What’s the best Internet-enabled sofa-centric device you can buy? Possibly the Hanbit Pad. It’s silent, semi-rugged, has a built-in consumer IR receiver and transmitter, well-backlit keys and a sturdy stand. It runs Windows XP Tablet, comes with Wifi, Bluetooth, 30GB hard disk and a web-cam, has about 3 hours of battery life and costs…well actually we don’t know how much it costs yet. Hanbit and their distributors are still working that bit out. In fact, I’d encourage your thoughts in the comments because Hanbit have sent this over for some feedback before they start distributing it in Germany and other countries.
You might recognise the device as the Pepper Pad 3. In terms of hardware, it is! The only changes are to the screen (LED-Backlit and very bright) and the battery compartment. Software wise though its completely different. Hanbit have gone for Windows XP Tablet edition on this model which I have to say, feels faster than the previous Linux-based device.
As for processing power, it’s not exactly loaded with horses. The processor on this model is a lowly 500Mhz AMD Geode which, while enough for Internet and basic office work using Office 2003, is fine but its not enough for YouTube and many other video formats. Also on the negative side, it’s not attractive and that’s not just my opinion. Many people have commented on in the past so for the average consumer, an Eee PC could be the safer choice and that’s a product that Hanbit will really have to battle against. I’m not sure that this one is really targeted at the consumer though. It seems to me that it is a better fit in waiting rooms and hairdressers salons and for integrators to build into high-end home automation systems. The build-quality is proven, the operating system familiar, the keyboard is easy to get used to and the IR, a unique feature amount UMPCs. I can’t help feeling that it should have a Wibrain style mousepad on the right instead of the scroll-pad though making it even easier for users to get up to speed with.
Amazon are still selling the Pepper Pad 3 for $650 so if you add XP Tablet on top of that, you’re in the $750 region. My initial reaction is that it’s too much in a market of comparable devices at half the price but considering the unique touch, IR, rugged, silent, features, maybe a premium over the netbooks is justified. I’d be interested to see this in MID guise though. It could be one of the few 7" devices to feature a Silverthorne/Poulsbo architecture which at 800Mhz would return a slighter faster system with way better video capabilities and a much improved battery life. With a 4GB flash drive it could make an even better sofa-surfer!
Images of the original Pepper Pad 3
I’ll be writing more about the Hanbit Pad over the next few weeks and making notes in the forum thread here but in the meantime, if you want to get an better understanding of the device, take a look at my full review of the Pepper Pad 3 which is built on the same hardware but uses Pepper software rather than XP that you’ll find on the Hanbit Pad.
The Hanbit Pad was sent for review by Hanbit via The Tablet Store in Germany. Many thanks to them for the loan of this device. More information and specs can be found on the Hanbit Pad product page.
Having had a Pepper Pad 3(yours!) and thinking it looked unstylish and old fashioned back then I don’t think another year will help it at all as the new devices get sleeker and shinier.
It was also rather large and heavy.
Good that it feels nippier than the Linux version but one of the PP3’s strengths was that it did a good job on video, are you saying it can’t cope with normal Divx stuff now?
I’m sorry to say that it looks like a bit of an instant fail to me.
Divx is still as good as it was. No problem there.
Steve