We’re happy to say that your (and our) wait is over! Tablet Kiosk have signed a distribution deal with ECS and they’re bringing two versions of the ultra mobile PC to the U.S. and Europe. One of the two will be available with a Pentium M ULV processor option making it the first Pentium-M based Microsoft ultra mobile PC that has been launched. That should give it clear performance advantages (less power consumption and more procesing power) over other MS UMPC’s. The press release is on the TK news page.
The two new UMPC’s are the eo i7209 (Celeron-M) and the i7210 (Pentium-M)
The info has been added to our product database including more images and links to news as we see it.
- eo i1709 specification page with hi-res images and news links.
- eo i1710 specification page with hi-res images and news links.
- All ultra mobile PC product livelinks.
- eo i1709 livelinks.
- eo i1710 livelinks.
Pre order has started in the UK (with delivery available Europe-wide) through PocketPC-solutions- the official Tablet Kiosk UK partner. The i7209 is available with a special pre-order price of UKP750 and the i7210 is available with a special pre-order price of UKP950. In the U.S., Tablet Kiosk in the U.S. are offering the devices for $1099 and $1399 resectively.
What do we think of them then? Well, the docking station will make a huge difference to useability, especially with the Pentium-M version which could possbily be used as a complete low-end desktop replacement. Its a shame that the cool folding keyboard (shown here) doesnt seem to be bundled and as expected, the Digital TV receiver available in some Asian versions has been removed. There’s no GPS built-in which, for this price, should really have been bundled considering that the digital tv module seems to have been taken out. The Celeron based model doesn’t seem to offer much over the existing eo v7110 apart from the extra 512MB, the docking station and 1.3Mp (15fps) camera. For $200, thats a reasonable deal. We’re glad to see that both devices have a synaptics touch pointer device which will make it much more useable. We’ve also noted that dual-screen operation is possible via the docking station. Hopfully this is not just a mirror screen feature and TV-out also operates on a seperate second screen.
Pricing is about right for the two models especially as the docking station (still unique amongst the Origami UMPC’s) is included. Not only is this going to be the first Pentium-M based umpc but it will be the first ultra mobile PC that converts easily into a desktop PC.
Regards
Steve / Chippy.
