I bought a Fujitsu Siemens P1610!

Since my last post about 5" vs 7" screens, and following a massive 7 hour round trip to collect it, I am now writing to you live from a Fujitsu Siemens P1610!

Yep, I've actually gone even bigger than a 7" device and bought myself Fujitsu's 8.9" touch screen convertible tablet UMPC (or Ultra Portable PC to use Hugo Ortega's definition).

And to Hugo's point, I think its reasonable to classify this device slightly differently to the UMPCs that I normally deal with such as the OQO, VAIO UX, Everun, etc. because it is considerably bigger in size. As I said in my previous post, that was the attraction. I want to try a more traditional clamshell device.

I wanted something that is extremely small and light but that I can still easily flip open and type comfortably on with a screen that I can easily view in this configuration. Using the VAIO UX's 4.5" super high resolution screen on a desk with a bluetooth keyboard is very hard on the eyes, and using the thumb keyboard to write long pieces is very hard on the thumbs!

The P1610 has a great keyboard which I can very easily touch type on (at full speed I reckon - I have reasonably slender fingers though, your mileage may vary), the screen is a great size and the device is super light. Mine with its extended battery weighs approximately 1.18kg.

The little Fuji caused quite a stir when it came out at the end of last year and there are some interesting YouTube videos from James Kendrick here and Hugo here.

I was lucky enough to find a P1610 with built in 3g and the extended battery and I'm finding it to be a great machine so far.

I will keep you posted with my progress.

5" or 7"?

I have always been firmly in the 5" catergory, infact presently I only have 4.5" to play with! I'm referring, of course, to UMPC screen sizes!

Perhaps its since I've started using the Nokia e90 as my permanent phone/ email/ web device or perhaps its something else, but right now my belief in the 4.5" UMPC religion is being tested!

Somehow using a VAIO UX/ OQO e2 or Everun just doesn't seem to be a step up from the Nokia for most things. EG for typing a Blog entry I probably wouldn't use my Communicator...but I'm not sure the VAIO, OQO and certainly the Everun are any better for the task. Without those I then end up on my next level up - the dreaded desktop PC. Being forced back to the desktop is to be avoided at all costs!

I am beginning to see the attraction of a 7" screen in a traditional clamshell laptop design. Something like the Vye Mini V or the very famous Asus eeePC.

The convenience of just opening up the clamshell, sticking it on your lap and being able to read the screen easily from that distance and type easily on a decent built in keyboard is very appealing right now. I say this squinting at a 4.5" 1,024 by 600 display with 120dpi fonts which is sitting on the desk in front of me and typing on a Stowaway foldup keyboard (the type that has the number keys on the top row of text keys (why didn't I listen to James Kendrick's advice on that one and buy the (less sexy) full keyboard version...the answer is in the question)?

The Asus is also only 230 pounds or so which is just staggering value for money. My Nokia cost nearly double that!

Perhaps the Nokia e90 and the Asus eeePC 701 (With XP or Vista installed) will form my winning team? Watch this space!

QIK live streaming from your phone - My thoughts on the Nokia e90 and my broken demo OQO e2 HSDPA

As a test of the QIK service, which allows streaming from a mobile phone, I recorded my thoughts on the Nokia e90 Communicator and the HSDPA enabled OQO e2.

This is taken straight from the e90 and was available live at the time I recorded it! What a cool system!

Sorry about the relatively poor quality though!

OQO HSDPA Everun vs. OQO. Great to meet you in London.

It was good to meet meet some of you last week. It was nice to show a few people the Everun and the VAIO UX...even Dennis Moore (OQO CEO) got involved and we did an HSDPA speed test between the Everun and the OQO e2...

...the Everun beat the OQO, getting nearly double the speed! Apparently both were on T-Mobile but Dennis had earlier said that his was on Vodafone so I'm not sure.

Either it was the fact that his OQO was on a network with a lower signal in our location, or the OQO was somehow unable to pick up HSDPA on the same signal. The OQO wasn't reporting HSDPA in the Novatel software, but the Everun was. I will test this further when I get my hands on one for a proper review and solve the mystery!

Kiat left a comment to say thanks for me letting him have a go with my toys. No problem! I really enjoy that and it makes a change to doing my sales pitch/ review for each device on my disinterested girlfriend!

I will be writing a lot more for UMPCPortal.com in future. I have actually handed in my notice of resignation at work so as of January 8th I'll be blogging a lot more!!

I will be starting off by picking up on all of the news coming out of CES in January.

Keep an eye here and on UMPCPortal.com!

Quick Update - Nokia e90, Everun, VAIO UX, HSDPA OQO, Pocket Surfer, N810!!!

There are a few big changes afoot for me and my Blog but I wanted to give you all a quick update in the meantime.

I am still really enjoying using the VAIO and I can't get used to the Everun's keyboard, although I love having HSDPA built in and the great battery. I will post my full thoughts on the Everun in a few days.

I am also using a Nokia e90 Communicator presently which is very good.

To Zuber's point about VNC/ RDP I have installed TSMobiles which is a Java based RDP client for Series 60 (Nokia's chosen OS for the e90) and it works pretty well. Its certainly not as good as the Windows Mobile one but its good enough if you forgive it a bit of screen stretching.

I also have a good FTP client installed (SIC FTP) and the web browser included isn't bad at all. It's also a pretty good RSS reader which is cool. Its just a shame that the browser doesn't support embedded Flash although it seems that this might be coming soon.

I have the Mail for Exchange add on installed which gives me push email from Exchange and contacts, tasks, notes and calendar synchronisation over the air which works fine so far. Again its not as slick as a Windows Mobile device (suprise suprise on Microsoft's Activesync technology) but it works very well.

Its a very interesting device and the build quality is great, proper Nokia standard, unlike the 770 Internet Tablet which I think feels like a cheap prototype.

I will be testing the Nokia N810 soon and also the Pocket Surfer so you may be interested to see that. I am also hoping to get hold of an HSDPA OQO for a proper review. Watch this space!

OQO event at OQO Bar in Islington, London

This evening I was lucky enough to attend OQO's Anytime/ Anywhere launch event in Islington London on behalf of both this blog and UMPCPortal.com.

OQO asked us not to announce anything officially until Wednesday morning but without giving anything away...I'd like to draw your attention to these units now available for pre-order from Expansys.com HSDPA OQO

The photo attached is me on the left (with a Sony UX1XN in my hand), Dennis Moore in the centre (with his 'special' OQO E2) and my colleague Matt Andrews on the right (with the Raon Everun which I am presently reviewing).

I probably shouldn't have taken two competitive devices with me but Dennis was interested and willing to compare and contrast so it worked out well. There is no getting away from the elegance, functionality and quality of the e2. Its just a superb piece of kit and in many ways its streets ahead of the competition.

The Everun attracted a lot of attention also and was turned on for at least 4 hours today with HSDPA turned on and it only gave up on the train on the way home. Apart from the keyboard, which I hate, the Everun is superb. Without being too specific again...in a head to head 'speed test' it actually beat Dennis Moore on his 'special' OQO with nearly twice the speed in the same location.

I've probably said too much already so here endeth this entry!

T-Mobile UK Windows Mobile 6 upgrades available for download!

In an unexpected move T-Mobile UK have made Windows Mobile 6 updates for many of their phones available today.

There are updates available for the T-Mobile MDA Compact III, T-Mobile MDA Mail, T-Mobile MDA Vario II and T-Mobile Ameo.

You can download them free of charge from the T-Mobile UK phone update website here. Nice one T-Mobile!

I have loaded the update on to my Vario II and I can tell you that Office 6.1 is included. This probably explains the timing, since that was released (again) yesterday.

It's a shame for me that this wasn't released a couple of days earlier because I was up until 5.30am on Thursday morning panicking and repairing my previous Vario II after I botched a ROM downgrade to a WM5 T-Mobile Hungary ROM from my WM6 cooked ROM!

The panic, and the reason for the downgrade, was that T-Mobile were on their way to swap it for a new device due to a hardware fault I was having. Lesson learned: DO double check the power saving settings on your PC before you start a ROM upgrade. If it fails at 25% becuase your PC goes to sleep it can cause problems...particularly if its not an official ROM that you're using and there isn't one available at all (well there wasn't on Thursday!).