Jenn, now a Willcom D4 owner as well as an SC3 owner, has her first impressions up. As expected, the battery life isn’t good at all with the tiny standard battery returning 1.5 hours of use. Its efficient of course, but that’s not really enough is it. I really don’t understand how any OEM could convince themselves that it’s acceptable to expect people to buy a second battery.
Apart from that, the device seems to be performing well enough with Vista on the 1.33Ghz CPU.
The Willcom D4 never felt right to me from the word go and this review doesn’t change my opinion.
Review at Pocketables. Specifications and more links on the D4 information page.
Saw this other reveiw the other day and they got even worse battery life http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080722/155121/
Lots of other issues too. Like vista on to use the phone.
I think you should qualify general statements like “never felt right” so people understand why you think this. For me , its actually a major advance in design for UMPCs
Its a good (perhaps not great) form factor, better than most so called UMPCs (ie it is ultra mobile and pocketable). And its the first one that really tries to address the umpc with keyboard problem in a smart way in my view.
Issues for me are lack of 3G, 1.3 processor not 1.6, small battery (its tiny), keyboard still waiting on opinions how usable it is but looks far better than an OQO or Sony UX, and small 40 gb hard drive size.
But considering most UMPCs have many design issues it is still step forward for me.
It looks better than my OQO 02 for instance, which has too a low screen resolution, no Aero, no onboard pen, is slowish and you can’t type that much on it.
Hi Scoobie.
Its difficult to qualify a feeling! Here are some more thoughts.
– Standard battery size was too small
– Its wider than i would like to see.
– Vista on 1.33Ghz (acceptable but still sub-optimal)
– Price
– No 3G
As for the design (ignoring other aspects for the moment) I think its great and yes, a step forward. I really hope that we see similar designs in the future.
??? Pocketables just posted a 14 minute video on the Vista performance of the D4 and it worked just fine. Jenn had 10 internet tabs open with no issues, 4 programs including itunes running with no issues.
This is the first UMPC that can attract some mainstream attention as it has a clamshell and slider design in a size small enough to carry in a jacket pocket.
Sharp was upfront with the stock battery and they have an extended battery which is supposed to provide 4-5 hours of life. That does not increase the ability to fit in a jacket pocket and only increases 4oz to the weight. I can see why the stock battery was weak as it looks like the size of my cell phone battery in my old Nextel.
This D4 blows the rest of the UMPC computers away! There have been no real interest in UMPC’s thus far and it is not price but form factor to me. Full Windows needs a normal keyboard and people want a pocket size laptop. Mainstream does not want to try to thumb input into a full windows computer and if you can not carry it in your jacket then you will need a computer bag, brief case, or “man purse”.
Other UMPC companies need to wake up and start building upon this great form factor! Come on after all of 2007 the entire worldwide umpc market was a pathetic 350k units. The D4 is a great UMPC and I hope others build upon their design. I can see other companies improving with better keyboards in the same overall size, increasing the depth from 3.3 to maybe 3.6 would provide the same real estate that the Psion and HP Jornada had with their keyboards, etc.
As long as the extended battery provides reasonable life around 4 hours I would definately buy this UMPC; I thing all the other UMPC’s are toys for gadget freaks as they are not small enough to carry in a jacket pocket, have input methods most find unacceptable, and thus can not be your one primary mobile device.
Might not be perfect but I would have to say it is the best umpc available right now! I have longed for a clamshell design. The extended battery is a must and as long as that does give about 4 hours I see no major flaws with it at all.
I’m glad Sharp was the first to realize that designs like the Q1 or the OQO are just not what most people want in a full windows computer. Hopefully the other competitors will copy this design and try to add their enhancements.
Heavier, larger and shorter battery life, and you guys say it is better than OQO? And the keyboard is neither good for thumbs nor for fingers. The only thing catches up with OQO is the poor standby life. Good luck with it.
If the battery goes for 3 hours and a 3G module can be added, then I might consider it.
Look back at what the portable department of Sharp has presented, I can safely say this team sucks. Great ideas, poor implementations.
Not perfect, but the OQO 02 is still the most usable POCKET PC, especially that I paid only $999 for it with 3G included. The weight, size, keyboard, mouse, screen (set to 800×600), battery life, overall no competition except the upcoming M528.
How did you pay $999 for an OQO 02 with 3G- they are normally twice that price?
I’ve got an OQO and the processor speed, keyboard and annoying fan are really starting to grind on me. Oh, and the unreliability.
OQO may be smaller but Sharp looks more practical for me.
I’ll add I’m one of those who cannot styand the 800×600 screen resolution on the OQO. Fewer websites or apps use this resolution these days
I’m with Al and dave4884r that this is a really interesting form factor (ex-Psion 5 owner!), ie pocketable with a decent keyboard. I don’t count the OQO as having the latter!
But the other major factor for me is battery life (ex-Psion 5 owner!!). It’s not really portable if you always have to be on the lookout for your next power outlet. And of course on the Sharp it’s just rubbish. I realise there’s the extended battery, but that makes it too big to fit in a pocket. My pocket, anyway.
My criteria are pocketable/battery life/”proper” keyboard/(price), and there’s nothing at the moment that meets all these. The Everun is still the only thing that does the first two, in my opinion. The strange, elusive and horribly named Digifriends might; the new Wibrain i1 might. But I’m getting fed up of waiting!
One further thought I forgot to mention – far from the Sharp being the new inspiring UMPC that will make the market explode into the mainstream – I think the battery life is so embarrassingly poor that it could do the opposite. Anyone attracted to it – and it certainly does look attractive – would take one look at the battery life, say “is that all that UMPCs can do? Still?!”, and go and buy a netbook or a MID or an iPhone.
Peejay, I’ve seen pictures of the extended battery and since this unit is only 3.3″ instead of the Psion 3.6″ the extended battery does not prevent the computer from easily fitting in a jacket pocket. I just want to wait to read real world tests to make sure that the extended battery does provide adequate juice.
I tried the OQO and yes I would definately not buy one. For me full windows is not suitable for thumb input so I welcome a longer yet still narrow computer like the D4 as then the form factor provides more space for a traditional keyboard.
I think the D4 is the first UMPC with the right form factor and hopefully more companies will build upon this design. All of the other UMPC’s including ones I’ve seen comming out that are smaller still seem to be more thumb based devices that are too short to ever have anything but a thumb keyboard.
These are full computers so any phone or pda is just not in the same category. While I loved the Psion too for the hardware design I still had to use a laptop as it was a proprietary OS and the HP Jornada 728 being CE was a bit more open but I still needed the laptop. he same goes for MID’s and Linux devices they are not adequate for business as you can not load business softwares as most are only available in full windows.
I think these UMPC’s will take a long time to get battery life like the 14+ hours of a 728 but if you compare them to full laptops they are not that bad. As long as this D4 gets about 4 hours that to me is enough to be functional. If more companies copy this form factor I can easily see ways to improve it a lot. If you look at Psion for example, all you would need to do is increase the depth to 3.6″ then you would have more than the space needed to use either the Psion or HP Jornada keyboard layout; plus that would enable a larger battery!
The form factor of the D4 could have the potential to generate mainstream sales but only if Sharp or someonelse made one that does not have the proprietry Willcom wireless cell features. An unlocked version that could take a GSM sim card available in the US and Europe without going through the grey market would be mainstream. Right now I think it will be a hot grey market UMPC and hopefully either Sharp will release a open version or other companies do so. UMPC’s need this type of form factor to get out the weak sales they continue to have. People just do not want thumb or pen only input and they want it small enough to carry in a jacket pocket. with full windows.
I agree with fixup and chippy. I just can´t see what all the fuss is about?
Everyone keeps going on about the “normal” and “traditional” keyboard. To me it looks like a thumb board, and not a very good one. I´ve seen the old Psion keyboards, and this look nothing like it. I guess we´ll have to have Jenn do another typing test to find out.
That’s my point: a touch-typable keyboard is a great idea and I’m all for it, but this D4 is crap including its keyboard.
OQO had a huge sale on April 1. 1.2GHz/512MB/40GB/EVDO was only $999 (free shipping). You can easily replace the miniPCI EVDO module with any 3G module, as the antenna and SIM slot are equipped. I replaced the EVDO 1X module with a Rev. A module taken from a $50 USB 720 modem.
I do not think the Sharp has a keyboard anywhere near the feel of the Psion but I do agree that that is what the entire UMPC is missing. I agree that without UMPC’s have a touch type keyboard they will continue to be very unpopular computers to most people.
OQO as the worst keyboard. Even at that price I would pass. To me it is not the price but more how usable it can be. I do like the D4 being a clamshell and can see why many like it compared to the other UMPC’s.
Have you tried the keyboard of the OQO Model 02, and for how long? I previously owned one, and found the keyboard to be the best thumb board I´ve tried.
Without some sort of folding mechanism, in my mind, a UMPC can´t really have a touch type keyboard and still be pocketable. Hunt and peck is another story.
true, micke :-)
it seems like some of you think that the keyboard of this device allows comfortable touch typing…i don’t want to make a hasty judgment, but i think in the end this is gonna be still a thumb machine…
as micke wrote: UMPC (pocketable) + touch typing = difficult. –> the only UMPC i know that actually solves this problem is that Samsung UMPC with the folding keyboard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cMhanC5y_g&feature=related
:-)
Al – you said “Peejay, I’ve seen pictures of the extended battery and since this unit is only 3.3″ instead of the Psion 3.6″ the extended battery does not prevent the computer from easily fitting in a jacket pocket.”
I think it’s the depth that’s the issue. I’ve spent many years carrying chunky electronics in my jacket pocket. My Psion 5 was 25mm thick. I had a old Archos AV140 that was 28mm thick. I considered buying an Archos AV340 that was 30mm, and to test how this would feel in my pocket, I stuck some plastic onto the back of my AV140 and carried it around! (Obsessive or what?) That felt pretty uncomfortable to me.
The Sharp, with the extended battery, is around 35-36mm thick. That’s a lot thicker than any of my gadgets. It’s a whole centimetre thicker than a Psion. You may have a higher tolerance for big things in your pockets, of course – in which case this is indeed your perfect UMPC.
(Or are we talking about different pockets? I’m talking about an inside breast pocket, where long and thin (and not too thick!) is the shape of gadget you want. Maybe you’re talking about an outside hip pocket, where you have a bit more space? You can go wider and probably thicker without noticing too much, although something as long as the Sharp would stick out of the top!)
I used an OQO model 2 for three weeks and thumb input even after giving it continual practice was just the worst experience for full windows. I can see thumb input on a PDA when all you do is view information and very little if any real input. The OQO might be a better thumb input but thumb input is just pathetic for full windows, in my opionion.
I think the Sharp D4 is one of a couple of shapes that UMPC companies can use in order to provide a more usable computer for full windows. I have personally never liked Sharp keyboard designs but I think this is usable. The keyboard designs I have used that would fit in the same space as the D4 would be the Psion Revo & 5mx, and the HP Jornada 720/728.If they or someone were to improve on the D4 with one of the above mentioned keyboard type designs it would be a clear dominant device.
The other shape that would be a very good design is what I saw only sold in Korea by Samsung, their sph p9200. That one did trifold to allow a keyboard almost full size!
Either way I do think the D4 is a great UMPC maybe not perfect but about the only one I’d consider. If more companies copied and improved on their design I can see UMPC’s finally getting the attention everyone hoped for.
I am refering to my inside jacket pocket. Yes I would of course having owned a Psion, rather see a UMPC that thin and sleek as it was only .90″ thick! I currently use an HP Jornada 728 which is 1.3″ thick and while thicker is still easy to slide in that type of pocket.
I think for a full windows UMPC the technology might not enable them to be as thin as a Psion yet? So I am being more willing to deal with a UMPC about the same or even thicker than my HP 728 in order to have one computer that can be my primary mobile computer without the need of a laptop at all. I think UMPC technology has come a long way and maybe later we might see a UMPC just like the Psion running full windows? but remember the Psion was NOT full windows it ran the proprietary Symbian OS.
I do believe it is possible to design one if hardware companies finally got a clue and focused their design on function of a touch type keyboard and making it for that jacket pocket space. To me the OQO is a great computer technology wise as it is a full PC yet a lot smaller than a Psion & HP Jornada. To me that is the problem it is too small and thus has a thumb keyboard which has never created much demand in the product. But if you think about say the HP Jornada at 7.3″ x 1.3″ x 3.6″; that would provide a company like OQO to have about 32% percent more volume and with that increased space I would think it feasable to make it the same size as an HP Jornada if not even thinner with the same great keyboard of a HP or Psion. It might still be a tad thicker than a Psion say 1″ to 1.25″ but I would think that is very doable with today’s technology. Making it much thinner might need more improvements in technology?
We have a discussion thread in the forum about what we want for our ideal UMPC. There are designs which whilst not finished show the potential to do what Al et al (pun intended) are suggesting.
For me though the D4 is a bit longer than neccessary. If this increased the battery size it would be worth it, but as is – no thanks!
We should probably start a discussion about what people want in there docking port…
Vakeros,
I’ll check that out, thanks.
While the D4 might not be my ideal UMPC, I do think it is the first one that I would settle for that is more functional and truly jacket pocket in size.
To me the ideal for factor would be the Psion 5mx but maybe that is not achievable for a full windows UMPC? in the Psion’s size of 6.9″ x 3.6″ x .90″ inches? I would think the HP Jornada at 7.3″ x 3.6″ x 1.3″ would be a great size and definately achievable given current UMPC technology.
I can not wait to read Pocketables full review when the extended battery arrives!