Lat night I went to an Avanade / Expansys Gadget Show which gave me a chance to view/review some new UMPC's and SmartPhones. Some of the devices on show there were the HTC Shift, HTC Touch Cruise & OQO E2. There were other devices available but nothing revolutionary or ground breaking in usability so I don't feel the need to mention them.

What made me attend?

Initially, my main draw was the HTC Shift, although the highlight of the event by a long way was a demonstration and play with the OQO E2. There has been a lot of hype and disappointment in the UMPC market and I for one am a bit fatigued by the chase for the Holy Grail. Too many promises and not enough umpf!

Why do I want a new toy?

I have been casually researching UMPC's and Mobile Devices for a few months now as I am in the market for a real mobile web experience for my daily commute to work (2hrs 15Min's each way!). Until now I have yet to find anything that I would really call usable and I do not really want to spend a fortune on a device I have heavily compromised with.

I have been toying with idea of tablets such as the Fujitsu life-book (8" screen) but this device is not great on screen quality, battery life, weight or power. I have also been looking at some other devices such as Macbook’s, Flybook’s, the Levano x61 and the Vaio range for performance reasons, however I have been unimpressed with the weight, size, price or battery life (not in any particular order, as no device has met all my requirements).

So where does this leave me?

Well I have accepted that web development on a small screen is not really viable, and I realise that portability and battery life means I won’t be able to have the power of my desktop in my hand. I really just want a portable device that I can read my feeds with, do some emails, research and write some blog’s, create some slides with and maybe work on the odd Google doc or spreadsheet.

The first Device - The HTC Shift.

Pros

• The keyboard is nice to use
• HSDPA
• The screen size is very usable for surfing, and tilts which is great for trains and planes.
• Built in GPS

Cons

• The screen slider broke in the demo! It's back to the factory for that unit.
• It’s heavy (800g with battery)
• It’s Bulky (207 mm (L) x 129 mm (W) x 25 mm (T))
• No dock option
• Average battery life.
• Good Resolution (800x480), but no option to zoom.
• No HDMI output
• Not many specific usability features.

In short, I don't really get the hype. Personally I don't think I would even bother borrowing one as my laptop is just as portable as this. It’s a very personal choice I know, so I am not going to go into mass depth as to why I am unimpressed with this device. But I just don’t feel like there is much usability innovation here. I need a big Wow factor and this device just does not have it.

So what did get my attention?

The OQO E2

A Fantastic device and in a month or so the HSDPA version with a built-in Sim slot will be available.

Who are OQO?

Well I have seen a couple of their previous devices and have been impressed, but up to now I did not feel the devices were up to the task for either processing power, battery life or usability yada. It turns out that the company has some serious pedigree in the ranks. They have device designers from Apple and research engineers from IBM. Hmm, interesting, beauty and solid engineering.

So who is this device for?

Well, the main user base for this device seems to be the business user who is on the road a lot (Ha haaa, that's me!). Thanks to the dock (which has shades of Apple styling), you can use the device with a keyboard & screen in the office or home, and still use the device on the road - no more merging files, syncing folders or playing with OPML's, Bookmarks and various other annoyances!. Although, I have learnt from this ongoing nightmare, and adopted many SaaS applications to alleviate such issues raised by multiple machines.

What are these devices realistically used for?

So having determined that the device is usable and very portable, I was interested to find out how well it performed when running multiple apps. The vendor claims this to be a true desktop replacement (pah!), which I disagree with as I can't develop on this (well, not with ease). Graphics and development environments simple kill the resources and screen real estate; however for simple tasks this device really does do an amazing job.

Pros

• Excellent ergonomics on the mouse pointer stick. The guy who invented the laptop version is their CIO. The mouse pointer stick has more control than a laptop version due to your fingers not stretching and your thumb being directly above the stick.
• 2.5hr slim battery life and 4.5hr large battery life with everything on. I can't grumble about large battery size either as it’s still amazingly slim. The batteries both have built in illuminated battery meters and can be plugged into the mains with a very Apple style clip on adapter (It’s tiny).
• Its very light weight (454g enough said!)
• Great dimensions - It will actually fit in you pocket and not feel like you’re carrying a brick (142mm (W) x 84mm (H) x 26mm (D)) honestly!
• The screen is bright and has an optimum resolution of 800x480. However, impressively it can zoom into 1000x600 and 1200x720 interpolated modes and still look bright and crisp. The zoom buttons are built into the keyboard and are another example of great usability and design. The device has a plug-in portable (Again, Apple style & very small) mobile dock that has VGA out and Ethernet input as well as the device having a built in HDMI output.
• The device has touch scroll functionality on the screen surface which is simply well placed and styled well for usability. Another usability feature is on keyboard as LED's are used to indicate shift lock as well as built in ambient light sensors to light up the keys in the dark.
• The heat issues that were identified with previous models have been resolved and the device does not appear to overheat. An alternative O/S is not a problem and have been privately tested. I know that MS O/S's are fine, but it’s the ability to handle Linux and Ubuntu that impressed me.
• Finally, when the device is dropped the HDD heads automatically lock and the device lets out and audible scream. Very funny but genuinely a thoughtful design.

Cons

• No GPS (Although in a previous blog I identified a good, cheap key chain Bluetooth GPS solution.
• No HSDPA (However within the next month or so a HSDPA model will be released)
• Needs the stylus to operate screen (what no finger control, this was a major off-put for me with previous versions of the device, but I have learnt that its not the end of the world)
• Not able to work with graphics application like Photoshop (although they will install, its just not going to work!)
• Not able to do real world development (Not enough umpf! or real estate)

My Final Words

This device will be great for trains and planes but I think it will excel on long tube journeys. The size of the device make it feel non-intrusive in the environment your in as it just looks like another PDA. I hate laptops on the tube as I feel like I stand out; however I can happily work away in a very tight space.

I think I have finally found a device that does the business!

http://www.oqo.com/intl/

The HTC Touch Cruise I will discuss in another instalment as this one was a bit heavy duty.