Which one is leading the pack?
Ok, we are seeing some interesting stuff start to come out. First the eo from TabletKiosk, the Q1 from Samsung, the Sony UX50 with the slide out keyboard (check out JK’s video review), and now the teaser pics and specs from Averatec with its slide out keyboard.
Just like the current mix of slate and convertible tablet pcs, we are starting to see a good mix of choices starting to develop for UMPC types of devices.
Based on everything you’ve seen so far, which device and user experience would you lean toward buying?
Well, for me, these slide-out keyboards look to address one of my biggest complaints of the the current UMPCs – the onscreen dialkeys software. Like it or not, you need a good keyboarding solution with these touch screens, and in my opinion, a built-in hardware solution is much better than the current implementation that covers up most of the small screen.
The Averatec certainly has me interested from a price point and feature perspective. Seeing JK use the Sony UX with its slideout keyboard convinces me of that. I don’t think I can bring myself to spend $2149 for the Sony, though. Although the Sony is not an official UMPC / Origami with Touch Pack software, etc, we all know that it fits the specs pretty closely, except for having tablet pc functionality. With Vista, though, that should change somewhat.
Maybe I’ll need to “take one for the team” and try one of these UX50’s out for myself, install Vista on it, and see what happens. I just love technology!
