Jenneth Orantia27 February 2008, 10:35 PM
The DreamBook Ultra Mobile PC 650 crashed mid-way through the Crystal Mark benchmark program (as well as the first battery run-down test), which doesn’t speak highly of its stability.
Its form factor resembles that of a larger OQO 02, with a glossy-black front panel that slides up to reveal a split QWERTY keyboard.
While the OQO 02 is slickly presented and solidly constructed, however, the DreamBook 650 is decidedly less so on both counts. Then again, the OQO 02 is almost double the price, so you get what you pay for.
The 650 can be spec’d any number of ways — our test configuration came with a 1GHz Via C7M processor and 704MB of RAM. Needless to say, running Vista on it was an exercise in patience — at the very least you should plump for the 1GB memory upgrade.
Despite having a larger footprint to work with, the keys on the thumbboard aren’t much bigger than the ones found on a smartphone. But, tactile feedback is decent, and all the standard keyboard buttons are included. The 650’s optional features are worth checking out: GPS, digital TV tuner and integrated WWAN.