UMID M1 at Dynamism, makes Vaio P look like a briefcase

Brandon West

#1 – 8:34 PM May 22, 2009

Rob, since you are the netbook guru, can you explain the quest for greater battery life? I had a conversation with a netbook-owning colleague today and he didn't have an answer for me. It seems to me that even with a nearly full size keyboard, 600 lines would make the machine a pain to use for an extended period of time. To me, that means a 9 hour battery or similar isn't very useful as I'd be unlikely to use more than few hours of battery before getting back to mains power somewhere. If I were going to use more than that, I'd take a $400 used 12" Powerbook or a slowish Dell M1330.

I want a netbook but I can't justify it even though they seem so awesome.

Roberto Castillo

#2 – 10:31 PM May 22, 2009

The thing about battery life is that you rarely get as much as the vendor claims. So the two hour battery life on your 15.4" laptop might last an hour or less, especially if you watch a lot of video. So when an eight hour netbook lasts "just" five or six hours, you are less likely to notice.

The other thing about battery life is standby time. I just recharged my Acer Aspire One netbook for the first time in three weeks. I have been using it on and off for both short and long periods of time and the battery still had a little less than an hour of life left. I always keep my conventional laptops plugged in when I'm at home because I know that it will only have a couple of hours of battery life at best. With my netbook, I keep it by my bedside where it is always ready to use because I know that I won't get a battery warning if I can't sleep and want to do a little late night web surfing.

Roberto Castillo

#3 – 10:38 PM May 22, 2009

This is a sweet little machine but a quick look at the product page shows that it only 512MB (not the 1GB that Rob says) of memory. That's pretty low for a Windows XP machine even if you probably won't want to run anything other than Firefox on it. Additionally, the 16GB model costs $599 and the 32GB model costs $749. That's pretty expensive for a netbook. Most comparable netbooks will run you half that price. Having said all that, I want it.

strider_mt2k

#4 – 4:37 AM May 23, 2009

I don't think I could really get much use out of something smaller than my Mini 9.

I'd still like to take this for a spin though, just to see how it does.

ZoopyFunk

#5 – 5:02 AM May 23, 2009

"a single mini-USB port, with an adapter included in the box if you're too cheap to spend a few bucks at monoprice for new cables."

OR, you aren't interested in wasting resources, like the cable itself, or the gas used to get it to you, or the countless other needless harmful things that shipping a simple(unneeded) cable incurs.

Being green does not equal cheap.

There is nothing truly green about gadgets yet, but every little bit helps.

Agies

#6 – 6:30 AM May 23, 2009

@1 I think some of the point is in not having to charge it as often between uses. It also allows the unit to be put into staby more often instead of powering down. This is at least the advantage I can see.

Zan

#7 – 9:15 AM May 23, 2009

This eases the loss of OQO, which closed its doors on Thursday.

ranomatic

#8 – 9:55 AM May 23, 2009

@PORK MUSKET

I wish my laptop would go 8 hours on a charge. I travel a lot and often run through both my standard and extended batteries when making long/multi-stop flights. Even so, I can't justify spending another $600 on this.

Rob Beschizza

#9 – 1:33 PM May 23, 2009

We actually broke OQO's end a few weeks ago, including lack of service and support, but no-one noticed because we soft-pedaled it.

Teaches us, it does.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/24/oqo-model-2-producti.html

AlbertF

#10 – 4:21 PM May 23, 2009

Wow, my lap top won't even last 2 hours, how does it last 8 hours long. :(

http://www.mooladays.com

Justin Ried

#11 – 11:29 PM May 23, 2009

The OQO was hard to use with a 5" screen at 800x480 (186 DPI). This thing has an even smaller screen, and a significantly higher resolution: 1024x600 on a 4.8" screen is 247 DPI.

How on Earth is that supposed to be useable? It's not like Windows XP is resolution independent by any means.

(For the record, the VAIO P has an 8" screen at 1600x768, which is 222 DPI. But the VAIO P also uses Windows Vista, which is somewhat more readable at such high pixel density.)

Yes, I'm old. Now get off my lawn, kids.

analogtom

#12 – 6:56 AM May 24, 2009

This post has nothing to do with this item. I do not like the new look of BBG.
It looks like all the other gadget link dumps on the web.

Rob Beschizza

#13 – 7:02 AM May 24, 2009

Also, will do a whole article on the quest for battery life. It's a good time for it.

federal-firearms-license

#14 – 2:18 PM May 24, 2009

I want one, that would be super convenient to carry around and check the web. Browsing on phones or pda's is a pain for me.

mackenzi

#15 – 9:31 AM May 25, 2009

There's a money-making loophohle built into the design of netbooks and "super-pdas" like them: they break easily when dropped. A standard laptop of a few years ago was difficult to drop/break because the user was afraid of losing out catastrophically. But these newer machines should have hand-straps or slip-guard rubber feet on them. What about the parents who buy each of their kiddies a little netbook to practice with? Are they going to buy buy new ones the next day when their backpacks get kicked? What about their homeworks?

Charlie Stross

#16 – 1:50 PM May 25, 2009

Mackenzi: I've been looking at the UMID M1, and according to the in-depth reviews elsewhere, it comes with a lanyard post, just like your pocket camera or cellphone. So, UMID M1 FTW. If they'd make a version of the black-shell model with Linux and 1Gb of RAM, I'll consider buying one to replace my iPaq.

reiserücktrittsversicherung

#17 – 9:23 AM September 4, 2009

Reisekrankenversicherung
Thanks, and GREETINGS FROM GERMANY
my motto: Mountains never meet, people always

Money

#18 – 6:06 AM September 5, 2009

How on Earth is that supposed to be useable?

kenb91

#19 – 12:37 PM September 14, 2009

I love new technology news like this. I haven't seen this before and it looks pretty nice. How well it works or runs is another thing. Thanks for the post. quit smoking

alphat

#20 – 8:49 AM October 7, 2009

This seems far too smaller than netbooks. It will depend largely on whether users can accept such small screens.

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dscraper

#21 – 2:20 AM October 13, 2009

That is a very cool notebook and I like the look of it a lot. And someone said back there that there's only 512mb to run XP that'll slow it down some.

I'm big into solid state storage and 32gb is a nice amount. The rest can be plugged in and for the most part I want it, but the overall size is just a shade too small for me and the keyboard would not suit my fat fingers! Dan home security camera systems