For of all, thanks to Jeff Hill of Misticaudio for sending over this case for review. They’ve stepped in at just the right time with a leather case for the Archos 5IT that fits well, doesn’t impact on the usability of the device and looks great at a very acceptable cost. $28 is a good price although you’ll need to consider taxes and customs costs if you’re importing it.
As you can see from the images, the case is a wallet design with an access window, cut-outs for ports, buttons and the speaker and an integrated stand. There are also two slots for credit cards and, in the fold, a slot for a stylus. Stitching is neat and the clips seem good enough. The stand is relatively solid and there’s some padding and strengthening in the screen flap. A few corners of the device are left exposed so there’s still a chance of a nasty knock if you’re very unlucky and the chance for dust and dust to get into the connectors but to be fair, this is a case that is designed to allow you to use the device and its connectors. I haven’t tested a docking station yet but that should arrive soon and I’ll update this post when I’ve tested it out.
The Archos 5 IT doesn’t ship with any sort of case or cover and although the plastics and screen seem strong, I’d still recommend buying a case for it if you’re planning to use it while mobile. The Misticaudio case is tidy, stylish option.
Jenn over at Pocketables.net is getting ready to take a break from the site to become a new mother, but she isn’t leaving the internet empty handed as she goes. She recently got the Kohjinsha PA [Portal page] series convertible which might just be a device so ugly that only a mother could love it — yet still she managed to dish out a mini review of the PA series as her last post until she returns sometime next year. Jump over and have a look at the smallest convertible in town.
Don’t forget to check out the M1 size comparisons as well. I certainly didn’t realize that the PA series was nearly the same size as the UMID M1 [Portal page] until I did so myself!
Kubel of MyT91.info seems to be one of the first guys to get his hands on the recently released T91MT, the first multitouch version of the T91 [Portal page]. In addition to an unboxing that was posted the other day, kubel now also has a full review of the unit.
The unit is pretty much exactly the same build as the T91, but it is rocking Windows 7 and a multitouch resistive touchscreen which kubel says only functions correctly with up to two points of input.
Though there was a T91MT intro video which appeared to show that the T91MT could understand varying levels of sensitivity, kubel says that this is not the case, and performance is what you would expect with a plain old resistive touchscreen. However, gesture support could possibly help with palm rejection when writing on the screen, but isn’t implemented in all applications.
I’m doubting that the T91MT would make for a good tablet if you want to take ink notes (you usually need an active digitizer for that) but the T91MT is most likely designed around the idea of touch rather than stylus input, hence the included finger oriented software.
Let me refresh your 1008HA memory: We first heard about the 1008HA being referred to as the Eee ‘Shell’ PC. At CeBIT 2009 we got the first glimpses at the 1008HA and it was apparent that the ‘Shell’ denotation was referring to the unibody enclosure. Obligatory MacBook Air comparisons ensued, but the 1008HA is more of a style focused netbook than a MacBook Air competitor.
Its nice to see an Eee PC which isn’t just a slight change from the older, more money conscious designs; the Eee 1008HA is thin and light and looks pretty nice. The keyboard has what appears to be a very good layout, featuring fully sized shift keys. We’ll see if we can get our hands on a production 1008HA at some point but for the time being, check out Engadget’s post for a few reviews.
After many months of wondering if the S5 was going to be as good as we first imagined it to be, it’s time to review the final retail version and make some conclusions. The Viliv S5 is one of the smallest tablet PC’s in the world. It includes a full PC hardware architecture and Windows XP software. The manufacturer has used a mature design from it’s PMP range and the end result is a solid, well-built pocketable device aimed at media, web browsing and, due to the built-in GPS, navigation.
Before I sent the VAIO P [Portal page][review] back to its home I dropped the beta of Windows 7 on it to see how it would handle the upcoming operating system. As you may have heard around the web, Windows 7 seems to be a bit more snappy than Vista, making it feel more like XP while keeping the nice new features. You may have read in the performance section of the VAIO P review that turning on Aero in Vista brought some very visible sluggishness; well I can’t say that has changed in Windows 7, but it did score a bit better on some preliminary benchmarks and it handled boot/standby/hibernate a good deal better than Vista.
One particularly nice thing about Windows 7 was that it pulled down some updates for the VAIO P right as it was installed. Automatically through Windows Update it let me know that there were a few driver updates available for the chipset (in addition to standard Windows updates) and a few moments later I had them installed. Now that is service!
The biggest improvement from Vista to Windows 7 is the decrease in boot times:
In (shutdown)
Out (startup)
Startup/Shutdown
10 seconds
40 seconds
Hibernate
20 seconds
27 seconds
Sleep (standby)
4 seconds
2.5 seconds
Compare that to the Vista based boot times and you’ll note an increase that nearly runs across the board:
In (shutdown)
Out (startup)
Startup/Shutdown
34 seconds
44 seconds
Hibernate
42 seconds
1:10
Sleep (standby)
7 seconds
2 seconds
In addition to improved boot times, the VAIO P scored higher with Crystal Mark when running Windows 7. While the Vista based test scored the VAIO P at 27879, I was able to get Windows 7 to score right around 30400. I was glad to see that the VAIO P was able to break 30k even though Windows 7 seemed to handle the SSD a bit more slowly than Vista. This seemed odd to me because Windows 7 is supposed to deal with SSDs more effectively than previous versions of Windows. However Windows 7 in still in beta so they may still be tuning that facet of the OS. But as I mentioned, despite the slight drop in SSD score (Windows 7 running around 10k while Vista scored 11447), it still scored higher than Vista. Aside from a slight increase in all other areas, there was a largely noticeable jump in the OGL score. Vista has been noted to have poor OGL rendering as I believe it emulates the XP version. Whatever the case, it looks like they’ve gone back to the XP version, or brought the component up to speed as I seem to recall OGL scoring over 2000 as opposed to 135 under Vista.
I’m looking forward to the day when Windows 7 will be offered on a computer like the VAIO P instead of the more bulky Windows Vista.
I just recently finished the last section of the Sony VAIO P review. Many thanks to Dynamism for lending us the unit. The review was done in rolling format, so each section came out at different times over the last few weeks. In addition to a short review summary, this post serves as a hub to access all of our Sony VAIO P review articles as well as any additional VAIO P coverage that we put up while testing the unit.
Summary
The VAIO P is an extremely small computer for something that uses a laptop form factor. It is very light at 1.4 pounds, and very thin, standing just 20mm high off of the desk while the lid is closed. Packing a 1.86GHz Atom CPU, 2GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, and running Windows Vista (specs as tested). The VAIO P uses a completely passive cooling system which means it is totally silent if it is equipped with an SSD. Windows Vista runs well on the device considering its size. Vista is responsive with the specs that we tested and doesn’t get in the way or productivity like it might on some lower powered hardware. The VAIO P doesn’t handle the Aero effect well, turning it on severely hinders the responsiveness of Vista showing an easily visible reduction in performance. Despite its low Aero performance, the VAIO P plays back h.264 encoded media, on its very high pixel density 1600×768 resolution screen, with relatively little issue on Windows Media Player. Most people will want to turn up their DPI and browser font settings to make the screen more easily readable. Flash player playback works well through sites like YouTube and Gametrailers, but HD Flash playback was too choppy to be considered watchable.
The overall build quality is good. The unit feels like one solid piece (albeit very light). Some of the smaller details could be a bit more solid; the wireless radio switch and power slider are just a bit wobbly. The mouse keys provide an excellent tactile and audible click, but feel a bit loosely attached to the unit as well. The hinges have a very light level of strength making the screen very easy to move, this might not be desirable for those that work in a turbulent environment like a car or plane as the screen could move around if shaken too much.
The keyboard is probably the smallest it could be while still offering a very great typing experience. The chiclet style keys make typing comfortable, and it is very easy to pick up. One issue with the keyboard is a tiny right shift key which is placed right next to the up arrow and can lead to some very annoying typing experiences. The nub-mouse works well, but I had to disable tap-to-click because it was easy for the mouse to accidentally register a tap while typing (the mouse is very close to the G, H, and B keys). Reducing the sensitivity of the tap-to-click feature could fix this, but a more intuitive software implementation is possible and would be more desirable.
For much more detailed information on the Sony VAIO P, please feel free to peruse our entire VAIO P review and check lower for additional coverage.
The VAIO P that we reviewed had specs only currently available outside Japan through importers such as Dynamism.
File this post into the better late than never category.
Samsung started into the ultra mobile PC market with the original Q1 [Portal page] from there, they upgraded to the Q1 Ultra [Portal page] which added a split keyboard, increased the screen resolution, and made some other upgrades. Now Samsung is getting back to its roots with the Q1EX which was spotted at CES 2009.
The Q1EX looks like a more refined version of Samsung’s original slate UMPC, the Q1. They dropped the split keyboard from the Q1 Ultra and moved to the Via Nano platform for processing. They were able to get the price down to a pretty reasonable price, but they made some compromises like battery life and no more keyboard.
Laptop Mag got their hands on a Q1EX for a review session. They found the price to be more reasonable than the predecessors, but didn’t like the reduced battery life and lack of an effective method of text input. I would say that the unit is definitely an upgrade over the original Q1 which would be great for anyone who enjoyed using one. There is also a pretty cool organizer case which has a keyboard that attaches to the Q1EX to make text entry a bit easier (pictured below).
