Excitement turned to disapointment yesterday when I took a closer look at this 4.8″ UMPC. The Magic W3.
No it wasn’t the 800*480 screen that disapointed me the most although Windows 7 on that resolution is not recommended by Microsoft. It wasn’t the small battery which would probably only return 2.5hrs in-use battery life and it wasn’t the fact that it’s aiming for a highly niche phone-pc market (read expensive.)
The most disappointing thing about the Magic W3 is that it uses the ‘old’ Menlow platform. Oaktrail technology (that’s the Z6xx series of Atom CPUs) has been sampling for well over a year now and given the clear advantages of Oaktrail in a device like this it’s hugely disappointing to see Menlow. Maybe the price was too high or, more likely, this has been developed over more than a year by a small firm that doesn’t have access to the samples that the big guys do. Intels partner teams should be reaching out to manufacturers like this and helping get their best silicon inside.
Just think about what’s being missed here.
Smaller form factor platform
Lower tdp
2x graphics speed
Hardware video encoder
Faster memory bus
Faster disk I/o
Vastly improved standby times
Longer in-use battery life
New power states
Windows 8 forward advantages
Intel Meego and Android builds which could bring even better battery life.
That’s a list of advantages I would not ignore if I was developing a ultra mobile PC product today.
I’m trying to find out availability, price but at this stage, I’m not expecting this to be appearing in too many retailers books. Specialists only? What do you think? Will it even reach the market?
In the next article today I’ll be looking at the Fujitsu F 07 C, a ultra mobile PC with a 4″ screen that is built on Oaktrail.
http://www.advancetc.com/index.htm
Posted, possibly while reclining, with the Galaxy Tab 7
Wow, the W3 is worse than my trusty old S5 in terms of a UMPC. I don’t know about the Fujitsu F-07C. In order to fit Windows compatible components in a 4 inch form factor let alone it has to share that space with phone hardware, it must have an understandably high price. It would have been nice if Fujitsu made a 5 inch version of the slider without dedicated phone hardware plus a full USB port. That might be cheaper to make.
Specifications for the Fujitsu LOOX F-07C is…
-Intel® Atom™ Z600 processor (supports HT technology) (1.20GHz)
-It supports Osaifu-Keitai®, i-mode mail, i-concier®, and other services from Docomo.
-It has a security feature like Omakase Lock®.
-Equipped with latest Internet Explorer 9 browser.
-4-inch (1024 × 600) high-resolution LCD screen.
-Comes with two-year Microsoft® Office Personal 2010 license.
-Wireless LAN: IEEE802.11b/g/n (communications speed: up to 65Mbps).
-Windows® 7 battery life: ~2 hours in Windows® 7 mode.
So it’s Oak Trail! Retail price is suppose to be Â¥70,000 ($860)…
But probably better to wait for Clover Trail to replace Oak Trail for a 32nm solution and shortly after that Windows 8 should be out…
There’s an interesting note on the press release that say it runs at 50% clock. I’m not sure if they mean it is locked to 600mhz. I suspect it means it only turbos to 1.2ghz. Its going to be hit and miss with Win7.
Could be that’s for the phone mode but wouldn’t be surprising considering the form factor. Though it does have a very low 1.3W TDP, here’s the link to the Intel specification for the Z600…
http://ark.intel.com/products/49656/Intel-Atom-Processor-Z600-%28512K-Cache-1_20-GHz%29
1.3w TDP. That’s quite something.
I’ve seen some benchmarks on it. It’s definitely running at 600MHz all the time.
Now I can’t verify latus’s claims that it has a dedicated phone hardware in addition to the Windows one. Oak Trail should have a low power mode with non-Windows OSes, but is that possible in one platform with such a quick switching time?
Wow, 2 hours when locked to 600 MHz? Symbian has reported to have been ported to x86 so it may not need a separate ARM chip.
It looks like it does have a dedicated “phone CPU”. Texas Instruments OMAP. It must be a really old version to save costs since it won’t need to do anything else other than idle.
The phone has a 5.1WHr battery. According to Intel presentations, Moorestown can idle for 240-250 hours with a 5.9WHr one. But this isn’t Moorestown with the specialized IOH.
It will be very interesting to see the idle time on this. We’ll learn a lot from it.
More photos here.
http://en.akihabaranews.com/94484/phones/hands-on-fujitsu-loox-f-07c-the-world-first-atom-powered-smartphone
hehe , S5 better spec than this w3 , dont think so . are u out of yr mind ?
The part of this article I was interested in the most was the blurb about the Fujitsu, haha. I prefer a 5 inch screen for devices with an Atom CPU and Windows 7 but I’ll wait on your analysis of it before righting it off. From the pictures I’ve seen, it looks to be using some skin for Windows. I’m not a fan of overlays since they take up the little resources that’s available.
From the previous comment, it’s likely to be very expensive since they’re cramming a lot into such a small device.
Like for many smartphones, I wonder if there’s an extended battery to boost the 2.5 hour batery life.
The battery life on the Fujitsu model doesn’t seem to be any better than Menlow-based UMPCs like the Vaio P despite its smaller screen and using Oak Trail. That’s of course, calculating it out on a per WHr basis.
Either means Oak Trail isn’t as hyped out to be or Fujitsu sucks at battery life optimization.
Unless it has the same size battery then you can’t really compare to the Vaio P. Besides Oak Trail is still 45nm and that means there isn’t much space for things like the battery in such a small design and since it doubles as a phone it also has to power both the WiFi and 3G.
As I said, I’ve calculated out the differences to WHr equivalent so yes its comparable. Unfortunately, there was zero difference between them and they were both using same W.
Being 45nm has nothing to do with space required for the battery. Lincroft’s package size is 14mm by 14mm and the die is quarter the size. However, the motherboard equivalent is bigger than smartphone platforms because not many components are as integrated. It didn’t need to be, Intel’s just taking one step at a time.
I’ve serious doubts about the accuracy of your calculation. Like you already noted in another post the system is running both x86 and ARM hardware and the battery is lower capacity than the other example you are basing your estimates on.
You also have no data on the efficiency of the battery for proper comparison. Not to mention Windows 7 tends to be more of a resource and power hog than XP.
While Lincroft is irrelevant to this discussion. Even in a more integrated design 45nm does strictly limits how efficient they can make the system and how small they can pack it, which also effects how it deals with heat and heat can also effect the efficiency of the battery.
The smaller the system design then the more this becomes a factor, especially if sharing the space with additional hardware that is also drawing power from the same battery.
Here: http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/column/hothot/20110722_462068.htm
F-07C: 3.7V 1400mAH which equals to 5.18WHr.
1 hour 48 minutes which equals to 3.53W drain
http://www.pocketables.net/2009/02/sony-vaio-p-battery-life-standard-vs-extended.html
Sony Vaio P Standard battery: 7.4V 2100mAH = 15.54WHr
4 hours 48 minutes which equals to 3.24W drain
Now lets assume the Sony is using XP, not Vista, the latter of which is more common as a default install and was released first.
Windows XP and 7 differences in power usage were no more than the 10% we are seeing, again even including that they use the same power.
What about the dedicated ARM chip? Well it should be off and ARM is good at idle power.
Here’s the review of another Oak Trail based system: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Fujitsu-Stylistic-Q550-Oak-Trail-Tablet-MID.57397.0.html
Compare to the N455 based Netbook: http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Asus-Eee-PC-1018P-Netbook.35960.0.html
Again, zero difference.
The only Oak Trail system that had any advantage over Menlow was the now defunct Viliv X70. I’m not convinced Oak Trail is any more efficient than previous generation in Windows at all.
@DavidC1 – I never expected a big difference but the GMA600 is clocked double that of the GMA500 and that’s bound to cause a higher power draw. So the rest of the design has to be actually more efficient to keep power usage the same or better. Meaning an actual increase in power efficiency.
While the difference between XP and Win7 also depend on how optimized they make them. So the difference can be wider than 10% and each company doesn’t always bother doing all that much to optimize the OS and no version of Windows is that great and maximizing idle power usage. A better power optimized OS like Meego would give a better indication of the efficiency of the hardware.
But again, batteries aren’t all equally efficient, along with environmental factors, and each system has more than just the CPU consuming power. Until you know all those factors then you’re only guess estimating the efficiency of the system.
Things like higher res screens also use more power. The Q550 is a 1280×800 vs the 1018P’s 1024×600. Also Maximum Brightness for the Q550 is 399 cd/m2 vs the 1018P’s 206 cd/m2. Along with other differences in the system that also account for power usage.
Btw, you’re first link doesn’t work and you linked a non-english version for the 1018P review.
hey, chippy, will u have review soon?
I’m certainly working on one but there are no guarantees.
So much for upgrading my S5. I was at least hoping for a mouse pointer upgrade.
When the article about Fujitsu F 07 C will be avaible ? I’m really curious about this device :] .
nice w3 .
I could use it for my short business trips . dont have to carry the old laptop , since not doing much work except for mails , some datas check , presentation ,files that cannot be open on my berry etc. and keep my social status up to date :)
Pls let known price and where to buy . thanks for the heads up on this device
Hi looks like we are the ones that are killing off umpcs for one . I do think that this W3 will be a good replacement of the void left by viliv , but the way it is being condemm here seems that we are trying to kill it off too .
If this thing had a mouse like the unreleased X70 , I’d buy it over the S5.
Oh ya, a full USB port and a higher native resolution, too.
Ya, with those changes, it would be a worthwhile upgrade to my S5. It does have a faster CPU and who knows, maybe they’re working on an Oak Trail version.
If it had those, I would seriously consider buying it to replace my N5. It would be nice if I could remap the phone keys since I don’t plan on using it as a phone. The auto-rotation feature seems useful.
Physical interface wise, this needs a mouse. That’s the one thing I wish my S5 has.
They’re pretty vague about what ports the dock has. I also wonder about how well that interpolated resolution looks.
There hasn’t been much new information about this device since February. It was supposed to be released in China in June.
The device and also its homepage presentation look a bit “amateurish” (have a look at the offical device gallery!!). The presentation in general doesn’t look very professional.
The Magic W3 might be the first and last UMPC of this manufacturer. I have a bad feeling about this. When even greater Companies like Viliv encounter financial problems, then what about that small unknown company?
It is always good to see new UMPC-manufacturers, but the past showed that many companies got bankrupt because of their niche products :-(
For the 1.3W Z600/Z610/Z612/Z620, Hyperthreading will add 300mW to the 1.3W TDP. The 2.2W Z605/Z615/Z625 parts need 350mW for Hyperthreading and 450mW for ODT(On Die Termination). Hyperthreading is something that is very desirable to have enabled. ODT is required when high speed memory is used, which isn’t necessary for the 1.3W chips. That must be the Smartphone vs. Tablet difference.
Lincroft really needs an optimized OS though. Manufacturers are probably waiting for Medfield instead.
Not having a mouse is the main deal breaker for me.
I agree. A mouse would be great. I even wish my Android phone has a mouse pointer for at least the browser.
Compared to F-07C battery is quite powerful?
1400mAh vs. 3200 mAh
It could last longer than two and a half hours.
Regards
P.S. what was the S5 battery’s capacity?