Jenneth Orantia29 February 2008, 4:15 PM
Put plainly, the R2Hv simply doesn’t have enough power to satisfy the resource-hungry Windows Vista, and we spent more time gazing at Vista’s spinning green wait symbol than actually using the device.
On paper, the ASUS R2Hv ultra-mobile PC is impressively good value. It packs a 1GHz Intel Pentium M 723 ULV chip (powerful by UMPC standards), 1.25GB of RAM, 80GB hard drive, Windows Vista Business and built-in webcam, GPS and fingerprint reader — all within a relatively portable 830g frame. A wealth of accessories is also supplied, including an external DVD burner, foldable USB keyboard, car charger and cable for syncing data with another PC.
Unlike many Tablet PCs, the R2Hv uses a passive digitiser, so you can use your fingers on the 7in touchscreen in addition to the supplied stylus. Most applications play happily with the device’s 800 x 480 native resolution, but even within Vista you’ll find a few dialog boxes that assume a minimum screen height of 600 pixels. This is where the R2Hv’s dedicated Settings button comes in handy, which launches a utility for changing resolution (800 x 600 and 1,024 x 600 are offered in interpolated mode) and selecting different Power profiles.
But there are still a few display-related quirks. The R2Hv frequently resumes from standby or reboot at the wrong resolution, which means you’ll need to use the side-mounted track pointer and mouse buttons to log in. A bigger concern, though, is the flaky touchscreen, which intermittently stops registering screen taps until the device is rebooted. Both appear to be software problems, so hopefully these are fixed in a future update.
As a notebook replacement, the R2Hv does a decent job, especially with the bundled keyboard and mouse. It comes with two USB 2.0 ports (and a mini-USB port that can be converted to full USB using the supplied adapter), 802.11b/g WLAN, Bluetooth 2.0, Ethernet, microphone, headphone and AV-out ports, an SD card slot and a VGA port (using a bundled adapter).
The built-in SirfStar III GPS chipset sets the R2Hv apart from other UMPCs — and laptops for that matter — but it seems more like an afterthought than a core feature. Information on configuring the GPS is scarce in the supplied documentation, mapping software isn’t provided, and even after loading CoPilot 10, we weren’t able to get it to find the GPS receiver.
If you compare the R2Hv’s price tag to ultraportable notebooks in the same weight class, it comes out ahead by at least a thousand dollars, which is great if your top priorities are value for money and mobility. Performance and battery life, on the other hand, are a let-down.
Notebooks with a low-powered processor tend to have longer-than-average battery life to compensate, but in this respect the R2Hv gets the worst of both worlds. With the screen dimmed and the battery-saving mode active, the skimpy two-cell 3,860mAh battery struggles to reach the 1.5-hour mark. Given the target demographic is BlackBerry-toting highly-mobile road warriors (where the ability to last a full work day is paramount), this shortcoming is less forgivable than the crippled performance.
The performance issue can be minimised by upgrading the R2Hv’s RAM to 2GB, and battery life can be improved by purchasing the four-cell extended battery, but when you’ve spent that much it’s worth considering whether an ultraportable laptop wouldn’t better address your needs.
Still, if you insist on going the UMPC route, the R2Hv is one of the better options, as most of the other devices cost more and still use the slower 900MHz Intel Celeron chip.