Vye Mini-V S37B Full review.

Earlier this month, the latest version of the Vye Mini-v mini convertible notebook/UMPC, the S37B, went on sale in the U.S. It’s due to be available in the UK soon and Europe-wide through a network of resellers. VyePC sent one over last month and its been given a jolly good thrashing ever since.

Introduction and Overview.

The Vye S37 is a notebook form-factor ultra-portable PC with a convertible touchscreen built on Intel’s Ultra Mobile platform 2007. Specifically, it use the Intel Stealey A110 processor (800Mhz) alongside the GMA950 GPU. The version I am testing, a production sample, is fitted with a 100GB drive and 1GB of RAM. It also has the 3-cell, small-version battery and is running Vista Home Premium. Retail versions are shipped with the 6-cell battery and a 120GB drive but apart from that, have the same specification. 800Mhz doesn’t sound much does it! Its not, but fortunately processor power is not the only thing that determines the speed of the system. Graphics, hard disk and memory are important too and one of the great advantages about the S37 it that it includes a standard 2.5″ 5400 RPM notebook-size hard disk and not a reduced-size 4200 RPM 1.8″ drive that you would find in many other small and portable devices. In addition, its possible to upgrade the memory to a usable 2GB via a memory card slot on the underside of the device. Configurations with 200GB HDD and 2GB RAM are theoretically possible on the S37 and that already sets it apart from the ultra mobile PC crowd.

[summary]

View the S37 specifications in the ultra mobile PC product portal

First five minutes.

Its a tiny notebook PC with a convertible screen which makes it a device that’s easy to understand and get to grips with. Literally! There’s no messing around will slider, thumboard or on-screen keyboards and the usual array of function keys, numeric keys, control keys, mouse controls and shortcut keys are available. There’s even an additional mouse pointer for use when in two-handed mode, something you can’t do with bigger notebook PCs. When you turn it on and boot up, the first thing you notice is the screen. Its an absolute peach of a screen with high contrast, great colour definition, super brightness and a very usable 7″ 1024×600 resolution. It makes 800×480 screens look old in comparison and more importantly it enables Vista and common applications to work with few screen size issues. There are one or two occasional warnings about screen size (Movie Maker for example) but nothing that prevents software from running. I really think that 1024×600 is the optimal resolution for a 7″ screen.

When you’ve stopped staring at the screen, the next thing you’ll do is give the keyboard a test. Is it too small? Can you touch type? Does it require high-levels of concentration, small fingers and what’s the mechanical quality like? I can report without any doubt that this really is one of the nicest small keyboards I’ve ever tested on a UMPC. And that includes the HTC Shift. Really, its up there with the quality and speed of the Flybook V5 and Fujitsu P1610 and literally twice as fast as the early Kohjinsha SA1 models that offered a similar form factor. The shortcut keys for Bluetooth, Wifi, Camera and even fan control are to hand along with two more programmable keys. Again, the keys on the scree frame are good. They feel nice, have a definite ‘click’ and don’t rattle around.

Overall, the first five minutes are a good experience.

From the outside.

The quickest way to show you the outside of the device is through a video.

The build quality is reasonable and the materials appear to be good. The white strip around the unit is a rubber bump strip. Key quality is good on all keys and buttons and there’s no rattle or loseness. The convertible screen is very solid. I would prefer not to have the unprofessional-looking logo on the back of the screen though.

External connectivity

• SD card slot
• Compact Flash slot
• VGA
• Ethernet 10/100
• USB2.0 (x2)
• MIC-in
• Line-out

More about the connectivity options later on in this review.

[pagebreak On the inside]

On the inside.

The Vye Mini-v S37B is built around Intel’s Ultra Mobile Platform 2007 (codename McCaslin) which includes the new (April 2007) A110 800Mhz processor that is also known as Stealey: (Note that the Mini-v S37 uses the 600Mhz processor) From Intels website:

The Intel� Processors A100 and A110 are based on 90 nm process technology featuring
512-KB L2 cache and 400-MHz front side bus (FSB). The processor is a derivative core
based on the Intel� Pentium� M processor architecture that delivers performance. The
The Intel� Processors A100 and A110 are ultra low-power mobile processors.

• On-die, 512 KB second level cache
• 400 MHz, source-synchronous FSB
• Micro-FCBGA packaging technology
• Manufactured on Intel�s advanced 90 nanometer process technology with copper
  interconnect.
• Enhanced Intel SpeedStep technology, which enables real-time
  dynamic switching between multiple voltage and frequency points. This results in
  optimal performance without compromising low power. The processor features the Auto
  Halt, Stop Grant, Deep Sleep, and Deeper Sleep low power states.
• TDP 3W.

Full Intel A110 specification PDF here.

Device specification summary:

• RAM – 1GB. User-expandable to 2GB.
• Graphics – Intel GMA950. Aero-capable GPU
• Hard Drive – 120GB 2.5″ 5400 RPM non-user-replaceable.
• OS – Windows Vista Home Premium
• Display Size – 7″ 1024 X 600
• Display Type – LED b/l, Soft (Finger) Touch
• Battery capacity – 29 (Wh)
• Weight – 1KG
• Size (w/h/d mm) – 227/170/26 mm
• LAN – IEEE 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth – Ver. 2.0 + EDR / Class-2 (10m)

Software.

The S37 is shipped with Windows Vista Home Premium which includes the Media Center and tablet PC components. Windows Vista takes a lot of disk space, a lot of memory and a lot of processing power and is not the ideal operating system for a ultra mobile PC with a sub Ghz-class CPU. There’s more information about performance below but in general, a Windows XP Tablet Edition build would have been much better. It is possible to optimise Vista though and having done that, the performance did improve. Increasing the RAM to 2GB also helps (tested – it was a smoother experience all-round) and enhances it to a far more productive level of performance, especially when running a number of office applications over a period of time.

The second problem with windows Vista is that it might not be compatible with some corporate IT standards. Many companies are holding back from the Vista upgrade which could be an issue for Vye. An XP option would help. [Update: 29 Oct 2007. I have heard from Vye today that an XP option will be offered before the end of the year.]

Performance.

I started testing the S37 side-by-side with a 600Mhz version of the same device from Kohjinsha (the SH6) and was rather surprised to see almost like-for-like performance. A few emails to Vye later I find out that the fan speed setting (silent mode) can affect the performance and by default, its set to silent mode. That’s a problem and is either going to result in confused customers or hot devices! Once I had found this out, things went a lot better. To keep in line with other ultra mobile PC reviews I’ve done I ran the CrystalMark and HDTune tests.

Click to enlarge.

The results aren’t bad when compared to other ultra mobile PC devices and the 2.5″ 5400 RPM drive stands out as being above-par. The result from HDTune 2.54 show’s an impressive 40MB/sec transfer rate.

Boot-up, standby, hibernate speeds

Booting up Vista is a long and tedious process. You have the initial boot-up stage, the login stage and then the minutes-long stage where Vista pretends to be intelligent by shuffling programs into memory. Pre-cacheing. Its an annoying process but fortunately, once its done, standby is quick and reliable.

Hibernation takes an average 30 seconds in and about 30 seconds to resume. Note that it puts the device back into ‘silent mode’ causing the performance issue mentioned above. Again Vista starts to play with memory and disk and this can take another few minutes of hdd, memory and cpu work before everything is settled down.

Standby is a quick 11 seconds in and an excellent 3 seconds from resume to screen-on. Resume isn’t complete at screen-on though and it takes at least another 5 seconds to refresh the screen (twice) and settle down which makes it comparatively slow to other devices i’ve used. This process can be automated when you close and open the screen through the system power settings. I wasn’t able to test battery drain under standby mode.

[summary]

[pagebreak Battery life and screen]
[summary]

Battery life.

Intel introduced the McCaslin platform in Spring 2007 as a way to improve battery life and reduce the board size for UMPCs. Unfortunately, the S37B doesn’t seem to have maximised on the advantages offered by this platform. In-use battery life with the 3-cell battery is a disappointing 2hrs with Wifi on. In a static, unused state (wifi on, screen 30%) the platform consumes around 11Watts. Thats a figure I might have been happy with in 2006 but not now. One of the culprits is the WiFi module. Turning it off can save 2W of drain and. Reducing screen brightness and switching to power-save mode (600Mhz) brings the battery life up to near 3 hours.

As a portable mini-pc this battery life is going to be acceptable. It just takes it out of the fully mobile class which is a shame because there are other devices in this form factor that return better battery life results.

Real-World performance.

Statistics are statistics. Lets talk about real-life scenarios now.

Audio.

The built-in stereo speakers are adequate and the audio quality though headphones is very clear. There are no hardware bass/treble controls available on the Realtec audio chip which means if you want to do some tone tweaking, you have to do it in the audio player which takes CPU. Windows Media Player works but is slow when scrolling through a large library of songs. Not a very nice experience. Media Center works too but it’s even slower and you end up with dropouts if a process kicks off in the background. Media Center is not recommended on the Vye S37B.

Screen.

Image of the 1024×600 gloss-finish 7″ screen. (Unedited. Stunning!)

The screen is an absolute gem. It really is the best ultra mobile PC screen I’ve seen to date (its the same one as on the Samsung Q1 Ultra) and its sharp, bright, color-rich and has excellent contrast. It can be used outside and the 1024×600 resolution works up to about 50cm from the eyes. (Testing with my glasses on.) That’s just about good enough for table-top operation. Beyond that distance it starts to get difficult when reading text. One thing that I have noticed with these 1024×600 screens is that in a moving environment such as a car, train or bus, it can get difficult unless you hold the device nearer or switch to 800×600 mode. Fortunately, this is one notebook that you can hold with both hands to read things. The mouse button and pointer at the base of the screen are well positioned for this mode. You can also switch to the interpolated 800×600 mode using a quick Fn-ESC key-press and the quality is not bad at all.

The touchscreen is a soft-touch type which is not ideal for those wanting to take notes. So-called ‘vectoring’ where the palm of the hand registers on the screen (see this video demonstration of vectoring on a Q1 Ultra), means you have to adjust from your normal writing style or write on the bottom half of the screen (see image below-right.) For finger use though its very nice. Apart from the edges and corners. There’s a 1+mm lip around the screen which makes getting into the corners especially difficult. You notice this when going to close a window. I have a similar issue with the Q1 ultra so this problem is not unique to the S37.

The screen finish on the review model has a very slight matte coating but I’m told that shipping models have a gloss-finish screen. I have tested this on the SH6 and I must say that I prefer the gloss screen. You can see the differences between the two screens in the image to the left.

Viewing angle is OK but not extreme.

In ‘slate’ mode with the screen twisted and folded back it’s possible to hold the device like a book. Its not light though. 1KG gets heavy after a short while and if you lay it flat on a table the screen angles away from you. Lifting the screen up to an angle doesn’t really help either as it then becomes too wobbly to write on. If Vye managed to put a couple of 30mm-long flip-out mini stands on the back of the screen then it would make a nice, table table-top tablet. Rotating the screen, in software, through 180 degrees does help but then the mouse buttons and pointer don’t work as expected. Rotation didn’t appear to work reliably using the on-frame rotation button. Using the rotation option on the Intel driver worked fine.

Finally, its worth noting that the VGA port allows you to use the device in dual-screen, extended desktop mode with the Intel graphics driver able to drive most common external screen sizes.

Video performance.

The Intel GMA950 GPU is a far better video performer than any other ultra mobile PC GPU solution and it really shows its strength with video playback. The 720p ‘coral reef’ WMV demo from the WMV Showcase that works on Pentium-M 1Ghz solutions is slightly too much for it but that’s a 6mbps 720p file! YouTube and Divx are no problem (Divx tested up to 4mbps, some tearing with GOMPlayer but a smooth experience with Windows Media Player) Flash 9 beta (with h2.64 support) works on this embedded H.264 demo file. One tip though: Make sure that TIP tab is not enabled on the left or right side of the screen. Disable it and save 50% CPU load. Don’t ask me why but somehow it doesn’t sit well together with video.

[pagebreak Stability and applications]
[summary]

Heat and noise.

The fan gets going fairly quickly on the S37. It’s not noisy but the heat coming from it is annoying when holding the device in two hands. I’m fairly sensitive to fan noise and heat so this is probably a non-issue for most people.

Stability.

Vista got up to its usual tricks and needed taming so I performed most of the optimizations in this list. I also had a few issues with the device locking-up. I had to give it the 4-second off-button 4 times in total. I can’t re-create the situation but it seemed to be related to standby activities. This isn’t happening on the SH6 I have so I assume it’s some driver or software build issue that can be fixed for the final retail model. I haven’t heard of anyone else having the same issue.

Windows XP.

Its a shame that the complete set of drivers isn’t available for XP. It is possible to get the device working 95% and I have done this on the SH6 but that last 5% is annoying enough to make it unusable. What I saw though was a much more responsive system and given the choice I would take Windows XP Tablet Edition over Vista. Especially with 1GB RAM. [Update: I have heard that a driver set might be available in December. This is from a third-party source.]

Application tests.

There should be no problem getting any software to work on this device. The platform CPU, chipset and graphics will support anything. The question is though, is it useable or is it too slow! I have not had time to test an extended suite of software but what I have tested has been 100%. That includes OpenOffice, Livewriter, Skype (including video calls. See image below) Google Earth (much smoother than on VIA-based UMPCs although not as smooth as on the Samsung Q1P.)

 

Skype video working between two devices using the built-in camera.

Keyboard

The keyboard is about as small as you could possibly go and still be able to adapt a touch-typing style with good efficiency. It takes some getting used to but the mechanics are excellent and the keys/spacing is just about acceptable for a long email, a short report or some note-taking. The FN-shortcut keys are nice to have at your fingertips as opposed to being buried in an on-screen menu.

WiFi/Bluetooth

Wifi and Bluetooth both seem to have good reception quality. Certainly on par with other devices. I had a few issues with WiFi not being available after reboot. This problem was fixed with a refresh of the network interface.

CF and SD interfaces.

Having both SD and CF interfaces is quite a useful feature but only if they work at high speeds. The SD card is nice and fast with transfers on my stock no-name 2GB SD card topping out at near 6MB per second read speed. It wasnt possible to test the CF card due to a software error but on the Kohinsha SH6 almost exactly the same hardware, it turned out to be fairly slow. Disappointingly slow in fact with transfers not even reaching 1MB per second. This was confirmed by a professional digital photographer that tested the SH6 for a few days. Maybe there are some CF driver issues still to be cleared up.

Optional accessories.

On the left here you’ll see the holder strap that fits to the Kensington lock ports on either side of the device. Unfortunately, due to the 6-cell battery there isn’t a case available. [Correction: The V37 is shipped with a case that is large enough to take the device with the standard 6-cell battery]

I have heard from Vye that a CF HSDPA card will be available for the S37 although pricing and details weren’t available at the time of writing this review.

Upgrading.

The only component that is user-upgradeable is the RAM. I successfully upgraded to 2GB using a SODIMM DDR2 PC2-5300 2GB RAM module and it does help Vista although for low-end use, say, only a few, small concurrent applications, it’s debatable whether it makes a whole lot of difference. Over a longer period of use and with multiple applications, especially office suites, its really a must.

[pagebreak Comparison and summary]
[summary]

Comparison to similar devices.

The 7″ notebook segment is hardly awash with choices at the moment but there are one or two serious considerations. In the ‘slightly bigger’ category you have the Fujistu P1610 and Flybook V33i and V5. Both of these devices are more expensive but worth considering if you need more processing power. In the lower price category are three devices worth considering. Firstly there’s the Kohjinsha SA1 F00KS which is an AMD Geode-powered 7″ notebook with an 800×480 screen. It has longer battery life and the same keyboard but doesn’t have the processing power that the S37 has. Video and multiple office applications could be a problem. The second option is a device based on the VIA Nanobook reference platform. Only one model is available at the time of writing and that’s the Packard Bell Easynote XS. This is only available in Europe and pricing is not yet finalised but it will certainly be cheaper. It has a longer battery life, a VIA-C7 processor (similar processing power, slightly less powerful graphics) and again, a simlar keyboard (untested) but only has an 800×480 sized screen. Finally, there’s the Eee PC from ASUS. This is a very low priced 7″ notebook PC based on a Linux operating system. It has limited media storage space and the application suite is reduced. Finally you have the HTC Shift. While this is not a notebook-style UMPC, it has got a convertible screen that slides and tilts to form a notebook-like device. This is probably the closest competitor to the Vye S37 in terms of price, size and specifications. It doesn’t have the 1024×600 screen but it does have built-in 3G cellular data which enables far more mobility than Wifi.

See similar ultra mobile PC models side-by-side in a configurable, comparison window.

 

Who is the target customer?

The unique selling point of this device is really its screen , hard drive specification and user-upgradeable RAM. While other devices offer a similar form-factor, weight and keyboard experience, none of them have that wonderful screen. When you add the SD slot and, assuming Vye have a working driver, the CF slot specification, the great keyboard and big, fast hard drive and then consider that you can upgrade to 2GB RAM it makes for an impressive little device. The perfect customer for this ultra mobile PC would be a digital photographer. (See below) It would also suit someone wanting to carry around a lot of data for transfer to other devices. With it’s VGA-output it works well as a presentation device and the 1024×600 screen allows those presentations to be edited without the confines of the more normal 800×480 resolution screen. For people attending conferences, it could also make a great tool for collection of images, audio (plug in a zoom-mic and record!) and notes and then emails and entertainment back at the hotel room.

As a tablet PC for handwritten notes I can’t really recommend the S37. While it’s certainly useful for annotations and quick sketches (great for presentations) its not optimised for handwriting in terms of both screen sensitivity and casing design.

Photographers report.

During the testing, a version of the S37 (The Kohjinsha SH6) was given to a professional digital photographer for a 4-day shoot in Stockholm. The photographer reported that the device was extremely good and that it enabled mobility and preview of images taken in a way that he hadn’t been able to do before. The large hard disk was easily able to take a days worth of 40MB-per picture copies of the photo’s and he was even able to install the Canon remote shooting software for direct-to-hard disk photography. He was impressed with the speed of the SD card but unimpressed with the speed of the CF slot. Both slots where required because photo’s are often taken simultaneously on both types of card for redundancy. he reported that it was able to do some minor editing of photographs but post-production of photos was slow due to the slow speed of the processor.

Summary.

The Vye S37 is a high-end ultra-portable product with few flaws. The keyboard is high quality, the hard disk is large and fast and the upgradeable memory slot is a real advantage. The battery life is disappointing considering that similar devices, namely the Q1 ultra and Fujitsu U810, are around 30% more efficient using the same Intel processor platform. Processing power is limited although the fast disk and large memory capability help to counter this.

Windows Vista is not an operating system that fits well on this device as, in standard configuration, Vista is slow and prone to bouts of heavy disk and memory activity. Potential buyers should seriously consider a 2GB RAM upgrade and set-aside time for configuring some optimisations. As the S37 is shipped with Home Premium, the XP downgrade option available with business editions isn’t possible. I Would have much preferred to see Windows Vista Business edition on the Vye. The Media Center is unusable so Vista Business with XP downgrade license is a far better option.

Availability and pricing.

The Vye S37 is available through retailers in Europe and the US. See the VyePC main website and US website for more details.

More information.

jkOnTheRun first impressions of the S37.

jkOnTheRun comments on inking with the S37.

News links and report links about the S37 and variants.

The full product specifications

High quality gallery of S37 images.

Many thanks to VyePC for the loan of this device and to Chris and Lynsey for their help answering questions.