Reviews
OQO
model 01
Tiny, but a real Windows XP computer
It
was foolish to even attempt to reveal a piece of hardware as unique
as the OQO Model 01 in front of the unintentional audience of
casual onlookers making up the mid-afternoon lunch crowd at my
favorite coffee joint. Men dressed in suits cautiously lowered
their Business sections to steal a peek, teenagers glanced at
the unit then quickly looked away, employees stared blankly as
they wiped down tables adjacent to mine. I imagine most were certain
that they were mistaken at first, this tiny piece of hardware
wasn't really running Windows XP, was it? I purposely laid the
unit flat while taking a sip of my coffee in effort to ease their
curiosity. The crisp display of familiar green pastures and blue
clouded skies behind the desktop icons spoke their message as
well as any words could have; indeed÷Windows XP thisÊcertainly
was. Ê
PDA
size hardware running desktop software.
The OQO is a piece of hardware that in many senses defies the
current classification structure that is used to identify mobile
computing systems. Technically the unit actually falls into a
sub-ultra portable notebook class as it is physically more compact
than any ultra portable notebook on the market today. It is marketed
as an Ultra Personal Computer or uPC and is, in fact only slightly
larger than the average PDA: Measuring in at 4.9 inches wide,
3.4 inches long, and 0.9 inches thick with a 5 inch transflective
VGA (800 x 480 resolution) screen. Weighing in at 14 ounces, however,
keeps the unit from being confused for a true pocket PDA, although
it does feel comfortable (albeit warm) in the hand. The slide
up screen reveals a competent QWERTY thumb-board that indeed functions
most effectively through thumb typing, although the layout is
adequate for limited two hand, touch typing data entry once the
unit is laid flat on a surface. The cursor is controlled via a
TrackStik, a rough textured pencil eraser type touch stick that
separates the keyboard from the dedicated number pad (a nice feature
absent on most hand held devices). The TrackStik takes very little
time to become acquainted with and actually makes navigation (particularly
when blended with typing) a swift and natural affair. The left
and right click buttons are on the opposite side of the thumb-board,
designed for left hand thumb pressing. In addition the bottom
of the unit offers a useful thumb-wheel that allows for quick
scrolling through web pages, documents, and application switches.
Like a convertible Tablet PC, the OQO Model 01 can be operated
similarly to a slate with the included stylus while the screen
is closed over the keyboard.
Surprisingly,
OQO opted to run Windows XP Home and Professional as the system's
operating platform rather than the more stylus application-friendly
Windows XP Tablet Edition which includes features such as handwriting
recognition and the ability to toggle between portrait and landscape
visual operation. As standard Windows XP includes neither feature,
it isn't difficult to quickly get caught up in the would have,
could haves of the machine upon initial exploration. Running standard
Windows XP also presents another double edged sword in the form
of software support, as although the system is capable of running
the incredibly immense Windows supported software library, many
impressive hand held specific applications are, in turn, not compatible
with the unit. However in all fairness to OQO, the unit's target
demographic is the professional who requires a blend of desktop
power with levels of mobility that make notebook and even tablet
PC's too bulky. As such, the Model 01's OS selection coupled with
Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business Edition does make some sense.
Ê
Impressions
The photographs don't actually do the Model 01 justice in capturing
how truly compact the unit is. Aside from being slightly thicker
and heavier, this tiny PC wanders into PDA territory more effectively
than the much larger laptops it aims to replace. Being that the
unit has successfully made its rounds through most journalist
scrutiny already, I view this opportunity of reviewing the hardware
after the initial dust has settled an advantage due to the fact
that I have a slightly better grasp of what to expect without
the debut hype to contend with. Having said that, I want to begin
by dismissing many of the complaints others have used as grounds
for assessment point deduction in their reviews involving screen
size (or readable text size for that matter). In understanding
that the primary objective for producing such a unit in a sea
of laptop and tablet PC's is near PDA size and portability, it
becomes hypocritical to fault the hardware for succeeding. As
far as the screen goes, the VGA display is crisp and actually
quite generous at 5 inches (wide). Those comparing text readability
of the Model 01 to the displays of a full size notebook or desktop
display are missing the point.
The
option of using it as a stand up unit with included sturdy metal,
rubber gripped support and built in thumb board or as a portrait
slate/digital pen option is truly convenient. The thumb-board
itself is surprisingly capable of text entry despite the initial
impression of tiny, closely spaced keys. However due to the responsive
snappy click feedback of each key depression, the process of data
entry is fairly effective (as indicated by this review which was
done on the Model 01). Ê
Input
and navigation
Using the Trackstik and left of the thumb board mounted left and
right click buttons was very natural and made mousing less of
a chore than it could have been in a unit so compact. The digital
pen, however, wasn't quite as responsive. As it is a true digital
pen (as opposed to a stylus/ touch screen combination found on
most PDAs) this unit traces movement of the pen on-screen just
by pointing the tip of the pen in the screen's direction. Not
a fault in its own right, the problem is that often the cursor
isn't exactly where you would expect it to meet the pen tip when
it does actually connect with the screen to double click or highlight
and drag. In addition, connection with the screen produced an
outwardly spreading water droplet effect around the point of contact.
To further add to the versatility of the function options, Windows
XP includes an easy to use on-screen keyboard which proved especially
beneficial for closed screen Tablet work. Ê
Everything's
there The accessories included in the $2000 package
are an interesting blend of form and function and, to some degree,
actually push the marketing of the Model 01 into another class
of computing, the desktop replacement. The docking cradle is a
unique configuration of connectivity within itself. Rather than
riddle the device full of connectivity ports, the docking cradle
itself contains (in the order closest to the unit first): Firewire(1394),
power supply input, USB port (1.1), audio output (3.5 mm headphone
jack), Ethernet port, and VGA output for connection. The intention,
of course, is the ability to connect an external optical drive
through the Firewire, to allow the unit to be plugged into a wall
outlet, connection with a USB keyboard/ mouse, speaker installation,
Ethernet network setup, and connection to an external monitor
to transform the portable device into a functioning, space savingÊdesktop.
Although a bit sluggish for home use and appearing as a contradiction
of function in removing the unit's main asset (its portability)
you may be wondering about the benefit in doing so. It is the
business environment that this setup begins to make perfect sense.
Professionals looking to detach from their work space and bring
their actual desktop right out into the field will find this quick
detachment system brilliant. I for one can relate to the benefit
of taking one's whole system home to catch up on work after business
hours. At the very least it does away with having to transfer
data from a stationary system to a portable unit and, as a direct
result, removes the burden of having to pick and choose what files
to transfer.
The
hardware components themselves are somewhat lagging in terms of
current desktop technology, a difference slightly less dramatic
compared to notebooks, barely behind Tablet PC standards, and
right in the mix with current hand held specs. The unit's main
processor is a 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe, that although sluggish when
directly compared to a Pentium M, the chip is quite adequate for
most business application demands and was presumably selected
with maximum battery life between charging sessions in mind. The
Model 01 also comes equipped with a 20 Gigabyte internal hard
drive and operates with 256 megabytes DDR DRAM. Interestingly
enough, the pint sized package uses 3D acceleration in the form
of the Silicon motion Lynx 3DM+ with 8 MB of dedicated video RAM
and output to external displays up to 1280x1024.
Good
connectivity Professionals should have little to gripe
about in regard to connectivity options as well. Aside from the
said cable included Ethernet port, the actual hardware comes equipped
with both Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities. The hardware functions
efficiently as a stand alone unit and as a networked device as
well. In fact Windows XP (Home or Professional) provides the ideal
platform of stability to make efficient use of the included wireless
feature set.
Innovative
features The OQO isn't without a few fairly impressive
non-standardized goodies. Namely a system of active hard drive
protection that claims to have the ability to detect free fall
in case of an accidental drop and parks the HDD head before impact
with the ground. In addition to an ambient light sensor that automatically
adjusts the screen's back light to optimal viewing level. This
feature was quite impressive, resulting in an easy to read screen
at all times during our testing session (which included indoor,
outdoor, and just about all hours of the day/night lighting conditions).
And
some gripes However, although the included internal
microphone is a nice touch, it is slightly nullified by the Model
01's lack of a speaker. There is a headphone jack included but
at times it seems more practical to have included a built in speaker
and a jack for the microphone; especially when considering the
fact that unlike the mobile specific operating systems, Windows
XP isn't quite as microphone friendly. In addition, the removable
4000 mAh Lithium polymer rechargeable battery's performance was
only mediocre at best. We repeatedly experienced a little over
2 hours of fairly non-demanding (Microsoft Word document) editing
before the battery's fuel gage indicated it was time for a recharge
(a few moments before the unit kicked into hibernation).
Conclusions
Based upon all of the research I had conducted and assembled before
sitting down with the actual unit, I believe it's safe to report
that the OQOModel 01 is a misunderstood piece of hardware that
is going to struggle until it firmly establishes its market in
the hierarchy of mobile computing technology. It really isn't
fair to compare the Model 01 to either the Notebook or the PDA
of which it so closely resembles in terms of appearance in one
regard and component configuration in another and yet, for the
sake of relate-ability such comparisons are nearly inevitable.
The beauty of the Model 01 is only truly discovered once the unit
is isolated from comparison and is actually evaluated on the intentions
of OQO and how close they've come to what they set out to achieve.
Although Tablet Edition may have been a wiser OS choice, the novelty
of having the full power of Windows XP Professional complete with
Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003 never wore thin.
Home users will likely fail to understand the brilliance of Model
01, focusing instead on its dated specs and compact screen while
PDA aficionados are likely to get discouraged in an OS that isn't
compatible with all of the hand held applications they've come
to depend on. It is the professional who struggles with the bulk
of a laptop and the time consumption of file transferring who
will quickly understand the convenience and design of the Model
01. With a pretty hefty sticker price, odds are it will be professional
users who already rely on mobile computing usage making up a majority
of the production units purchased anyway.
If
you happen to fall into the latter demographic, the OQO Model
01 could just well be the exact piece of equipment you didn't
know you've been missing.
The scoop: The OQO model 01
is a tiny, yet fully functional Windows XP computer that fits
into a pocket, yet can serve as a true desktop replacement. A
bit pricey, this first model is both brilliant and marred by a
few (not insurmountable) inadequacies.
Cool:
ð Stunningly small
ð Excellent design and execution
ð A true PC, not just a novelty
Uncool:
ð Weak digitizer implementation
ð Gets quite hot
ð Transmeta processor an iffy solution
Rating:
B+
www.oqo.com
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