As you may have seen from the new banners that went up around the site yesterday, Viliv are going to launch the S5 in the U.S. through Dynamism.com. They’ve also come up with a pre-order special offer that bundles $135 of spare battery, car kit and the really nice leather case.
- Viliv S5 Premium + [Free Spare Battery + Car Kit + Leather Pouch] (Save $135)
- Price for viliv S5 Premium : $599
- Limited to 200 units
- Launch Date : 27th of April, 2009
- Time : 1:00 PM Eastern Time in US
Note that the Premium is not the model with built-in 3G.
Hop over to Dynamism for full specs and a run-down of the package and if you need some more details, images, hands-on, videos and links, check out the Viliv S5 information page. My detailed first impressions article is here.
New article: Viliv S5 Official U.S. Launch and Pre-Order Offer http://cli.gs/QpAbum
why do they spend years & millions on R&D of these super cool little PC’s then only manufacture a few thousand of them making it hard as hell to even get 1?!
sorry, but i dont feel like fighting with a bunch of nerds over pre-sales at Dyna. its not just like they do it here, even in their homeland they make it extremely difficult to buy 1. you would think the fact these things sale out in minutes would tell the manufactures to start producing more.
dont tell me “maybe thats all they can manufacture” because thats just BS! any corporation can ramp up production when they see a high demand. they didnt spend years designing this device not to make a profit. i also like when people say “maybe they release them in limited quantities 1st to see if theres a demand”, how many times has that happened in the past & afterwards the companies STILL never ramped up production?
No chance…
as much as i LOVE Dynamism for the service they offer, if its $600 there it would be $400 – $500 at a mainstream retailer.
sorry Viliv, although i think you have the best handheld PC on the market right now i wont be buying 1. the fact you are producing them in such small quantities tells me you guys are having Quality Control issues & fear if you released more of them you wouldnt have the support staff to handle the QC issues. it also worries me that this product wont be supported in the future (warranty work, spare parts, etc).
these products will NEVER succeed until they are cheaper & mainstream manufactures produce them in the millions (like netbooks). until then they will stay cheap inferior asian products (excluding Japan)
200 units? lol, THATS there big USA launch? get real, i wouldnt even bother trying. i knew they would blow it, these cheap non-japanese asian companies ALWAYS fail. too bad, nice product/nice price but lousy implementation.
Hate to spoil your party but Japan no longer has the stranglehold on electronics like they used to. Korea and Taiwan are creeping up and frankly if you ask me, Samsung puts out some nice stuff. If I had to choose japanese, give me a Sony Trinitron from 20 years ago… that’s when they made it to last for more than a few years.
Is 200 the maximum number of units for Dynamism or the max number that will get the freebie bundle?
200 is the number of devices in the offer, not in distribution.
I think the promotion is only for the first 200 units.
hopefully someday real companies like HP/Dell will “back” these devices (i realize they dont design them). i am starting to believe more & more that it will happen. who would have ever thought they would produce 9″-10″ netbooks? much less become as huge success as well? MIDS will be the next gradual success, running Windows, not goofy stripped Linux variants (smartphone/iPhone/Palm Pre will eat those devices alive)
I want full Linux (Ubuntu), not full Windows. Fortunately, Ubuntu installs easily on most of these devices.
What’s the point with no 3G? I’ve been anticipating the US launch of the Viliv S5, but was disappointed to see it doesn’t have 3G. Seems to me that if I’m going to buy this thing to access the internet on the go it’s important that the connection is fast. How big a deal is 3G versus non-3G. Any word on when the 3G version will be released?
Seems pretty cool but I’m gonna try to pick up the model with an SSD when I’m in South Korea in a few weeks. The prices I’ve seen in Korean Won are about $100-$150 cheaper (when you factor in the exchange) than the $599 price dynamism is offering.
If there is a warranty defective when you pick up the model in Korea, how can you handle it? Does Viliv give a worldwide warranty? I am curious!!
Guess that’s the only drawback with purchasing something overseas. What I’ll prob do is buy it the first day I’m there and tinker with it as much as I can to make absolutely sure it’s not a lemon.
Looks like Mouse business!!! All of us (I mean readers of this topic) paid for web traffic more money then Viliv get for this strange device!
A real cool device: Viliv S5 Official U.S. Launch.
http://tinyurl.com/cybfvn
Im seriously torn between this nice Viliv S5, or the upcoming E-King i1. This device has true pocketability, while the i1 probably has better input with its split keyboard design and mousepointer.
I do plan on plurking/twittering/chatting, so im not so sure a haptic touchscreen keyboard will do it for me, since it seems to be eating up an awefull lot of screen asset, barely leaving any room to see what you are actually typing.
Do any of you have an opinion on this to make my decision easier? ;)
Oh, and I forgot to mention the viliv probably has far superior batterylife. ;)
Well, the reason it doesn’t have 3G in the US is probably because there are so many incompatible standards: AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc. In the US, putting a 3G card into a generic device just doesn’t make sense. That’s probably also why the iPhone is going to stick with AT&T only–its 3G doesn’t work on other carriers anyway. And because of this US stupidity, the Viliv and iPhone probably inherit the same restrictions in Europe.
I’m torn about this one. No mic is a bid deal to me. I’m going to try to get the preorder at Dynamism and let that decide for me. :P
Its already available in Japan. Spotted it about 10min ago on Yahoo auctions.
http://page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n75465122
I would buy one in a heartbeat …. if it had an optical mouse.
Jokestick cursor control? You gotta be kidding me.