	Keyboard 3G connectivity. Flexible design Size and weight	Battery life (2hrs) Sub-Optimal screen Availability	The only UMPC with productive keyboard, slate mode and and 3G data built-in. The flexible mobility choice.
	Kohjinsha SH6/SH8 Vye Mini-V S37. Price IRO $1300	Best-in-class screen. High quality keyboard. Big, fast HDD. 3G CF card potential Convertible screen	Battery life (2hrs) Size, weight. Not the best tablet experience No built-in 3G data.	The only UMPC with 1024×600 screen and full keyboard. The productivity choice.
	Fujitsu U1010 Price IRO $1500	Size.| 3G possibility in the future. Convertible screen.	Small screen (high PPI) Battery life (2hrs) No built-in 3G data Small keyboard. Availability	The smallest of the notebook-style UMPCs. The road-warriors choice.
	Samsung Q1 Ultra Price IRO $1200	Best-in-class screen. Highly adaptable with organiser pack. Large community. Battery life.	No keyboard as standard 3G options not available Organiser pack adds bulk	One of the most flexible UMPCs with a great screen and battery life. The all-rounder’s choice.
	Samsung Q1P Price IRO $1200	Powerful CPU. Highly adaptable with organiser pack Available 2nd hand.	Battery life Sub-optimal screen size and brightness. Organiser pack adds bulk	Proven and capable tablet UMPC. The bargain-hunter’s choice.
	OQO Model 02 Price IRO $1500	Size, weight. 3G data Good accessory range.	No keyboard (thumbboard) Can be expensive.	The smallest cellular capable UMPC with keyboard. No touchscreen. The mobility choice.
	Sony UX380N Price IRO $1400	Size Cellular data Powerful CPU Docking station. Stylish.	No keyboard (thumbboard) Very small screen with high PPI. Not 3G-capable.	The most powerful UMPC available. The power-gadget choice.

You can analyse more detailed specifications with this interactive comparison table.

For me, the HTC Shift still represents a great UMPC but with one major failure. The design and HSDPA capability are class-leading but its only good if you can handle that 2 hours battery life. Its not that the device is inefficient, its just that HTC appear to have chosen not to put a big battery in it. (I’m still waiting for confirmation on the battery capacity.) One year ago this would have been an acceptable battery life but today, when we have devices hitting the 4 hours mark and beyond, its not at all acceptable. Battery life is the number 1 complaint about UMPCs and rightly so. Even if you have the best device in the world in your hands, its worth nothing when the battery has run out. But its not just the Shift that suffers from the problem. The Fujitsu has the same issue. The OQO model 02 too. Manufacturers chose to include small batteries. A battery life issue applies to the Vye/Kohjinsha device too although in this case it looks like an inefficient design rather than a small battery. If you’re prepared to take a weight and size hit, you can double the battery capacity. The Q1P, surprisingly, with its old Pentium-M isn’t the worst option when it comes to battery life and the Sony UX, presumably because of its tiny screen, returns a very respectable 2.5-3hours from its Core Solo CPU. For 3hours+, and this is where my personal choices really start, there is only one solution and that’s the Q1 Ultra.

Its not all about battery life though and that’s why I’ve highlighted where I think these devices fit best. DO you need productivity, all-round usage or just pure mobility?

Devices I considered for the list but didn’t quite make it for one reason or another are: Fujitsu P1610. Slightly expensive but potentially more productive than any of the devices listed above. Flybook V33i/V5 again, expensive. Similar features to the P1610. Q1b HSDPA (where available) my personal choice as a mobility device. My feeling is that a mobile device isn’t mobile until its connected via a cellular data network. Battery life and price also advantages on the Q1b. Packard Bell/Everex Well priced and productive. Not leading-edge designs or features. There are other choices but I wouldn’t put them in the productivity category and remember that this list is just my opinion anyway. You WILL have different weightings on the features that you require so feel free to add them in the comment below so that we can all benefit from the additional thoughts.

Did I miss anything? Was it helpful? Or has it messed up your UMPC toplist even more? ;-) Oh, speaking of toplists, I’ve been working in the background on a new UMPC-Toplist blog. [RSS feed] I’m trying to build up a list of top-three UMPCs for different user types and will be looking to add more expert opinions soon. Its been a slow process getting it off the ground but now that the Solar-UMPC tour is finished, I’ll be working on it a bit more. Keep an eye on it for user-targeted recommendations.

Following up on a question brought up by TokyoRob in the forums I though it would be an interesting idea to see how the weekend’s HTC Shift news has affected peoples UMPC ordering plans. It also provides fairly simple and direct feedback to HTC! The poll will remain in the sidebar (homepage, top-right) for the next week.

I don’t think he’s the only one! As Thoughtfix says, the HTC Shift lost a bit of shine over the weekend and its time to sit back and take stock of the situation. I have also been writing up a ‘state of play’ post as I bet there are many people laboring over thoughts of Shift/U1010/SH8 and now, following the upgrade and re-pricing, the OQO Model 02. 

I feel your dilemma Thoughtfix although the Q1 Ultra was already at the top of my ‘if I could only have one UMPC’ list and none of this weekends HTC Shift news changed anything. My state-of-play post will be up later today. I hope it helps!

Read ‘Shift Shine Slipping’ at the UltraMobileGeek blog.