OQO Model 02+ benchmarked

zuzu

#1 – 7:06 AM January 17, 2009

Nice, but a plastic rather than metallic exterior (as the previous model had)?

Rob Beschizza

#2 – 7:15 AM January 17, 2009

The old one has a metallic exterior?

zuzu

#3 – 7:57 AM January 17, 2009

IIRC.

But I think it also had an external antenna for wireless functionality, so I'd guess that's the compromise.

Yet, Apple's aluminum laptop designs (after the titanium Powerbooks had a wireless dampening problem) seems to have figured out how to have the "best of both"; I'd like to think the former-Apple designers at OQO could do just as well.

I know it's a bit shallow, but from a marketing standpoint glossy plastic has come to be associated with cheap netbooks, while matte aluminum has come to be associated with quality (and "justified" higher price). OQO has had a difficult time enough as it is trailblazing the UMPC market segment, especially in making the case that "small" is worth "expensive and slow". Although the Model 02+ looks like a major improvement for the latter categories.

zuzu

#4 – 8:00 AM January 17, 2009

Ah, perhaps the black finish doesn't translate so well into the product photos? From OQO's about page:

Designed using OQO’s signature magnesium alloy chassis but in sleek black

zuzu

#5 – 8:03 AM January 17, 2009

Photos from this Flickr set, specifically.

Rob Beschizza

#6 – 8:03 AM January 17, 2009

Ah, that was the model 1. It's not been around for a long time, and in person doesn't actually look or feel as nice as the model 2. Have you seen it in person? It's very attractive. The only thing I hate about mine is that it's saddled with Vista and I can't easily downgrade without an external USB optical drive.

zuzu

#7 – 9:49 AM January 17, 2009

I've only seen the model 1 in person, back in... 2003 maybe?

Indeed, the Windows-orientation of the OQO (and, somewhat, the price/performance) is why I haven't acquired one for myself yet. (Although the Atom-based upgrade and improvements in Ubuntu Mobile have me seriously considering it again.)

If a development community was specifically addressing Ubuntu MID on the OQO and ironing out all the details in a timely fashion, I'd probably commit to buying one.

I've been arguing for several years now that Apple doesn't have to be the only company with a custom UNIX distribution that makes their hardware more attractive than other competitors using Windows. Siemens-Fujitsu could justify their premium prices for niche products this way also. Canonical / Ubuntu, IIRC, is also seeking hardware manufacturers to partner with to provide the unified experience of selecting hardware and writing software to provide the most synergy using Ubuntu Linux. (This also would happen to provide a legitimate business model for paid programming of Free Software, and prove that active software development is a more effective means of value-adding hardware sales than using DRM / Trusted Computing the way Apple ties Intel OSX to its hardware.)

zuzu

#8 – 9:53 AM January 17, 2009

The only thing I hate about mine is that it's saddled with Vista and I can't easily downgrade without an external USB optical drive.

I like that the Samsung SE-T084L includes LightScribe, but I don't know if there's RPC-1 firmware for it yet.

J France

#9 – 9:06 PM January 18, 2009

The trend to saturate the shit out of colours on LCD displays is getting tiresome.

At what point did manufacturers decide that achieving a higher gamaut wasn't important? And since that is the case, where is my CRT UMPC? I need near-faithful CMYK repro ALL THE TIME.

donniebnyc

#10 – 12:27 PM January 20, 2009

I miss my Psion.