Jenneth Orantia26 February 2008, 12:03 PM
Ultra-mobile PCs, what are they good for? The popular consensus to date has been ‘absolutely nothing’, but now that vendors have had over a year to get the formula right, the latest breed of UMPCs may very well put paid to that perception.
The OQO 02 is one such device: a paperback-sized UMPC that’s billed as the world’s smallest Windows Vista PC. As far as machines of this size go, the specs are impressive. It’s powered by a 1.5GHz VIA C7M ULV chip, with 1GB of DDR2 SD RAM (533MHz FSB), a 1.8in 60GB 4,200rpm hard drive, 802.11a/b/g WLAN and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR. The US version also has a built-in EVDO WWAN module, but this has been excluded from locally available units.
Like most tablet PCs, the OQO 02’s screen uses an active digitiser, but, oddly, there’s no integrated silo to stash a stylus in. Nor does the flagship version of the device (with Windows Vista Ultimate installed) come with a stylus — you’ll have to buy one for $79.95 or opt for the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition version.
Not that you’ll miss the stylus in day-to-day use. The slide-down thumbboard has a built-in track pointer on the right-hand side and two mouse buttons on the left — a combination that works extremely well when holding the device with two hands. The keys are also a pleasure to use, with good tactile feedback and a bright backlight, but the thumbboard’s width makes it better suited for quick edits than for extended typing.
The front of the OQO 02 is taken up almost exclusively by the vibrant 5in display. This runs a native resolution of 800 x 480, which is low by notebook standards but ideal for the screen size. You can bump the resolution up to 1,000 x 600 and 1,200 x 720 using the zoom keys on the thumbboard — these views are interpolated (similar to the digital zoom on a camera), but text is clear.
Contrast and brightness on the display are great, but viewing angles are poor. This puts a damper on its use as a portable media player (and this is not helped by the weak, tinny speakers).
Unique to the OQO are capacitive touch scrollers along the bottom right-hand edge. Dragging your finger along the vertical pad scrolls through long web pages and documents, while the horizontal pad does the same for sideways scrolling.
Ports on the OQO 02 are minimal. In addition to a single USB 2.0 port, it has a dock connector, HDMI port, Kensington lock slot and 3.5mm earphone jack. The dock connector can accommodate the power cable directly or through a dongle that also includes VGA and Ethernet ports. A docking station with a rotatable stand, optical drive (CD-RW or DVD-RW) and extra ports is available separately.
Performance was on par with the OQO’s modest specifications — nothing exceptional, but adequate for basic tasks like email, word processing and web browsing. It doesn’t take much to get the OQO’s fan whooshing, though, and despite it having vents on three sides, the base does get warm to the touch.
The OQO 02 is the sort of device prized by hardcore road warriors for its portability, wireless connectivity, and ability to run Windows, but long battery life is usually essential, and this is where the OQO 02 fails to measure up. Using it to browse the internet over Wi-Fi, we were only able to get an hour and 45 minutes of run-time on the standard 4500mAh battery before it shut down — a shortcoming that limits its practicality as a mobile workstation.