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More news now about the Q1b

Last post 12-14-2006, 12:34 PM by helmutk. 133 replies.
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  •  11-01-2006, 9:47 AM 13115 in reply to 13095

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    propstm, I haven't put enough time in either unit yet to write up a review. So this is still impression or observation level. My expectation for UMPC might be a bit different from others since what I wanted was a portable laptop with touch screen, slate design, and acceptable battery life.  I have a Fujitsu P7120 laptop and NEC Litepad tabletPC. I like both, but Litepad has miserable battery time and P7120 doesn't have a touch screen.

    Honestly the feature that most interested me in R2H were SD card slot and better looking design. (But now I think Q1 overall looks better. Hard to look good if you're fat. ;) ) I was happy to have GPS and Cam, but it didn't really affect my buying decision. I tried Cam in my room a few times, and the camera software was really slow. Maybe R2H is not powered enough to run the software, but it took long time to load the software and operate it, and being unable to see let alone click the capture button was adding salt to injury. I can't say much about the camera quality since my room was dark and I know this type of cameras are meant to be used in bright area.
    The screen quality of R2H is very nice, and actually I like it better than Q1's. Bright, Crisp, and less spongy and less sensitive. I experience almost none vectoring problem with R2H screen. At the same time, Dialkey is not very practical in R2H for the lower sensitivity but I doubt many people use Dialkey anyway.

    In terms of performance, both seem OK. R2H generates some heat and fan sounds, but not too annoying. Q1 seems to run more silently. R2H has more RAM out of the box, but also has more crapware installed. You will need to remove quite a bit of those to run it  in decent speed. I'm going to upgrade Q1 to 1GB soon, and hopefully it will provide some performance boost.  Q1 has AVS feature which never worked for me. This is my second Q1b, and both units hang while booting into AVS. Not a big deal for me since I have zero intention to use AVS, but wonder this is a common issue or I'm just very unlucky. The screen rotation is easier with Q1. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough, but it seems only way to rotate the screen in R2H is using a tray Intel graphics icon. The problem is once I rotate the screen, about nine of out ten times, the taskbar gets messed and I can't read the bottom portion of the screen. Rotating the screen again is not an easy task when taskbar and task icon are not readable.  R2h has a floating tip. I don't know which program provides this feature, but it's very handy. Most of time, it works like active digitizer screen.
    R2H has a fingerprint sensor, but I didn't bother to use it. I have one in my laptop, and found it decreases the performance and is more annoying than useful. But, I can see it could be useful for some business users.

    As for battery charging, R2H seems to charge much slower than Q1b does. Maybe that's because my R2h has bigger capacity battery. I noticed that R2H has 12V output compared to Q1's 19V. 19V is more close to "regular" laptop output, and for me, it's a good news since I can use external battery I got for my other laptops with Q1.
    I haven't tested my Q1b's battery time yet. But many have reported that it lasts more than 3 hours with regular battery (3 cell?). Last time I tested, my R2H lasted about 4 hours with BT/WiFi on and screen brighness in the center. Honestly, I'm not thrilled at 3 or 4 hours battery life in ultra mobile device, and think this is the area the next generation of UMPC must improve heavily on.

    Since I'm going to use a BT keyboard with my UMPC, a stand is a must. Q1b has an integrated stand. It's a bit flimsy and will probably be broken easily if pressure is on, but I'm very happy that it is integrated to Q1. R2H has a stand which looks more sturdy, but needs to be carried separately. One more thing in my bag, and one more thing to be protected. Not good.

    The R2H box is pretty heavy and it has lots of goodies. Included case is not bad at all. R2H actually looks smaller in that case. The look is deceiving. :)  Compared to that, Q1b comes with pretty much nothing. Just main unit, battery, case, and cable.

    Oh, I almost forgot. One big advantage of R2H is point stick and more buttons. Point stick is working like just those found in many laptops. It works fairly well and even offer tapping. R2H has left/right buttons as well as direction and enter buttons. Unless you need to enter text, most of thing can be done with those buttons. Pretty handy for web surfing.

    The feature most I like to have in my Q1b is an integrated SD slot. With SD slot, Q1 would be a great companion to my digital camera. I can carry a memory card reader, but less is better in mobility. The lack of Lan port in Q1b bothers me a bit. Granted I rarely use LAN port now that wireless is everywhere, I can imagine some situations (like in hotel rooms) I have to have a LAN port. But then I can make a bluetooth connection between my EV-DO enabled phone, so it might not be a big deal.

    Lastly, regarding your question which one is superior, I can only say it's just subjective. It's no secret I'm much happier with my Q1b, but I can think of many reasons why some people prefer R2H and being perfectly happy with it. I just appreciate the small dimension and weight of Q1b since it was my top priority in UMPC buying decision.

    Hope this helps and enjoy your Q1b.

  •  11-01-2006, 9:52 AM 13116 in reply to 13107

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    johncl:

    The extended battery for the Q1 doesnt make the unit thicker right? It only makes it a bit taller I think?

    If you can, compare the weights of the units with and without batteries inserted. The Q1 seems to be quite a bit lighter than the Asus R2H.

    johncl, I think Q1b has 3 cell battery suppose the regular one is 3-cell. I don't really know much about battery stuff, but all I can say is it comes with non-extended battery. I don't think Q1's extended battery will make the unit any thicker. Without battery, R2H is still heavier than Q1b, but it has more sturdy feeling.

  •  11-01-2006, 10:17 AM 13119 in reply to 13115

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    Thank you ! I think It's great to have someone give an honest opinion comparison of 2 devices. This community is still very young, and the more user reviews we can get, the better.

    This is greatly appreciated!

    -MP

  •  11-01-2006, 10:39 AM 13120 in reply to 13119

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    Yes must agree with propstm here that its very nice to get some comparison information. The selection of UMPCs is quite scarce at the moment and I think for many, $1000 is a lot of money to get one of these devices. It better be a good one then, one that is used a lot!

    I have been torn between the Samsung Q1 Pentium M and the Asus R2H. Why the Pentium version and not the Via version you say? Well its just so much better a performer, and I can see myself wanting to play some games on this device as well. I read that the Via CPU and chipset has a bit above 1000 3dmark2001 rating while a test of the Tablet Kiosk i7210 which uses the same Pentium M 1 GHz and chipset as the Q1 Pentium edition has a 3dmark2001 rating of above 3000 ! Thats 3 times better which can make a big difference. The Pentium has speedstep technology also so it can be run in a very powersaving mode if you want max batterylife. Still I would probably get the 6-cell battery for the Q1 so that I can use it for a minimum of 4-5 hours between each recharge. The Q1 stereo sound has gotten some nice reviews so loosing that in the Via version is bad imo. And for work I wont have access to WLAN so I have to use LAN, a port that is also missing on the Via.

    Now the Asus R2H has this nice GPS which I would love to use in my car as well as an integrated web camera. Unfortunately it seems this webcamera isnt very good in low light conditions (indoor) so I would probably have to use a USB one instead then, in which case the Q1 would be just as well a choice. I wonder if there are some nice laptop webcams that would fit nicely with this, maybe one that has no wire but just plugs into your USB port on the top of the device?

    The GPS is not a big loss. If I need it I might as well get one of these bluetooth receivers - some of these get brilliant reviews as well, except that its one more device to recharge (unless I get a wired one instead to avoid this, but then you have to plug in another device every time you need gps).

    The major problem with the Pentium edition is price. Newegg has em for $1200. Thats just about $200 more than I am willing to spend on a device like these really...

  •  11-01-2006, 10:49 AM 13123 in reply to 13120

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    ignar, there are CF to SD adaptors, does the Q1b has a CF slot?
  •  11-01-2006, 11:33 AM 13125 in reply to 13123

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    No. that's one of the feature Samsung removed from Q1 when they designed Q1b.
  •  11-01-2006, 11:57 AM 13126 in reply to 13125

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    ignar:
    No. that's one of the feature Samsung removed from Q1 when they designed Q1b.


    that´s the part I don´t like of the Q1b and eo v7110, they removed to many good things in them.
  •  11-02-2006, 3:25 AM 13151 in reply to 13126

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    Yeah its sad that they dont equip all of these UMPCs with SD and CF card slots, the most commonly used flash types for Digital SLR today. When I first read that the Q1 had a CF port I thought immediately: Wow, a great tool for a digital photographer! Instead of having a dedicated photo backup device, I can get a general purpose PC as well. But then I started doing some enquiries asking people to test the CF port on the Q1 and I was let down by the really bad transfer speed it offers, almost like an old USB 1.0 card reader. So its essentially useless as the device would use about 50 minutes hour to dump a 2GB CF card.

    So when I get a UMPC I will probably carry a small USB plugin cardreader as well in my photobag.

  •  11-02-2006, 3:39 AM 13152 in reply to 13151

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    For digital photography i recommend the i7210. The SD reader in it is very fast indeed.
    6Mbps read speed.

    The i7209 is probably good enough for DP. Cheaper than the 7210.
    I use thr 7210 for photo blogging. I run The Gimp for quick adjustmets and its fine.

    Also has the docking station.

    Steve
  •  11-02-2006, 9:47 AM 13158 in reply to 13152

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    Yes the Tablet Kiosk is nice, but the i7210 which is the one I'd like is still a bit too expensive. Also, I need a CF port for my Canon 20D SLR pictures and not an SD port! So I'd have to use an external card reader anyway - the Pentium Q1 seems like a better deal then at $1200 (might get one lightly used for $1000 these days).
  •  11-02-2006, 9:01 PM 13195 in reply to 13158

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    I don't see much of a future for CF cards. Nikon has started to move to SD cards in their higher-end cameras, and I'd bet that starts to trickle down to the lower-end ones eventually. Most PDAs coming out now have SD card slots. Once upon a time it was CF only, then both.

    In a couple of years, CF will be redundant. So not putting a CF any more was probably a good move, even if inconvenient for you. Surely you have a USB cable for the camera? most cameras will download/transfer picces fvia USB cable pretty fast.

    Nothing to see here. Move along...   ;-)

    Woadan

  •  11-02-2006, 9:17 PM 13199 in reply to 13195

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    Woadan:

    I don't see much of a future for CF cards. Nikon has started to move to SD cards in their higher-end cameras, and I'd bet that starts to trickle down to the lower-end ones eventually. Most PDAs coming out now have SD card slots. Once upon a time it was CF only, then both.

    In a couple of years, CF will be redundant. So not putting a CF any more was probably a good move, even if inconvenient for you. Surely you have a USB cable for the camera? most cameras will download/transfer picces fvia USB cable pretty fast.

    Nothing to see here. Move along...   ;-)

    Woadan



    You are right but... I will post probably tomorrow how good is to have a CF slot.  I prefer to have a CF slot than a SD because thanks to an adopter I can use in a CF slot 17 different  cards.
  •  11-03-2006, 5:06 AM 13200 in reply to 13199

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    Sure SD cards seems to catch on, even Canons high end SLRs take both SD and CF cards. But the fact is that CF cards are bigger, so its easier to pack more flash memory on them. And there will be quite some time until CF cards are being fully replaced by SD or other technologies. I guess the best solution is just to carry a small USB reader and not to worry about the UMPC supporting your kind of card.

  •  11-03-2006, 6:07 PM 13233 in reply to 13200

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    OK, I'll repeat it because it seems to have been missed:

    I know of no cameras that don't have a cable that can be used to connect them to a USB port on a computer. So, instead of bemoaning the fact that the IMPC you have has "X" type flash memory slot on it but my camera uses "Y" type, just bring the cable along.

    Nothing to see here. Move along...

    Woadan

  •  11-03-2006, 6:15 PM 13235 in reply to 13233

    Re: More news now about the Q1b

    Woadan, now you will know one:

    Canon ixus i zoom. It does have a usb port on the cradle but i really don't carry any cradles with me...

    So 7210 with sd slot is super for me and my cam.....

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