OQO bringing Atom-powered Model 2+ UMPC to CES
If it feels like forever to you since OQO’s Model 02 hit the market, your instincts are pretty darn good. But if you were overly optimistic that the Atom-powered prototype it showed off back in August (pictured) would eventually become a reality, you — sir or madam — take today’s golden crown. In a recent Digital Experience! email blasted out to media members worldwide (full blurb is after the break), we’re very clearly told that OQO will be on hand to demonstrate its new Model 2+. Said UMPC will pack a 1.86GHz Intel Atom CPU, a touchscreen OLED display, 2GB of RAM and global 3G connectivity. OQO even goes so far as to say that it will offer performance “up to twice as fast as its predecessor.” Did our heart just skip a beat over a UMPC? Why, yes it did!
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ASUS R50A UMPC reviewed
ASUS’s R50A UMPC has been sort of lost in the company’s flood of Eee PCs, and maybe for good reason — the crew at UMPC Portal just reviewed the $2,000 handheld and came away unimpressed. Although the software package overall was described as “atrocious” and the lack of a keyboard was annoying, the biggest problems were all essentially related to running Vista on the 1.33GHz Atom Z520 CPU with 1GB RAM — you can delete bloatware and use a bigger stylus, but you can’t fix “pretty bad” performance on the lowest possible graphics settings. Ruh roh: Sony’s upcoming VAIO P supposedly has a similar 1.33GHz Intel chip in it and runs Vista. Here’s hoping Sony’s got something a little more impressive up its sleeve for us than what ASUS managed to put together here — otherwise the full R50A review at the read link might be discouragingly prophetic. Read
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Asus R50A UMPC finally arrives
If you’re looking to drop nearly $2,000 on a UMPC, well, first of all, you’re nuts, but second of all, you’re in luck, ’cause the Asus R50A is shipping at €1,475 ($1,878). They weren’t kidding when they said it would be above $500, but for the price you’ll be running Windows Vista on a handheld with a 1.33GHz Intel Atom processor, a gig of RAM, a 32GB SSD hard drive, a 5.6” screen at 1024 x 600, three USB ports, a microSD slot, a wireless keyboard, and an external DVD reader / writer. Connectivity options include 802.11 b / g WiFi, Bluetooth, and 3G. These specs aren’t all that different from what you’d find in a netbook (save for the SSD), except you’re paying more than twice as much and you get to look like you’re playing games on a GP2X while you’re using it on the train. Maybe it’s supposed to be a status symbol?
