bhds:

Thanks johncl.
Did some searching and usb ethernet adapters can be had for under 30 dollars so I guess that wont be too much of a problem. I wish the online retailers would get their specs right. It would sure save a lot of time having to research the online forums trying to get the correct scoop on specs.

I buy this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812107293#DetailSpecs
It works fine for me.

It turns out that the Q1 with the much less responsive screen (requiring fingernail)
is a Pentium based Q1.  I tried a Celeron M based Q1 and the screen is responsive
to finger pad touch and is also much brighter.  If the Q1b screen is 30% brighter
than the Q1 screen then it should be very good.  I have ordered one so will find out
soon.

There may have been something wrong with the Q1 Pentium you tested. I have one and use my finger tip, not finger nail, all the time and have no trouble with the digitizer. It seems very responsive to my finger touch and I do not feel I have to use alot of pressure.

Also the screen is very bright on mine and I usually run at about 1/3 brightness setting, though I have nothing to compare it to other than my HP laptop. 

I thought the Q1p Pentium version also came with the 30% brighter screen as well as the less sensitive screen. Maybe the display model had a low brightness setting. 

helmutk, my brother-in-law purchased one of those newer HP laptops and boy oh boy was that dim even at the highest brightness setting. It was one of those media center notebooks and was good when using it with a bright movie like Disney's Sleeping Beauty but when playing a darker movie like the Bourne Supremacy it became difficult on the eyes.

Now that you have a Q1p does your HP sit quietly in its carry case most of the time?  :)      Jerry.

 

Yes, I hardly ever pick up the laptop now that I have the Q1. My wife uses it now. My laptop is a HP DV1000 and it'screen is not great but it is bright enough. The Q1 Pentium does everything I used to use my laptop for and is more portable and convenient to use.

Hi HelmutK ( and to all Q1 owners),

I've a question.  Is the Q1 Pentium's battery life longer or shorter than a Q1b?  And also, which touch screen is least sensitive.  I've heard lots of stories of how the Celeron based Q1 has very very sensitive touch screen and that one owner once told me that he sometimes feel like he can even use his hair to write on the Q1!  I haven't get to use the Q1 Pentium or Q1b so I wouldn't know.

Thanks so much.

I think the Q1 Pentium battery life is about the same as the original Q1 Celeron or maybe a tiny bit better since the processor has speedstep technology. But it can also be shorter depending on use since the Pentium has a faster CPU and chipset (cpu is rated 3-5w so it would then be the chipset that uses more power since e.g. 3d graphics is faster on this one).

The Pentium edition is supposedly also kitted with the same screen as the original Q1 Celeron. I think only the new Via version got the new screen from what I have read. The Pentium edition has all the same features as the original Celeron with ethernet, cf, stereo sound and array mic. In other words the most complete package since you also get a bigger drive and 1gb memory standard.

The screens on all the Q1 versions is very sensitive and you might experience vectoring problems. The new Via is supposedly a tiny bit better, but still I think the main focus for the Q1 is that its supposed to be operated easily with a finger and not require a stylus or fingernail to press anything. I think the TabletKiosk v7210 (also pentium) has a harder screen so it will have much less vectoring and making your inking a more pleasing experience.

I had a PDA and was never comfortable with inking on that, so chances are I wont do much inking on the UMPC either. I was more comfortable with onscreen keyboards and will probably get one where the whole width of the screen is a keyboard I can use my fingers on instead. If I do plan to ink it will be in the handwriting recognition area which will be all the way down on the bottom of the screen where I can rest my palm on the edge of the device to avoid vectoring.

I have not purchased Q1b but I will get one later. I'm in Taiwan, where has no Q1b in the store.

According to the reports Q1b can run almost 3 hours with Wifi and BT on.

That's about 60% more than Q1 or Q1p, and this is the main reason for me to buy Q1b.

I know Via CPU focuses on power saving, but take a look at the eo7110, the difference is significant.

Why and how Q1b can achieve this goal? Samsung's magic?

I get about 2 hours 50 minutes use with my Q1 Pentium with the standard battery and 6 hours with the extended battery. This is doing about 1/2 - 1 hour of video or TV watching, much Web surfing, file manipulation, email, some minor application work.

This is with WiFi and Bluetooth on and Battery Manager set to Normal which is...screen brightness at 3/8, CPU speed set to Minimum, Colorbit set to Highest (32bit), and Graphic set to Power Saving. I have not yet needed to go to Max Battery performance for any application including playing DVDs or mulitmedia. 

From reports I have read I do not think the Q1B gets that much more battery performance. Maybe 10% - 15% more at best.

planning to get a q1 or q1b next week.   but which one?....i will use it mainly for multimedia and web browsing.  im going for the q1b because its lighter and the items that the q1b doesnt have (stereo speakers, ethernet, sd/cf slots.)  you can buy adapters.

I think the Q1b should be powerful enough to be able to play a DVD/DIVX fullscreen. And again, the major reason for getting this version is longer battery time. For $100 more you can get the standard Q1 (or for the same price as the Q1b if you get one used) - and you get an ethernet port (not that important if you usually have access to wireless) - a CF port (a veeery slow CF port, better off with a USB adapter for this) - and stereo speakers and array mic. I personally wouldnt want to bring external speakers everytime I wanted to watch a movie on this thing so the stereo speakers is definitely a plus in this regard. I do not know how good the array mic works but supposedly it has some noise cancellation which is nice if you use speech recognition.

I chose the pentium Q1 because it has stereo sound, array mic, ethernet (I need that sometimes), a bigger harddrive, 1 gb memory (winxp is much smoother with 1gb) and a faster cpu/chipset for gaming as well as the nice speedstep technology so that it can run with pretty low power consuption when I dont need the power. But this package costs a bit more.

Good luck in your choice of UMPC! :)

Hi abee and johncl. I have a Q1b and am very happy with mine(as my last few posts have reflected:). I can verify that it works great for DVD's and full screen divx movies with zero playback issues. The screen is extremely nice and bright too. Although it does not have an ethernet port you can easily purchase an inexpensive ethernet->usb adapter for it if your cable modem doesn't have direct usb connection to your PCs usb(which mine has). The single speaker is very good and if you use a set of headphones you will get clear stereo sound.

It's a great machine and has the same game controller layout as its much more expensive pentium brethren which is $350 more. I'm not sure but I believe the Q1b version is the only Q1 model to come with the better brighter screen. The celeron version has a 30% darker screen for sure though.       Jerry. 

Also, for battery life, I get over 4hrs with the 3-cell standard battery pack depending on how many movies and shows I watch. That is much better than the pentium version I believe plus you can always buy the 6-cell battery if you want to double that battery life or the soon released 9-cell (7800mAh)from mugen power through the lionbattery.com website here:

http://www.lionbattery.com/products.php?nocat=1&nosouscat=102

Does anyone know if the Q1b is actually now available at Best Buy and Frys stores? We heard this a while ago but searching Best Buy's site doesn't turn up any results.

I've been condsidering getting a Q1b for a couple of months now, biding my time to see if exciting new models were released for Christmas (which doesn't seem to be the case). I'm also waiting to go to the US to buy mine for cheap (amazing euro/dollar exchange rate).

The Q1b seems to me the best model overall available right now (for under $1000). I'm interested in the good battery life, brighter screen and cool operation. The R2H looks fancy, but it seems thick and heavy, has wifi connectivity issues, short battery life, the camera is not actually that good quality, performance not very good out of the box (can be tweaked, though), GPS takes a while to get working properly (though this can be improved apparently). I don't like the shiny scratch-prone Q1 case, but oh well.

Any opinions?

I haven't seen the Q1b at BestBuy or Frys yet but CDW has it in stock and available...

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1038933