Samsung Overhauls The Q1 UMPC May 9, 2007

Read more Gadgets , Gizmodo UK , Mobile Devices , Portable Media

The oddity that is the UMPC continues to gain traction, albeit really slowly, and sitting at the forefront of the drive is Samsung, which has just delivered the Q1 Ultra. Yesterday, we had Fujitsu enter the fray while Sony is commanding the high-end with its pricey Vaio UX-1.

Promising that’s it better than the overpriced original Q1- which was pretty slow, had no keyboard and poor battery life - this one is powered by either a 600MHz or 800MHz Intel processor, has 1GB of DDR2 memory and comes with an integrated split-QWERTY keypad, mouse, and user-defined function keys.

Battery life has been boosted to 4.5 hours [claimed] and performance speeds have been increased. There’s a 7in LED display with a native resolution of 1024 x 600 and a brightness rating of 300nits. On the comms front, it sports integrated 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR and an optional 3.5G HSDPA modem. It weighs 1.5lbs.

There are four versions of the Ultra on the way, and the first to arrive is the Ultra-V, sporting a 60GB hard disk drive, Vista Home Premium Edition, biometric fingerprint scanner, camera and a $1,200 price tag. A budget version, the $799 Q1 Ultra-EL, has a 40GB drive, slower processor and no camera and is due out in a few weeks. Remember, none of these attractive prices are a useful indicator of what they will cost over here, just prepere to be gouged.

The Ultra-XP, due in June, is aimed at businesses and will use the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition OS. Top of the range will be the Q1 Ultra-CMV, due in August, with in-built HDSPA modem and an 80GB HDD. No prices for those yet.-Martin Lynch

UMPC portable laptop samsung