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Sony U-70 Micro PC Reviewed

Posted by michael on from the finger-cramps dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "jkendrick has posted a detailed of review of Sony's dream handheld, the U-70. Slightly bigger than a PDA, with a SVGA screen, 20Gb hard drive, and 1GHz Pentium-M processor, this device could replace your PDA, laptop and desktop. The price is high, though. Oh to be rich (or at least richer than I am...)"

11 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Not sure about the idea by Dominatus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I like having a PDA and a laptop, I use them for completely separate purposes.

    Combining a phone and a PDA sounds good, because both are items I keep in my pocket. My laptop, however, I use when I want most of the experiences of my desktop, away from my desktop. This includes the keyboard.

    Small keyboards and small screens are OK for PIM, checking email, and what not, but any more than that and it get's ridiculously tedious. I know there is a market for this kind of thing, but I'm probably not very interested.

    1. Re:Not sure about the idea by amliebsch · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My dad has been waiting for something like this for a long time. He works in production control at a local manufacturing plant, and while he does a lot of work at his desk, he also has a great need to access spreadsheets and data on-the-go on the shop floor. A tablet PC is too big and too expensive, and a PDA isn't quite enough (he uses one, but the screen is too tiny to display spreadsheet data). This seems just perfect, especially if you could get/build some kind of docking solution.

      --
      If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
  2. Ummm... by okmnji · · Score: 1, Interesting

    How much is it, anyway? Yes, I RTFA... so it can run StarCraft, the five year old laptop in the closet collecting dust could do that too (well, slowly, but it can do it).

  3. OQO Could be better... by CommanderData · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If only the OQO would update its specs. It's an antique and it's not even available yet. I'd put at least:
    1) 1Ghz Pentium M (instead of Transmeta)
    2) 512MB RAM (instead of 256MB FIXED)
    3) 40GB Hard Drive (instead of 20GB)
    4) 802.11G (instead of B)
    5) USB 2 (instead of USB 1.1)
    6) Compactflash and SD card slots (None available)

    I Guess based on this list the only things I really like about the OQO are the form-factor, built in keyboard, and the transflective TFT for indoor/outdoor use. I really wish it wasn't going to be such a POS due to lousy specs, I'd be first in line to get one...

    --
    Urge to post... fading... fading... RISING!... fading... fading... gone.
  4. Re:Slightly? by mblase · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you look at this picture, you'll see that it's still sized to be easy to carry in one hand. It looses something in usability this way, granted, but it's not too big for anything except your pants pocket.

  5. Re:Slightly? by Nogami_Saeko · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Looks like about the same size as the Newton, which is far too big for a PDA in my books.

    For my money, the Vaio TR-series is vastly more useful in a slightly larger form factor, has built-in optical drive, full keyboard, etc.

    N.

    --
    "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
  6. It's cool, but here is what I'd like to see.... by StressGuy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Would it kill battery consumption to have it output to virtual display goggles? What would really make this attractive to me is if I could take it on an airplane, plug in a trackball and virtual display goggles and work on things like AutoCAD drawings or Word documents on a full sized virtual screen without taking up the entire tray table or trying to get the screen/lid to unfold and not bump into the seat ahead of me.

    How hard would it be to make something like that?

    --
    A goal is a dream with a deadline
  7. portability in multiple sizes by mblase · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't really like multi-gadgets, even ones as cool as this, for the simple reason that they always get the size wrong somehow. There are three types of "portability" that I usually come across in business:

    1) hand-sized -- the mobile phone, which fits easily into any pocket and is comfortable to grip with the whole hand, but is unsuitable for reading more than about twenty characters per line.

    2) palm-sized -- a small notepad or PDA, which can be easily gripped between the thumb and finger for reading or writing but still fits into a large, flat pocket in my coat or pants. GameBoys fit into this category as well.

    3) tablet-sized -- a large pad of paper or a laptop PC screen, possibly a Tablet PC, but not a laptop computer (too thick and heavy).

    A phone is simply too small for displaying large quantities of text, no matter how high the resolution. Contrariwise, a palm-sized PDA is too wide to be useful as a phone. And the idealized Tablet PC, complete with handwriting recognition and an all-day battery in a 1-lb. package, is still being pursued by many companies because it takes a screen that size to display more than a small amount of text or spreadsheet data.

    But no matter how much you fold and hinge a device, it's nearly impossible to turn a gadget designed for one of these form factors into another form factor. And any device that tries to sit halfway between two of these form factors -- like the Treo smartphones or this Sony U70 -- generally fails to attract widespread interest. Most people find it easier to carry two devices that are correctly sized to two different form factors than to try to use one that uses neither.

  8. I have a U50 by Diclophis · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It fucking rocks. The footprint of the device + cradle + unfolded keyboard is still smaller than a laptop. It also serves as a nice light VNC frontend to my HTPC (built in wireless internet). I even made a movie on it with a shitty 50 dollar USB webcam, with the included microsoft movie maker software (a little tricky since I dont read japanese... I am trying to find a spot to put this... I could probably upload a torrent somewhere since I am running bt on the device). I could write all day about the variuos things to do all this... case in point, get your own when they are affordable enough for you.

    --

    Jon Bardin
  9. RTFA by technoviper · · Score: 3, Interesting

    the way he got it the system was far from perfect to use...

    he had to install Windows XP Tablet PC Edition to get it to work the way he wanted.

    XP Tablet PC edition is only available to OEM's or MSDN subscribers (which is $2500 a year) so i think the average user may find the system a little frustrating

  10. Exactally what consultants need by invisik · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hey,

    This thing is great. I need to get one to replace my IBM Thinkpad X31. It's big enough (size and power) to do some actual work if you need to and if you don't have a PC at a client site (a little VNC or remotedesktop, etc or some e-mail checking etc) but small enough to carry. Would definately lose the PDA and X31 and just carry the U70 and cell phone. No bluetooth phone dialing, which I'll miss, but I think it would be worth it.

    I don't like it has a dongle for ethernet, as everywhere doesn't have wireless, but I suppose stick it in the glove box and get it when you need it.

    Batt life sounds great, too. I wonder how big the power cord is. Needs some cell phone internet integration so you can be "always on"....

    It's on the list. Just too bad we didn't see them when we visited Japan earlier this year.... :(

    Keep the good stuff coming, Sony!!!

    -m

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    http://www.invisik.com