News has just come on from Asus about the new U1F subnotebook (almost UMPC!) that will be shown at CeBit.
While the U1F is an 11.1″ notebook and not really a UMPC, the technology used in it is Ultra Mobile focused.
It will use a an Ultra Low Voltage Core Duo chip from Intel which must be the U2400 or U2500 that’s used in the Flybook V5 and LG C1
Note how all these devices are very high-end. They have to be. The components used in the core hardware (LED lighting, best-of-class batteries, latest Intel CPU’s and chipset’s) all cost big money and to charge the right price, you’ve got to make the whole package look good. This is what I think will happen to Intel UMPC’s in 2007. When the Core 2 Solo and new Celeron CPU’s come out, they will be good but expensive. I just don’t see the price is going to drop below $1000 for most of them.
I look forward to a bit of hands on with this at CeBit (press pass and accommodation is booked now!) The LG C1 drains about 12W with WiFi on so there’s a good hint about battery life. Don’t expect more than 2.5 hours if you want it to be sub-1Kg.
Also due to be shown at CeBit is the external graphics card, the XG-1.
This is a PCI-express solution that could be of interest in the near future to ultra mobile PC owners. PCI-Express is on most, if not all, the Intel chipset’s (including the 915) that are used in UMPCs and it would only take a docking port and docking station with PCI-express slot to enable a gaming-capable ultra mobile PC station. The i7200 already has PCI Express in its docking station but they didn’t provide a slot. What a frustration!
Steve.
