This, my friends, is the Viliv S7. Mr. DHL just dropped it off. Let me say that this is one nice convertible, touchscreen netbook. Many commenters on the last post concerning the S7 baulked at the price, but I can tell you now that I’m holding it that the Viliv S7 is solid, well built, and a fantastic form factor. So far I love it besides a few small but important details.

What I like so far:

• The fantastic screen
• The responsive touchscreen
• Its very clean design
• It boots XP very fast
• The GPU strong enough to playback Hulu fullscreen
• It has a super battery life
• The 3G wireless built-in
• It has a hardware hot key to change screen orientation
• The speakers are extremely loud

Things I’m not sure about

• The tiny, tiny keyboard
• The tiny, tiny trackpad
• The slightly feminine design

In Japan, Sharp has been known for their ultra-mobile Zaurus for quite a while now, and today, the company added a new mini device to its line-up of mini laptops, the PC-Z1 [press release in English]. Marketed as a “Mobile Internet Tool”, the PC-Z1 comes with a tiny 5-inch TFT LCD (a touchscreen) and measures just 161.4 x 108.7 x 19.7 ~ 24.8mm (weight: 409g).

The touchscreen offers WSVGA (1024×600) resolution. Sharp threw in a 800MHz Freescale i.MX515 CPU, 512MB RAM (fixed), 4GB flash storage, microSDHC support for up to 16GB, 802.11b/g WiFi, Flash Lite support, Open Office, a QWERTY keyboard and somehow managed to squeeze in two USB ports. The battery lifespan for the Ubuntu-powered device is 10 hours. There is also a “quick launch” function, which makes the device boot in three seconds.

Sharp says the device is targeted as users who look for a device that rolls Internet access, an electronic dictionary and an e-Book function into one. The PC-Z1 goes on sale in Japan on September 25 for $450 (in white and black). Sharp hasn’t said anything about international sales plans yet.

What makes you think that this small tuner will pull in ATSC signals better than your HDTV with just a tiny antenna? Go try it. I’ll wait. Just hook up a small wire to your COAX tuner and see what happens. Nothing, right? Yeah, the same thing is going to happen with these tuners. It sounds great on paper, and will probably work great with DVB-type signals that aren’t used here in the States, but ATSC is notoriously hard to pull in without a good antenna. And a little cell phone-ish expandable antenna isn’t a good antenna.

JKKmobile is reporting that some international models will sport faster CPUs, 3G modems, and Windows 7 via a free upgrade from Vista. I’m just hoping that Viliv ditched the crappy Intel GMA 500 chipset and went with something that can at least handle YouTube and Hulu. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Lets start with how the X70 handles different common applications and usage. Hardware is covered farther down.

Awesome

• EasySuite

The single best feature of the Viliv X70 is the EasySuite transfer software built into the UMPC. This is a killer software/hardware pack that needs to be included in every notebook, UMPC, and netbook. Hell, why not build this into all computers? It’s the best way to transfer files between two computers I have ever used.

All you do is plug in the Mini-B end of a USB cable into the X70 and then the full size USB port into a computer. A few seconds later, EasySuite autoruns on both systems and allows you to transfer files between both computers. It’s almost Jack Bauer-ish it works so well. Plus it’s fast. A 700MB file only took 51 seconds to transfer verse the seven minutes over 802.11g.

• TweetDeck

It’s like the X70 was meant for TweetDeck – or the other way around. The entire application fills the small screen and looks downright sexy. TweetDeck is extremely accessible and usable thanks to the text input screen being located on the top, which is way above the virtual keyboard overlay. It’s one of my favorite applications to use on the X70. A good amount of time, I have the UMPC sitting on my desk with only TweetDeck open as a companion to my main system.

• Google Reader

Google Reader looks and works amazing on the X70 when the screen is rotated to the vertical layout. (there is a hotkey for this) It makes cruising through my hundreds of RSS feeds in the morning a breeze.

Setting the pointer on the down arrow and using the dedicated hardware mouse button instead of the touchscreen is about the best way to use it. This method works even better than using the Firefox Grab and Drag add-on. The only thing that would improve this is if there was a button or a scroll wheel on the Viliv that you could hold down for scrolling – the little nub only moves the page down a few lines and is hard to press.

• E-Book reader

The program eReader turns the X70 into a ebook reading monster. Once again, it helps if the screen is rotated to the vertical position. The Viliv X70’s dedicated hardware hotkeys to dim the screen makes it easy to adjust to darker or lighter conditions on the fly. And the little nub pointer makes it easy to change pages with just one click in the appropriate direction. The X70 doesn’t have the long battery life that e-ink readers like the Kindle does, but you can expect to get a few hours into a book without a problem.

• PowerPoint viewer

Combine the portability of the small form factor, along with the versatile video outputs of VGA, component, S-Vid, or composite, and you have one mighty PowerPoint buddy in the Viliv X70. The hardware handles PowerPoint just fine. The speakers are loud enough to fill a medium size room just fine. Throw in a wireless presentation remote, and you’ll look like a salesmen of the future.

Good enough

• GPS

Garmin Mobile PC turns the X70 into a 7-inch Garmin GPS unit. It work perfectly as a GPS unit, albeit being a tad big. The X70 is almost 8.5 inches long, which is as wide as my Dodge Magnum’s rear-view mirror. It makes a huge blind spot on my windshield and the Magnum/Charger/Challenger’s windshield is large for a passenger vehicle. However, in my Dad’s Ford Windstar van, it looks right at home.

It’s just too bad that installing and running a GPS program on the Viliv x70 is a huge pain. I spent about 4 hours browsing random forum sites to get the steps needed to run both Garmin Mobile PC and Microsoft Streets and Trips 2009 (which is terrible program, btw). Garmin Mobile PC was totally worth the hours of work though.

I also don’t think it’s too much to ask to have a GPS app included in the X70’s software pack. Even a basic navigation application would fit the bill.

• Skype

So the X70 has a front-facing webcam and microphone, which should make for a great Skype video device, right? Well, it does. The program runs fine and the video quality is good enough. The only thing I wish it had was a three-way headphone/microphone jack like cell phones have. That way you didn’t have to use the front-facing mic all the time. But Skype does work.

• General Web Browsing

Almost 95% of my work is done via a web browser. I’m pleased to report that the Viliv X70 works good as web browsing device. It could be better, but it gets the job done once you get use to some of the quirks. The Firefox Grab and Drag add-on takes full advantage of the touchscreen and enables an iPhone-ish type movement.

Once again, a dedicated hardware button for scrolling would be great. The little nub doesn’t get the job done well because it’s so tough to press and only moves the page down a few lines with each click. A BlackBerry-ish trackball or scroll wheel would work great instead of the four-way selector button.

• VLC

Is there a hardware platform that VLC doesn’t like? I don’t think so and the X70 is no different. The video player could handle all DVD-quality videos just fine; it couldn’t play back HD videos at all though. The bundled VilivPlayer couldn’t play HD videos well either so lets blame it on the low-end Intel GMA 500 graphics controller instead of the programs.

• Excel

I wouldn’t want to enter in a lot of info into Excel with the small screen, but it works just fine for small changes. This is actually the one program where the four way selector nub actually works well.

Disappointing

• YouTube and Hulu

I tried these video sites in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and IE. None would playback the videos in any fashion that was watchable. The sound comes through fine, but the video is lagy and choppy. There are a couple of other reviews floating around of the X7o that indicate the opposite, but I wasn’t happy with results.

• Hulu Desktop

I still installed the beta of Hulu Desktop even though Hulu.com ran poorly. Crazy? Maybe, but I prayed a bit that this would work before installing it and was hoping for a miracle. I had dreams of using the 3G connection to watch Hulu from the sexy, touchscreen-friendly desktop app.

But it doesn’t work worth a damn. The video actually plays back a little better through the desktop app than via Hulu.com, but it’s still not worth your time.

• Boxee

I spent an entire day working on Boxee but I couldn’t get the program to install/run. It has something to do with the crappy Intel GMA 500 video processor and Windows XP not having the right goods for OpenGL – or something like that. But after messing around with Hulu Desktop a few days after, I decided that Boxee probably wouldn’t run well anyway. But still, think of the possibilities with the 3G connection…

Hardware

The Viliv X70 is ran by an Intel Atom CPU Z520 @ 1.33GHz. Surprised? Probably not. The Atom is in almost every netbook/UMPC for good reasons: the CPU offers great performance and battery life. Expect the Viliv x70 to handle just about anything you can throw at it with the major exception of video.

The Intel GMA 500 that powers the video is the X70’s one weak spot. This GPU doesn’t like anything strenuous as HD playback, flash videos, or any sort of 3D games. There are a few 3rd party drivers floating around forum sites but I didn’t find any of them to perform better than the stock drivers from Viliv. I did read several times that Windows XP is partly to blame and Windows 7 improves it a bit. I’ll see if that’s true in a few days when I load Win7 onto the x70.

• Screen

The screen is no doubt one of the first things you’ll notice about the X70. First, it’s bright and crisp. The resolution of 1024 by 600 is almost perfect for this size. Text is crisp and the colors bright.

The touchscreen is one of the better ones I have used. It’s accurate and finger friendly, which is about all you can ask for in a touchscreen.

• Buttons

The front of the X70 has six buttons and a 4-way selector nub. Two of the right side buttons function as left/right mouse buttons, which is really handy. I found that when using my RSS reader, I would just place the cursor over the down scroll button and use one of these hardware buttons instead of the touchscreen.

The other buttons bring up the Windows Start Menu, virtual keyboard, and control certain hotkeys. By pressing the C button on the right and pushing the 4-way selector in a certain direction, you can change the orientation of the screen. Also, the Menu and the A/B buttons adjust the screen brightness, while the FN and A/B adjusts the volume.

Viliv should allow users to map different functions to these buttons. Just a simple piece of software would do it. I would like to map the Scroll down command to the otherwise unused C button. Maybe that ability is hidden somewhere in the software pack but I couldn’t find how to change these buttons.

• 3G Wireless

The X70 that I’m using has a 3G HSPA modem built in. It works well. AT&T has good coverage here in mid-Michigan and I saw good up and down speeds. The bundled software was buggy at times, but it would always eventually connect. I didn’t notice that the expandable antenna made any difference at all.

• Keyboard

The  X70 is equipped with a virtual keyboard that overlays on top of everything else. I found that I could get around 25 wpm typing on it. The keyboard should come natural to anyone use to typing with their thumbs (all of us now?). The haptic feedback, which can be turned off, helps a lot too. Heavy typers would probably miss a physical keyboard, but I rarely wish I had one.

• I/O Ports

The X70 has the standard assortment of I/O ports: 1 USB A, 1 USB Mini-B (for the EasySuite app), an SD card slot, headphone jack, a SIM card slot, and a proprietary A/V-out that supports VGA, component, S-Vid, and composite. (cables are included) I would love to see two full size USB ports as one can be a pain especially if you want to use a wireless mouse and flash drive at the same time. (or keyboard and a mouse)

Also, the SD card slot is so deep that you have to use the stylus to eject the card – or a long fingernail.

• Battery life

The Dynamism X70 product page lists the battery life at 5.5 hours when viewing movies. I found that it got about 3.5 – 4 hours when browsing the Internet.

Viliv messed around with the Window’s Power Options and I can’t get it to show how much time is left on the battery. Windows will only display a percentage. It’s annoying. Upgrading it to Win7 should fix that though.

• Speakers

The back side house two speakers which are surprisingly loud. They have no problem filling a small or medium size room. Even the bass isn’t that bad.

Price

Devin asked me when I first got the X70 how will it be successful where the similarly equipped OQO models failed. It comes down to price. This UMPC offers a lot of functionality for a low price. OQO, and other UMPCs, are amazing devices, but the $2,000+ price tag placed them into a small niche market where the X70 has a lot lower initial cost and therefore should appeal to more.

The base model starts out at only $599 and you get a 16GB SSD, GPS, and a Z515 1.2GHz Atom CPU.  The package that I’m using costs $879 but includes a 32GB SSD, Z520 1.33GHz Atom, an HSPA modem along with a windshield/desktop mount, leather case, and a screen protector for those that pre-order it. There is another model minus the 3G modem for $729 and yet another for $1379 that includes a 128GB SSD along with everything else.

Dynamism is running a pre-order extravaganza on the X70 starting today at 1PM est. The X70’s little brother has been one of the best selling UMPC’s of all time and is still hard to get, so you’re going to want to pre-order the X70 if you want it. Plus, Dynamism is throwing in upgrades and accessory packs with all the pre-orders.

Round-up

I love the X70. I have never, ever been so impressed with a gadget, computer or otherwise. I think what amazes me the most is the price. You can get a full computing experience, with all of its pros and cons, in a truly portable package for only $600.

Now, as much as I love the X70 as a computer, I should point out that I’m not entirely impressed with it as a dedicated web browsing device. Internet performance is just one shot under par and the low-end Intel GMA 500 kills most Internet video sites. I know this sounds like a shameless plug but I totally mean it when I say you may want to wait for the CrunchPad if you want a tablet for just Internet usage.

However, the X70 is a full fledge computer that’s loaded with 3G wireless, a fast SSD, GPS, WiFi, and Windows XP. A lot of people like me are willing to forgo a bit of usability for all the extras that come with this Viliv. It has issues to work out like the video performance and quirky buttons, but my goodness it’s a heck of a computer.

Product Page

Do you want the Viliv X70 UMPC? You should, it rocks. Dynamism is gearing up for the launch of the mobile PC by announcing a special kit for the first 777 preorders. The presale will start on July 6th at 1pm EST so be sure to mark your gCal. The X70’s little brother, the S5, went very fast and this model will probably go quicker.

Peeps that order the 1.2GHz Express model will get upgraded for free to the 1.3GHz model and given a car kit, leather pouch, and a protective film. Likewise, Premium model orders will get an extra battery along with all the other stuff, which all total up to $195. Don’t forget, the presale event starts on July 6th at 1pm EST. We should have our review up by then too.

We just unboxed the new Viliv X70 last Friday and spent all weekend with the UMPC. Overall we’re mighty impressed at all this little guy can do for the price. It’s not perfect and has some quirks, but overall it’s a solid package. Our pros and cons after the jump.

What we don’t like:

• The screen isn’t great outside
• It doesn’t include a GPS program (MS Streets and Trips 2009 sucks btw)
• The top left nub is only a four way switch and doesn’t work well
• There isn’t a good solution for scrolling on webpages
• It doesn’t playback 720p videos well
• The 3G modem is sketchy at best

What we like:

• It feels great in the hand
• High quality materials
• Great touchscreen
• Super fast SSD
• Takes only 17 seconds to boot WinXP
• Takes 2 seconds to pop on from standby
• Quality built-in software pack
• Alright webcam
• The on-screen keyboard works better than expected
• The leather case is high-quality

What we really like:

• The USB transfer wizard EasySuite integration (hands-on video coming soon)
• Viewing Google Reader with the screen in portrait mode
• The $599 starting price via Dynamism.

This isn’t our full review of course. That’s too come in a little bit.

The Viliv S5 is one sexy kit with its 4.8-inch touchscreen and $599 price. But what if we told you that you can get the similarly equiped, but also slightly larger X70 for the same price? Yeah, I know, crazy, but the Viliv X70 will be available from importer Dynamism at the same $599 price. You lose a bit of portability with the larger screen, but tell me that a 7-inch touchscreen isn’t portable and I’ll call you a liar. Here is why.

The upcoming X70 is still small at 1.45 pounds and 8-inches by 4.6-inches by .8-inches. That’s small enough to fit into any bag without notice. Hell, some Star Wars Expanded Universal novels weigh more. It may not be pocketable like the smaller S5, the X70 packs enough computing power to do almost anything you would expect a UMPC to do and probably more in a small size.

Dynamism has the Viliv X70 product page live for the upcoming device and we’re pleasantly surprised. The X70 maintains all the goodies of the S5 including GPS, 802.11 b/g, but ditches the 60GB spinning hard drive for either a 16GB or 32GB SSD. Plus, you can add a 3G modem if you so please. Also, don’t forget about the 7-inch WSVGA (1024×600) touchscreen.

The S5 went real fast and the importer is still having a tough time keeping them in stock. So you better head over to Dynamism and pre-order the Viliv X70 if you really want one. And you do. Trust us.

Not that OS X hasn’t been loaded onto various non-Apple ultraportable machines already, but if you’re looking for a pretty slick UMPC option, Mark Perrin over at Micro PC Talk has managed to load up the latest version of OS X onto the Sony VAIO UX390 UMPC.

Everything looks wonderfully responsive with videos streaming without hiccups over an 802.11n network. The UX390 has a stylus-based touchscreen which appears to work just fine. Perrin notes that the fingerprint reader and the motion eye cameras don’t work, but everything else is running fine. He estimates battery life to be about 1.5 to 2 hours.

[via UMPC Portal]

Remember Sony’s Vaio P ultra-mobile PC? Remember their American and Japanese PR campaign for it, with Sony being all vague and secretive about the device for weeks? It seems that Sharp remembers it very well, as they obviously try to “adopt” this strategy for their up and coming Mebius netbook [JP].

Technical details are more than scarce at this point. All that Sharp reveals at the moment is a top-down view of a black netbook. The writing in the pink bubble (on the left) says “2009 – You will change – The Mebius will change” in English (whatever that means).

Sharp will release more (relevant) information on the new Mebius next week. Let’s just hope that Sharp’s promotion campaign doesn’t end like Sony’s.

Windows 7 has proven to be an excellent scaler, as it seems to run excellently not just on top-end hardware but on hardware so outdated as to be laughable. This U560 UMPC, which I’m sure is an excellent little machine for playing King’s Quest IV on, actually worked quite well with 7 despite only sporting a 600MHz Atom A100 processor. I’m beginning if I’ll be able to run 7 on my GP2X or Pandora!

[via SlashGear]

Sony’s doing a damn fine job generating buzz ’bout their upcoming 8-inch netbook/UMPC with gradual leaks and such. We already knew that the VAIO Pocket will be powered by an 1.33GHz Atom CPU along with the rest of the specs. (missed that post? it was on Christmas day) The latest leak finally reveals the price and a few more technical details.

It seems that the tiny, WinXP machine is going to cost ya around a grand - €700  or $974 to be exact. A 3G WWAN card and GPS might sweeten the deal a bit more but for just under $1,000, you will be purchasing an 8-inch, Atom-powered notebook. Seems to be priced a tad over market. Then again, Apple’s netbook, the Air, starts at $1799 and it seems to be selling alright. Eh, Biggs? 

Alright, so now where are some more pics? Those FCC and keyboard shots don’t cut it. Perhaps next week at CES ‘09? Maybe, maybe.

image via Pocketables

Sony should have a very, very good product up its sleeve or otherwise they risk getting slammed by the tech blogosphere for making a huge fuzz about its soon to be released subnotebook Vaio Pocket.

Now Jenn, admin at the Pocketables forums, managed to capture screengrabs from Sony Vaio’s Japanese site, which seem to be teaser shots of the keyboard of the device.

Nobody knows what the final product will look like and at what price it’s going to be available, but I am ready for a disappointment.

The mysterious UMPC Sony has been advertising through a short “mystery campaign” over the last days doesn’t seem as overwhelming as Sony suggested, at least if you look at the the first details of the device that seem to have leaked on Christmas day (Sony took the page off a few hours ago).

The Sony Vaio Pocket features a 1.33GHz Intel processor, a 1600×768 ultra-widescreen 8-inch display, a 60GB hard drive or 128GB SSD and uses Windows Vista as the OS. It wil be available in three different colors: Crimson Red, Champagne Gold, and Black Silk.

As always, information obtained through leaks has to be taken with a grain of salt. The picture Sony shows on the Sony Syle online shop website is apparently a placeholder (it doesn’t show the actual product) and the company hasn’t officially confirmed anything yet, for example the price of the Pocket.

Via Sony Insider

Following Sony New Zealand, Sony Japan today updated its dedicated Vaio website with a mysterious announcement. If you click here [JP], you can see a woman getting out a small UMPC-like object out of her hand bag.

Clicking on the flash animation takes you to another page [JP] where you can sign up for an email newsletter [JP] (provided you can read Japanese and have a Sony Shop ID).

The announcement is a little more concrete than the one that was on Sony New Zealand’s site a few days ago (they took it off) but it’s still unclear what the new mobile PC is (provided Sony is hyping the same piece of hardware in these countries).

Spanish site Hispazone has taken a gander at the ASUS R50a UMPC (careful, that link is in Spanish! – here’s the translated version) and found it to be a good step up from the R2H but still not the greatest thing since bread, sliced.

Battery life looks good at 3.5 hours with Wi-Fi and 3G humming, and the 5.6-inch screen is able to horizontally display most web pages at 1024×600 despite being crammed into something roughly the size of a PSP. Hispazone also calls Microsoft’s Origami 2.0 interface “truly spectacular.” Other features: Windows Vista, 1.3GHz Atom processor, 1GB RAM, and a 32GB solid state drive.

Negatives include no built-in keyboard (it comes with an external folding USB keyboard, though), no Ethernet port, and a really high price tag of 1300 Euro – that’s almost $1,800 US. Yee-ouch.

[via SlashGear]

Fed up with the state of UMPCs? Remember UMPCs, even? Before netbooks, there were UMPCs – basically keyboard-less netbooks. Well one enterprising individual wanted a UMPC so badly that he cannibalized his Acer Aspire One netbook.

The forum post is in Spanish but from the looks of it, the device is a dual-boot setup running a stripped-down version of Vista Ultimate and Ubuntu Netbook Remix with an 8.9-inch touchscreen, 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB solid state drive (with a possible upgrade to an 80GB or 120GB hard drive down the line), and something about adding GPS and TV to the thing in the near future.

Nice job on the workmanship, too. It looks like an actual UMPC.

[via Mobility Site]

Even though we first spied the Fujitsu UMPC back in May, it seems like just yesterday that the U2010 busted out on the sub-laptop scene. Most were impressed with the little lappie until the $1300 projected price appeared. The official release just dropped from Fujitsu and scanning over the spec sheet didn’t reveal any surprises except for the GPS integration and a FM transmitter built-in. The high price tag remains the same but is a tad easier to swallow knowing those two items are included. There isn’t any indication whether every market is going to get the GPS goodie, but we have our fingers crossed that the option finds its way to the US.

Full Google translated press release after the jump. Original here. via Navigadgets

Oh man, I really wish that was me testing the sucker out. In case you missed it when they first put out renders, the Pandora is a powerhouse open-source handheld in the spirit of the GP32 and GP2X (which I have). It’s got dual analog sticks, an 800×480 screen, full QWERTY, wi-fi, and a bunch of other stuff. It basically looks like the definitive homebrew and emulation device, and it looks to be about the size of a DS. As soon as I know I’m not intruding (I picture it as a very personal operation), I’m going to see if we can get one to test out, although I think I can say with conviction that this thing is going kick ass.

You can get higher-res, downloadable videos here at the forum post.

Hey look at this little fella. It’s Raon Digital’s EVERUN NOTE. Don’t let the “EVER” part of “EVERUN” fool you, as the battery life tops out at about 2.5 hours but still, I’d buy it if it were cheap enough. We should find out how cheap it is in early September, as AVING reports that it’ll be available in Korea and here in the states at that time.

It’ll weigh just over a pound and a half, feature a 7-inch screen with a 1,024×600 resolution, 1.3-megapixel webcam, XP Home, and storage choices that range between a 12GB SSD and an 80GB hard drive. The CPU will be an AMD Turion 64×2 Dual-Core running at 1.2GHz with 1MB of L2 cache and the graphics system is an ATI RS690E with 64MB of memory. I like that the screen’s resolution is wide enough to display web pages and the keyboard actually doesn’t look like it’d be hell to type on.

More photos after the jump…

If this thing can break the $300 price barrier (which would be a stretch) it’d make a dynamite portable for tooling around town, short trips, and the like.

[via AVING]