It was a great day, made all the better with the anticipation I had for a particularly nifty piece of hardware waiting for me at the office. Specifically, this collection of circuits and transistors in a 740g rectangular brick is the Gigabyte U60 Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC for short).

                                                This is what they call a "broken keyboard". That's the official name, really.

I need to explain that as a guy attracted to all things technology, the UMPC drew me in like a bear to honey, even if I don’t like the form factor all that much, or so I thought initially. A laptop would surely serve me better for heavy computer usage, or a PDA will just as easily keep my contacts and appointments for me -  no need for a device that can do both, but at reduced capability.

                                              Power~

                                                 Portability.

Listing down the disadvantages (in my mind), it made for a whole lot of compromise on the part of the user to use a device as limiting as a UMPC. Consider a laptop. Laptops usually have a good-size keyboard on which you can type or input data easily, not differing too much from a desktop PC, actually. On the other end of the scale, handheld devices like smart phones or Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s) use a stylus for input duties, or some kind of lash-up to enable typing on a regular keyboard. They’re light and portable though.

Now combining the two extremes is the UMPC, which is like a middle child – not too old to be responsible, not too young to be spoiled. And there lies the problem – a device like this is a mix of what’s good in its fellow portable devices, but it is rare for a manufacturer to get the mix right between portability and usability. Add to that the fact that a lot of tech users are finicky and can be put off by an added gram there, or a lack of input options there. Not kiddies like you or me though – we revel in anything new and “techie” – even if they aren’t blockbuster hits.

Going back to the UMPC – the Gigabyte model has a small keyboard underneath the sliding display, as a quick estimate, I’d call it 1/5^th size of a regular desktop keyboard. It’s definitely too small for touch typing with more than 4 fingers, and besides, the keys actuate like a cell phone’s – they’re obviously meant to be used by thumb-typists, not touch typists. For these reasons alone (I actually have more niggling complaints, but I’ll get to them later) I didn’t see myself using a device like this day-in and day-out.

But try as I might to resist, I warmed up to its potential for those instances where a laptop is too unwieldy and a PDA is simply too underpowered. Though instances like that aren’t as common as UMPC makers make them out to be, there are certain conditions when a device like this is perfect for a job.

Some examples: have you seen those tablet laptop PC’s being lugged around by a supervisor or an inspector? Even if the laptop is designed to serve as such, there has never been a heavier clipboard - it ties up your hands by weighing them down while simultaneously heating them to oven-like levels.

Another example is the PDA or smart phones that have those tiny keypads attached to the bottom – typing out a “quick” email on these devices is doable, but not necessarily comfortable.

The two instances above can be handled much better by using a UMPC. One hand instead of the crook of your arm can be used to hold the UMPC while you list down a note on its touch-sensitive screen. Typing on the UMPC is essentially a 1/5^th experience – as opposed to a 1/24^th experience on a PDA. It uses a full “QWERTY” keyboard to boot. These are obviously plus points for the UMPC, yet in hindsight these weren’t really what drew me to use it for the whole afternoon, even going to great lengths in trying to finish a composition on its keypad (I gave up by the 300^th word).

                                                   If you squint hard enough, it looks like an oversized PDA turned on its side...

What attracted me was how Gigabyte worked on it to give the user the most possible number of input options: as with the example above, the UMPC also has a stylus like a touch-screen laptop. It also has an (admittedly small) keyboard. A thumbnail-sized, super sensitive touchpad is located at the lower right of the screen, while its two “mouse” buttons are located on the opposite side. A 4 way keypad is also present to facilitate scrolling and selecting and finally there’s always the option of connecting an external input device like a USB mouse or keyboard through its available connectors.

Gigabyte seems to realize the disadvantage of such a form factor and thus tries to ease the transition from whatever former device the user owned. True enough, I found myself warming up to the idea of multiple input options to regular surfing, desktop productions, and light gaming. Other features that were welcome include the image file included in a hidden partition, (as I managed to bork the display drivers almost immediately while testing) and connectivity options like Bluetooth and WiFi. Inclusion of 768MB of memory and a snappy 1GHz Via-sourced processor makes these activities painless – especially considering that the device runs on a full version of Windows XP Home.

                                                Either stay here, or cross quickly.

The device feels blessedly light, not only because of the 470g weight but also due to the ergonomics of the input devices – the micro touchpad and mouse buttons fall quickly to hand.. err thumb, and the balance with the screen open is perfect and makes it easy to hold.

At the end of the day, I feel a little confused. I can’t help but feel that I’m just being taken in by a device that’s just different from the norm and thus too interesting to ignore. Battery power is midling, and there definitely is a learning curve to efficient usage. I still prefer a laptop because of my “computing-power” fixation (which at the same time prevents me from embracing PDA’s and such), but I am intrigued also by portability and convenience.

The middle of the road is definitely a dangerous place to be for picky consumers like me. Maybe I’m waiting for new technology like flexible screens and whole-week power fuel cells to arrive before I can really consider actually owning one of these 50k (estimated) beauties. But that’s me – always a dreamer. For anyone else more practical, this device is portable and powerful no laptop and PDA (respectively), can ever be, so watch out for this gem of a UMPC on local store shelves soon.

                                                Sony's flexible LCD. I'm waiting for the big version.

                                                Fuel cells - not so much a dream as an expectation...

Watch out also for a full review in the next few issues – specifications, usage and accessories in HWM.

Credits:

Samsung fuel-cell powered laptop: here. 

Sony's emerging flexible technology here. 

Gigabyte's device here. 

Opposable thumbs from an anonymous contributor.