Time to do a top 5 on the OQO model 02

It’s Saturday night in Australia and I’m catching up on some vlogs and blogs from throughout the week. I’ve been on the couch (using the OQO model 02) for the last couple of hours and I thought it would be an opportune moment to post my top five Positives and Negatives of the device. I’ve been a fulltime user for several weeks and I’m getting to know its idiosyncrasies pretty well. Maybe some of my thoughts will resonate with OQO owners, or others, so I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

My Positives:

• Illuminated Keys: The keyboard combines with a light sensor on the top right of the screen to illuminate the keys whenever the light sensor detects a drop in background lighting. This a feature that can be turned off using the OQO Dashboard found in control panel. I love this feature for the incredible functionality it provides.
• Flat Panel Display: The OQO model 02 has an ergonomically designed display which really favours “Inking”, i.e. nothing to interrupt my palm. Its minimalistic design means that there is nothing left around the bezel to distract me when watching videos in Slate mode either.
• Number Pad: With several alphanumeric passwords I use daily the number pad comes in handy. I love that they mimic that of a traditional keyboard and sit bunched on the right of the keyboard – a much favored place for them than the usual top row assigned to numbers on traditional notebooks; I hate that top row of numbers! I love the OQO number pad.
• Zoom Hotkey: These “+” and “-” keys are located on the keyboard and allow me to toggle between resolutions, as well as zoom in as you would with a magnifying glass. (As a side note I tend to like 1000 x 600 as my preferred resolution.) This toggle ability is as good as any other UMPC and is superior with its zoom-in ability.
•  Wacom Technology: I was chatting in ink to a couple of friends (that pinged me on Messenger) in the last few hours and not one, but three of them commented on how crisp the handwriting looked. This comes mostly down to the Wacom Technology (Electromagnetic Digitizer) incorporated into the screen. There are none of the idiosyncrasies normally associated with inking on other UMPC.

Negatives:

• Where is my pen?: The one question I ask myself most now is…” Where’s my pen?” This may sound obvious to some of you but you need to understand that for those of us that live and breathe Tablet PC to have to think about the pen is really a poor experience. My Fujitsu T4215 has the pen on the front of the screen, the Q1 on the top, the ASUS on the left and the Vega on a permanent tether…and yet the OQO just ships it separately. Really poor Tablet awareness campaign by OQO here. It’s ok if I find my pen on my desk but if I forgot it in another room, or worse still, left it behind, then you begin to see just how inconvenient this little feature can potentially be.
• Programmable Hotkeys: One of the features I miss most about my Q1P is the programmable keys which existed on that device. I really like using alt+tab, ctrl+tab and more. The OQO 02 keyboard does offer some shortcuts like Print Screen, Show Desktop and Volume. But I still miss the ability to personalise my device.
• How do I hold it?: I’m ok in slate mode as this device is a nice fit in one hand, but when it comes to keyboard mode I find that unless I adopt a vice-like grip with my inverted palms while typing with my thumbs the device seems unstable. It tends to want to slip down out off my clasp which causes me to leave a pinkie placed parallel to the base of the unit while typing (but as you can imagine this gets tedious.) I think OQO needs to provide two solutions to this. Firstly the battery needs a simple kickstand so that we can stand the device up, something akin to that of an R2H or a Q1. Secondly there needs to be a tether supplied for just placing it by my side for two seconds, for e.g. when I take a quick phone call, or am walking in between offices to my next meeting.  
• Why can’t I click using the joystick?: on the ASUS R2H and the EO i7210 (and my EO V7110) I can navigate the mouse using the joystick and also perform a left button mouse click with it. This becomes useful when typing and performing quick edits using the mouse; it is also very useful when using a phone in one hand and the OQO in another…something I do often. This inability to click is a big one for me. I hate that I can’t do this.
• Why does my battery fall off?: Every time I perform a battery swap it takes up to three shoves to ensure the battery locks into place. This is a hardware imperfection which will need to be addressed in the future. It is not a big deal but if you think about this action (a shove) it obviously generates force and pressure on areas which shouldn’t really have force or pressure generated. Admittedly once the battery locks into place it is as secure as any other battery on the market.

So while I had a spare minute, and the wife and kids were in bed, I just wanted to get some of my thought on canvas. Have a great weekend.