Jenn, of Pocketables, has done a great job of reviewing the US version of the Fujitsu U810 UMPC. (other versions here) I almost want one after reading it! Keyboard quality – Check! Vista performance – Check! Battery life – Check!  Even the price is pretty good. $950 today at Amazon in the US I see. (Amazon US prices here.)Everybody will be giving it the Eee PC VFM check (‘How many Eee PC’s can I buy for the price’)  though and that’s where it gets hard for the potential customer. 6 months ago there wasn’t much pricing competition but when there’s $600 to be saved by taking an Eee PC you really have to question carefully why you should buy the U810, especially as it sits in that middle-ground between a real touch-typeable UMPC and a pocketable handheld UMPC. Jenn’s review should help though as, on the whole, its very positive, detailed and well written. Nice pics too!

Pocketables Fujitsu U810 review.
More information on the U810.

BigBeaks, aka Jeffrey Graebner, who if my memory serves me correctly, bought a Tablet Kiosk UMPC early on in the UMPC game, has traded in/up for a Vye S37 UMPC and is compiling a nice set of articles about his choice and his experiences with the device.

Why didn’t he choose an Eee PC you might ask. Well, its all about OS and, most importantly for Jeffrey, built-in storage. Eee PC owners can only dream of their device being delivered with a 250GB hard drive. Jeffery also has an interesting take on the touchscreen that he wants for navigating and occasional scribbling. I’m in sympathy with you their Jeffrey.

There are three posts in the series so far. The first, here, goes over the buying decision. The second post covers the buying process. VyePC seemed to have been very flexible in putting together a non-standard, 250GB option so praise goes to Vye on that one. So how is he getting on with the device? Is it fast enough with Vista? Does it fulfil all his requirements? Does he wish he bought himself an Eee PC and saved over $1100! He’s starting to reveal his thoughts in the latest post. ‘Aesthetics and design.‘  Its all positive and detailed stuff. Except for this bit, which made me laugh out loud because I’ve heard it a lot of times:

My only major complaint about the exterior appearance is that I definitely could have done without the giant “Vye Computers” logo on the back of the screen.

All in all its really worth a read if you’re thinking about a 7″ notebook.

Vye S37B specs and links to news from the family of devices built on the same platform can be found here.

It seems now that the Microsoft Origami team were almost right with their original consumer-focused hardware specifications. They got the processing power, screen size, weight and pricing target right. They just forgot to add the keyboard. But then that would have been a rather boring conclusion to a two-year project wouldn’t it? Actually, what they really got wrong was the usage model and the size of the device. They were 4 years too early and tried to realise their, still valid, ideas within the confines of 2005/2006 technology and it wasn’t the way people wanted it. It had a chance to evolve though and I think the slate concept would have gone further if the Eee PC hadn’t come along. I thought the prices would stay higher for longer. I was of the opinion that Origami-style devices would work at a consumer level (although personally, I always wanted a Carrypad) and I thought we’d see ultra mobility scenarios and designs developing in the high-margin business sector before the prices dropped to consumer levels. I even said that lowering prices was the least-favorable option for UMPC’s but no, any hope of spending R&D money on original, exciting and personal designs and organic growth in this area of mobile desktop PC’s has been completely smothered. Its all about low-cost mini-notebooks as presents for the kids now. One for the holiday-home and another for the kitchen. PC’s in every room! Of course, the business market still exists and devices like the HTC Shift will still have a space and even the sprit of Origami will live on. It’s also still possible that we will see consumer-focused mobile desktop PCs and slates through manufacturers innovations and leverage through the buzz created by the Eee PC but I think it’s more likely that Origami ‘concepts’ will rise in another part of the market now. Possibly without Microsoft which would be a shame considering they were the first people to actually do a deep study into this space. [Read more after the jump]

Here we go! This news just in from Unwired view and as Staska says, it’s probably safe to assume they are Menlow based. Jenn of Pocketables comments too saying that they should, due to the rules of a competition they’ve just won, be out in 2008. I’m going to take a closer look at these tomorrow. Right now I’m about to fall asleep at my keyboard.

Source: Unwired view Via Pocketables.

The difference in boot-up speed on these two devices is just silly. They both run the same hardware (the Q1 Ultra even has 2GB as opposed to the Amtek’s 1GB of RAM.) and return very similar Crystal Mark results. The U560 drive seems about 40-50% faster than the Q1 Ultra and this will be contributing to the Q1 Ultra’s problems but in my opinion, most of the speed issue here is down to Vista. 3 minutes to boot and get a browser is just unacceptable. The low-end Everun which runs XP and has a slower disk than the Q1 Ultra takes under half of that time. Here’s a (silent) video that demonstrates the issue.

• Amtek U560 info
• Samsung Q1 Ultra info

Want a powerful UMPC with clamshell design and good price? You might want to take a look at the new Flipstart prices.

A smidgen under 700 dollars buys you the entry-level model at Dynamism. Thats 5.6″ Wide SVGA, 1.1GHz Pentium, 30gb HD, 512mb RAM, Sprint Mobile Broadband Network Ready. I think it’s shipped with the high capacity battery too….checking….yup. high-capacity (3-5hours) battery.

I have never actually handled one of these devices but at that price…. 50% of the launch price….its worth thinking about.

Take a look at the news and review links on the product page. Pocketables, Handtops, CNet.

Thanks to Dynamism for the heads-up. You can check out pricing, availability and other price reductions across the range here.

Along with the news that the HTC Shift is going through FCC as the CLEO 100 and 200 devices (dependant on cellular radio type) JKK has posted a link to a (presumably) new e-learning tool for the HTC Shift.

It indicates that the Shift is still moving towards production but having just gone through a number of the e-learning sessions, it’s clear that SnapVue is as it was when I tested it. No new features. The battery is the same and there’s no talk of Windows XP. Only Vista. Given the huge improvement that I’m seeing on the XP-based Amtek U560 over the Vista-based Q1 Ultra (all three run on the same Intel platform) I find it very disappointing and as I said before, and this is despite Vista actually running quite well on the HTC Shift, Vista is going to be a deal-breaker for me. Or at least it would have been because I’m out of the Shift buying-zone now. It has slipped down my wishlist and I’m focusing on a MID (an Everun until the Gigabyte, LG or Digitalfriends MIDs come out) as my personal mobile device and maybe a 7″ or 8.9″ notebook if needed at a later date. I’m waiting to see if anyone brings one out with a Core 2 in it. (Yes, I’m looking carefully at the P1620)

HTC Shift details.

I’m a big fan of the P1610 from Fujitsu Siemens and unlike some of my colleagues (Chippy for instance) I would love to run Vista on mine. I haven’t installed it largely due to James Kendrick’s comments about Vista on his P1610.

Help may be at hand though because Fujitsu have released the P1620 which looks indentical to the P1610 as far as I can tell but will take up to 2GB of RAM, includes a 1.2Ghz Core 2 Duo ULV instead of the 1.2Ghz Core Solo in the P1610 and there is also a 32gb SSD option.

The press release lists the pricing from $1599 but there is no word on pricing outside of the USA so far.

Check it out here: Fujitsu Siemens Store
Edit: Details also in the product portal now [Steve]