Looks like I’ll be working from home on Monday!

A couple of days ago I saw the news on jkk that Asus was releasing a new model of the Eee 900.  What got me excited was the price, just $399.  While I’ve followed the Eee since the 701, I didn’t ever buy a new model because I couldn’t justify the new higher price.  There was immediately some confusion about the configuration of this new model, the 16G.  Amazon listed the model as having the new Intel Atom processor while NewEgg did not.  Some sites listed a .3 megapixel webcam while others listed a 1.3.  Everyone seemed interested in the hard drive, was it split like previous models?  So what actually came today in my box?  I can confirm the following:

1. The Eee 900 16G has a 1.3 megapixel camera
2. The Eee 900 16G has the same Celeron 900Mhz processor as the previous model (no new Atom here)
3. The Eee 900 has a single 16Gb hard drive
4. The Eee 900 has a 5200 mAh battery

The device itself is otherwise indistinguishable from any other Eee 900 so I’ll skip the similarities and go strait to the differences.

Hard Drive

My immediate concern when I saw that it was indeed a single 16Gb hard drive, was did they just pull our the 4Gb of high speed flash drive from the other models and leave the slower 16Gb drive in the device?  I pulled the cover off of the bottom of the device to find out and this is what I found:

Uh Oh…that doesn’t look good.  Looks exactly like the slow 16Gb drive from other versions of the Eee.  I decided to give Asus the benefit of the doubt and run CrystalMark anyway.  Overall, the scores that came back were surprisingly good for such an inexpensive device, but the hard drive write speed wasn’t looking great.

I’ll let you make your own conclusions:

I don’t yet know how this will impact my overall impression of the device, but I would have liked the drive to be faster.  Only time will tell if this is going to be a major issue.  Well, that’s it for now, I’ll post a detailed review by the middle of next week.  My Acer Aspire One should arrive early next week so come back for a details comparison of what may be the two best configured notebooks in the $400 range.  Be sure to post up some comments if you have any questions, or if there is anything you would like me to test.

I recently purchased the Samsung Q1UP and have spend the last few days getting it set up and testing it out.  As it’s new to the market and has some unique features I wanted to put together a unique look at the device.  I owned the previous generation (Q1U) and while it’s form factor was great, I was extremely disappointed in the performance of the processor.  When I heard about the new Q1UP with it’s 1.33 Ghz Intel Core Solo, I had a feeling it might be the perfect UMPC.  Does it live up to the hype?  Let’s see. 

Configuration

Before going into the details of the review, I think it’s only fair to detail the non-standard nature of my configuration.  I have upgraded the device to 2Gb of memory, installed Vista Ultimate, installed an intel wireless card and a Sierra Wireless HSDPA card.  While most of these modifications were for personal preference, the 2Gb RAM upgrade has a significant impact on performance so please keep that in mind when I discuss the overall performance of the device. I have yet to try RedyBoost, but will hopefully try this out soon and update this post at that time.  I also haven’t done any of the normal optimizations and haven’t turned off any of Vista’s features.

General Thoughts

Since there are a plethora of reviews of the original Q1U, I’m going to focus primarily on the differences between that model and this one.  There are really only three key differences.  Video Playback, battery life and keyboard. 

Having owned the Q1 Ultra, one of the aspects of the Premium I was interested in was video playback.  The good news is that I have yet to find a file that the Q1UP won’t playback well.  Even high definition QuickTime files play back at a respectable rate.  Even streaming video was a joy to watch.  You won’t be disappointed in the video playback performance of this device and it’s quite likely that you could replace your PMP with the Q1UP.

While the standard battery life on the Q1U was good, the fact that Q1UP comes with the extended 6 cell battery means that it gets better battery life than the Q1U did.  I’ve been seeing 4-5 hrs with the machine set to performance which is outstanding.  With a second battery this really could be an all day device, even without major optimizations. 

The new keyboard is also an improvement, but I still don’t like the split key design.  I will say that it is now usable and has a good amount of feedback but the industry should take notes from OQO on how to make a keyboard.  The biggest downside is that the Q1UP doesn’t have a backlit keyboard.  It would be so much more useful if it did.

HSDPA Upgrade

One of the best features of the previous generation Q1U was that it had an integrated SIM card holder and could be upgraded to HSDPA relatively easily.  I decided to see just how difficult it would be to add HSDPA to the Q1UP.  Overall, it is a simple process.  You will need a Mini PCI HSDPA card (I pulled apart a 875U USB modem to get mine).  You will also need some kind of antenna.  I purchased on on EBay.  In order to open the Q1UP, I highly recommend you follow Kevin’s guide to open the Q1U here.  You’ll notice an added benefit of the thicker design of the Q1UP, there is plenty of space inside for an antenna.  Once mine was installed, it looked like this:

One interesting design change is that there is a small tab of plastic that prevents you from inserting a sim card correctly.  When you remove the tape that is covering the SIM card adapter, you will see a hole that looks like this:

You can see the tab that must be removed just above the words SIM in the above picture.  Once this is removed, you can reassemble your Q1UP and you will be ready to test out your handy work. 

HSDPA Performance

I wanted to compare the performance of the internal HSDPA installation to the performance of the USB 875U.  I’ve posted speedtest screen shots below for you to make up your own opinion.

USB 875U

Internal Card

Overall, I’ve been very pleased with the performance of the internal HSDPA.  I’ve been consistently getting 1.8Mbps down which is quite good.  It’s a joy to not have to have any dangle hanging off the device and makes life much easier.  I’d highly recommend the modification to anyone with some technical skill.

Conclusion

The Samsung Q1UP is a definitive laptop replacement.  It’s the first UMPC that really can replace a laptop for almost any use.  While some may feel the $1300 asking price is too high, it’s a small price to pay to have a completely mobile solution that weights less than 2lbs.  You can do photo and video editing, in addition to any normal productivity task without heavily taxing the system.  If you need the performance of a dual core processor and 4Gb of RAM, you may find that the Q1UP isn’t quite up to the task, but for most users it will be more than adequate. 

With blistering performance, connectivity anywhere and great battery life, the original promise of the UMPC is finally coming to fruition.      

I've decided to do a new series. Most of the technorati post about amazing now gadgets that will change you lives. They get a free sample from a vendor, play with it for a week or two and tell you that you should or shouldn't spend your hard earned dollar on it. It makes a lot of sense until the real world sinks in and we don't all make $150,000 or know the PR Guy for Samsung (Note: PR Guy for Samsung, this doesn't mean I won't evaluate press samples if you so chose to send them to me). We all wish out tech budget could go a bit further.

The Bargain Hunt. The idea is simple. Technology evolves every 18 month (thanks Moore) but our usage patterns don't change that quickly. With the exception of battery life, most can skip a generation of iPods and wait for a really compelling reason to upgrade (read: when their battery no longer holds a charge). With this in mind, I thought I should dedicate some time each month to highlighting some of the best deals in last year's tech, with helpful tips to make your gear go further. With a little research and an ebay account, you'll find your yearly tech budget goes much further.

This month we'll cover the basics of how I buy gear that meets my needs at a reasonable cost, and next month we will feature the first TBH device. Below I have listed out some guidelines that can help you find a great deal.

1. Shop Smart. Most of the time I don't buy a gadget on release day. Invariably it will go on sale or have a discount somewhere within a couple weeks of release. A notable and recent example is the iPhone, which dropped $200 in price just a month after release. Willingness to wait jsut a month could save you a sizable chunk of change on your next purchase.

2. Do you research. Sites like PriceGrabber, ResellerRatings, CNET and Froogle are great to help you find deals, but remember they don't always index all sites as most of them are "opt in" sites. As an example, Amazon.com often has devices on sale for less than the lowest price on any of these sites. Sites such as edealinfo.com and xpbargains.com can have great deals too if your willing to do a bit more legwork. All of these sites are good examples but just remember that knowledge is power and you can never have too much of either. Spending some extra time looking for a deal can pay big dividends.

3. Ebay is your friend. Most people think of looking for deals on gadgets on eBay, but few realize how valuable a funding source it can be. If you've done your research and found a great deal you often have saved enough money that you will still recoup a reasonable percentage of the purchase price when you resell a gadget to fund a new purchase. I often get 80% of what I paid when I re-sell a gadget and have even been able to make money on occasion. Like above, knowledge is power. Before you list your item, add ten auctions for the same item to you watch list and see what their closing bids are. See if there are commonalities among the highest priced items that will help you improve your listing and be more desirable to a buyer.

4. Don't be afraid of the word re-furb. This one can be a gamble, but a large number of "refurbished" products are simply open box returns. You can get some great deals and often a manufacturer or third party warranty still costs significantly less than a new device. Several manufactures (Lenovo, Dell, Fujitusu, Apple, etc) have dedicated sections on their web sites that allow you to brows for these deals.

I hope these quick tips help you on your quest for gadget supremacy. I'll be back next month with a real world example based on these few principals.