Samsung Q1EX Reviewed: Lower Price, Lower Run-Time
My first reaction to Samsung keeping the Q1 UMPC series alive was a giant “meh!” I couldn’t understand why they’re trying to introduce a new model when for all intents and purposes the UMPC is dead. I do believe that as a concept it moved us forward and had much input to the current netbook craze, but that doesn’t merit a fourth go-around for the niche device.
LAPTOP Magazine just gave the Q1EX a review, and now I’m scratching my head even more. The price is down quite a bit over the Q1UP model: $750 as compared to around $1,200 when I bought mine. That’s great… but expected unless the hardware is beefed up. Doesn’t look like that’s the case with the CPU replacement nor the battery shrinkage.
The 1.33GHz Intel Core Solo went away in favor of a presumably less expensive 1.2GHz VIA Nano. The old 6-cell battery loses 33 percent of its capacity, with Samsung opting for a thinner 4-cell unit. You’d think you’d lose around 33 percent of your single charge run-time, but LAPTOP could only get around 2 hours and 15 minutes. By comparison, I routinuely saw 5 hours of solid use on my older model. Didn’t we learn our battery life lessons in the first or second iteration of these devices? I’m probably sounding harsh (again) but after owning the three prior models, I’m disappointed to see this next one apparently take two steps back.
Tastes great but definitely less filling.
I think it’s easy to look at every product through the lens of an enthusiast, but Samsung is probably releasing this product more for their business side. I’ve heard their UMPCs have sold relatively well for use in applications like health care. That said it is still pretty disappointing to see them step back on battery life, even with the price drop (which would have been necessary anyway given all the competition in the market that wasn’t there when the Q1 was first released).
If the UMPC is dead, maybe that name could be re-purposed for the so-called netbook category? After all, the so-called netbooks are ultra-mobile PCs.
Or does someone have a trademark on UMPC?
I really regret buying my Q1 UP at this point. To my mind, it had a couple large faults:
-No back or front lighting of keys
-Awkward sloppy thumb/joystick mouse compared to similar systems on for instance the Toshiba Libretto line
-separated plastic layer over touchscreen caused a lot of missed or miss-interpreted taps.
-Poor mechanical build quality. Slight flexion of unit would cause the screen to momentarily blink off. I would also often get the camera app to come up accidentally as if the top mounted “shutter button” had been depressed.
-exceedingly easy to hit the volume and screen adjust areas accidentally while trying to use stylus
The price is nice but I wish they put some buttons on it. Is Samsung trying to make this more iPhone like? I think I read it doesn’t even have a slot to hold the stylus. I would rather get the Q1 Ultra. I just wish the Q1 Ultra with the pentium m was cheaper.
If they put less of a CPU in it and beefed up the battery a little then with Android or Maemo on it they could make it run all day and still do all the tasks that you want from a tablet. Then it would be a useful tool and people might want it. Seems like the accountants have been allowed to design this revision with no real thought for what it wants to do.
Samsung sacrificed too much for the reduced price point. They should put the Q1 line out of its misery.
I like my Q1U though the built in split keyboard is useless (I usually carry a folding bluetooth keyboard)
For me though what kills it is the performance. Even running Win7 apps feel slow and the battery life is appalling … what’s the point of an Ultra Portable that I need to stick on charge every couple of hours.
For my money I’d have put an Atom processor in there with a couple of Gig of RAM, included a decent sized SSD as standard. Removed the keyboard and worked in a higher capacity battery.
Then work with the Origami Experience folks to produce a finger friendly UI that includes web browsing and email (ever tried to use Outlook on a Q1U – there just isn’t enough screen!), get a Kindle ebook reader on there and beef up the speech recognition so I can dictate email.
Sure… it’ll be a niche product, but one I’d prefer to spend my money on that a Kindle and an iPhone etc
I love my Q1UP, I take it with me everywhere, and it gets used for everything. I have a tiny quad core RAID machine that’s only about 2 or 3 times larger than my Q1UP that I built for when I need raw power, and that fits in a briefcase, along with tons of accessories, like a WRT54GS router, a switch, cables, a spare hard drive, power adapters, etc. I use TightVNC with my Q1UP to access the quad core PC so I don’t need a mouse or keyboard for it.
I’m telling you, I have the most awesome portable system evar. It took me forever to figure out how to make a quiet, power efficient, and lightweight computing system hog power, sound like a tornado, and weight 30 pounds, but I did it. Just kidding.
Seriously though, now I can do anything regular PC people do, except I can take it with me. My mobile computing resources are not waifish anymore.