Thumb-Mouse / D-pad
As the only other method of mouse navigation on the device, it is imperative that the thumb-mouse be good on the R50A. Unfortunately, it isn’t. It will get the job done, but compared to the fine thumb-mouse on the UX series, it is pretty poorly implemented. The hardware itself feels nice, it is firm as you push it around. The problem comes when the hardware interacts with the software. It seems as though the R50A is recognizing the mouse as a joystick input. It feels like the mouse really only has 16 different directions of movement, and three different speeds. The one upside to this is that it is really easy to draw straight lines along the x or y axis, but trying to draw a circle is nearly impossible because of the way the input is interpreted by the computer. So if you are in the market for a computer that makes it easy to draw squares; the R50A might be for you. For the rest of us that want our mouse to actuate to a point of solid controllable movement, you may need to look elsewhere. Which brings us to the three speeds. It really feels like the mouse moves either slow, medium, or fast, with nowhere in between. Which means you will be trying to place your mouse slowly over an icon but suddenly it will hit the next gear and take off. This makes mouse navigation with the thumb-mouse very frustrating.
One nice thing about the area around the thumb-mouse and fingerprint scanner is the LED indicators. There is a translucent piece of plastic surrounding the fingerprint scanner; underneath it are all of the device’s LED indicators. The nice thing about this is that when they are not on, you can’t see them. When they do turn on, they shine through the plastic part. The plastic surrounding it is very similar in color to the rest of the finish so it almost looks like the indicators are built right into the plastic. In the above image you can see some indicators on, though it was tough to get them on camera. In person they are sharp and have a white glow.
The D-pad essentially functions as the R50A’s arrow keys. The button in the center acts as an enter button. This can be useful for quickly hitting the center button to accept default dialogue box options such as “OK”, or submitting text that you have written in the Tablet Input Panel. The D-pad on the R50A that I have been testing is a bit faulty. It tends to press two directions at once. Particularly when I press left, it often presses left and down at the same time. You have to be very careful to press it in just the right way to make sure it only presses left. Just as with the touchscreen trouble spot, I would really hope that this issue isn’t common across these devices, but instead a hardware defect on this review model. I cannot say for sure though.
Fingerprint Scanner
There isn’t much to be said about the fingerprint scanner. If you have never used one before, you should know that in general, fingerprint scanners work very well. They make it easy to login to your computer, and keep it very secure at the same time. The scanner on the R50A is actually pretty small. Because of this, I need to be more careful while swiping my finger than I am used to on my UX180 (which has a larger scanner). But either way, as long are you are somewhat careful and allow the scanner to get an accurate reading, the R50A will quickly log you in to windows. Very convenient. The setup process is simple as well. Just pick the finger you want to have the computer memorize, swipe it three times, then you can login with that finger in the future. You can have the computer memorize all of your fingers on both hands.
*The joystick mouse doesn’t move like that of an video game controller, instead it moves like the stick on a PSP, it moves left and right while staying on the same plane, as opposed to actually tilting from one side to another*
Either it´s a software problem or the stick isn´t analog (I guess it´s another d-pad binded to the arrow keys which don´t support vertical scrolling,the stick is just for the looks),the PSP stick is fully analog like on any average game controller by the way,if your PSP stick doesn´t move analog it may be your Super Mario which doesn´t support analog movement. ;)
I think the R50A was done before Asus realized how fast the market grows and the market has overtaken Asus with great speed.Well,won´t be a problem for Asus,they have a million different Eee models to sell as well.
When I as talking about the movement of the stick, I was referring to how it physically moved. If you have used an Xbox 360 controller and the PSP’s stick; that is the difference I am trying to get across.
What a shame that Asus havent spend more time on the software and the drivers, it could be a great UMPC. only 1 point in the Viata score, my HTC Shift scores 2.1 and it is not a fast one.
By the way this is not the first time Asus made a ok UMPC useless with bad drivers and crapware
If you are really looking for something handheld and close to pocketable i only see OQO model 02 or future 03 i hope we will see in CES 2009.
Sony UX is discontinued so isn’t a good option.
I mention the VAIO UX line because I’ve been using one with great success for years now. The fact that they haven’t come out with a new one in a while simply drives the price down. The top end UX model is still the most powerful UMPC that I’ve ever seen. But you are right, the OQO 02 is also a good option because it has a nice keyboard. But the 02’s are less powerful.
Why did you expect the R50A to score much better than the UX180 in CrystalMark? The 1.2GHz Intel Core Solo in the UX180 ought to be computationally more powerful than the 1.3 GHz Intel Atom in the R50A. Even if the R50A were running XP, I suspect it still couldn’t beat the UX180 in Crystalmark.
You are right, the Core Solo line should be more powerful than the Atom CPUs, but the R50A has double the RAM, and has technology that is 3 years more advanced.
I also have an r50a. Jenn at pocketables put up pictures of my unit. My overall Vista score is 2.7. My Graphics score is 2.9 and my Gaming Graphics score is also 2.9. The other Vista scores are the same as yours. My unit did not come with any bloatware. I do not use the security software so I do not get the popups. I purchases Microsoft Street and Trips for $40 and it works well with the GPS. I only have a Wireless Console 3 and it works without incident. I connect without effort to my home network, Starbucks hotspots and via HSDPA to AT&T’s network. As I told Jenn, this is the first UMPC I have owned which can playback Itunes video and Sligbox video without skipping. I love the device, I find it responsive, it has great battery life, the fan is quite (unlike my OQO 02) and it is small, although not pocketable. I do wish however that the mouse pointer worked better and that it had a keyboard.
I’m firing up the R50A right now to see if there is anything I can do to reach the performance of your unit. I just got word from Dynamism that this was not a production unit, so it is likely that the software build is not optimized; maybe I’m missing some important updated drivers. Can you do me a favor and run Crystal Mark on your R50A? ( http://release.crystaldew.info/CrystalMark2004 ) I’d like to see how yours scores.
Thing that strikes me about the r50a is how big it looks compared to the UX. Although at least it’s thinner….
@fauc Asus’s R50 Mobile Internet Device not very good. Does not bode well for same-specced Sony P. http://tinyurl.com/a36pum
Ben, I have only made one small change to the graphics settings on my unit. I do not understand why your unit was not performing better without making the changes that negativley impacted your units performance. All I did was turn off the glass. Unfortunatley other outlets have picked up your flawed review which makes it sound like the r50a can perform no better than a UX. This is clearly the best performing UMPC I have owned. Prior devices include UX50, HTC Shift, and u810.
Ben, you are wrong again. The r50a does have a built in speaker and it works well. In fact I used it this weekend.
Sorry Arthur, it may be the non-production model factor, but my R50A doesn’t show any speakers even in the device manager unless I plug in the headphones. Where is the speaker physically located within your unit?
Ben, I can’t see the speaker but the sound appears to be coming out of the right side of the unit. I did the test and captured the results. Can I email them to you?
Sure: ben (at) umpcportal.com
Ben, I just email you the screen shots.
I use a Samsung Q1 as an eReader. It has left/right arrow buttons which I use to page up/down when reading pdf’s. Does this unit have similar button functionality?
Oh dear, this does not sound like the upgrade I want for the Samsung Q1 that is now on its last legs. I have a hunch that the new Sony will be more expensive than the R50 (currently £700-800). The fact that vista is on that too makes me less hopeful. I think this next round will be a strange one for me as I’m being forcibly penned into the MID category, and I’m feeling rebellious about my netbook options which has me suddenly searching through full size laptop options – this isn’t good. I’m hoping CES will help me get my UMPC mojo back.
Here is a look the best [url=http://bottleoneexpress.com/][color=red][b]site[/b][/color][/url] in 2008 for adults.
I do not know the right sort of a link and it is not clear to you at the forum how to do it.
If you are under 18 do not go to links
I have been looking for a device that I can use a web tablet and a phone, but that is a real computer. Some things concern me:
First, some devices have everything soldered to the board. I know this was an issue with the eee. If I but ubuntu 9.10 on an ssd, will I be able to swap it into this machine? Yeah, I know there will be driver issues.
Is there another machine that I should be looking at instead?