World’s shortest UMPC user test (well, not quite).

I have been in the company of a Samsung Q1 for the best part of 12 hours and have already concluded that it’s not for me. The Q1 is a small form factor Ultra Mobile PC, as is the current Vogue of Microsoft mobility products. Initial impressions were that it was reasonably well made, resembling something akin too the somewhat oversized cousin of a Sony PSP.

The model in question was the pauper variety, as my benefactor had earmarked the solid state version for himself – replete with small form factor keyboard and much gold trim. In my case I had the same form factor, no keyboard and a 30Gb internal disk.

Initial setup was a somewhat intrusive reminder of quite why I have gone of Windows XP. I can blindly use it at work as part of a managed desktop environment (thanks colleagues), but when it comes to having the OS nag you for setup information at initial boot, it’s a real drag. Must be the number of desktop installs of 2000 and XP I’ve done over the past fews years that have given me such an allergic reaction.

Once past the barrier of setting up an Administrator account, you’re presented with the familiar desktop environment, wit the addition of the 3 methods of text entry using the scribe:

1) ‘pick-o-matic’ keyboard
2) individual character recognition
3) handwriting recognition.

The Pick-o-matic approach is the only way, sans keyboard, that you can enter text to the login screen. A fairly sensible choice, given the hashed out password field and likelihood that you’ve chosen a secure password of somewhat exotic character combinations. Annoyingly, the default screen resolution prevents you from seeing the majority of XP login screen due the the fact that keyboard is overlayed. It’s a bit of a bind to move the keyboard window out of the way as it snaps to current screen estate and won’t allow you to move it off screen. Yes, it is possible to change the resolution at the touch of a button to 800x600ish, but hardly a thrilling or easy user experience from the off. Definitely not a good option for multiple users. Yes, it’s Windows Xp alright – but given that it’s the ‘tablet’ verrsion, you think that someone would have user tested the implementation and done something about it.

“Samsung, Microsoft, both of you stay behind after class for remedial interface design.”

On the plus side, the handwriting recognition is really rather good on the whole. It managed most things I scribbled without too much fuss, but letter correction wasn’t particularly speedy in places. Almost seemed that there was a reluctance on the part of the software to allow you to go back and address editing issues.

Battery life seemed pretty uninspiring. It could be my fault that I managed to leavethe unit on whilst I was out during the evening, or it could be that the default powersave functions aren’t switched to ‘save juice’, whatver the reason, the battery only lasted around one and three quarter hours – which I’m sure you will agree isn’t all that great for something you’d want to free you from PSUs for most of the business day.

Looking at the solid state model, with keyboard, it’s definitely a smaller form factor than my 12″ Powerbook – that’s for sure. The largest reason for me not wanting to save some space in my backpack by switching to something like the Q1 is really down to the usability of the design. For the kind of work I do, it just doesn’t work for me. Specifically, I was looking to write this post on the machine last night. it took me a minute or so to get the title field populated in the browser through using the full recognition software. Mad as it might seem, I think that I’d rather talk to an UMPC for dictation – with speech recognition – and only use the stylus for doodling. Maybe I’m missign something here, and the tablet is capable of doing that – but if that’s the case, why doesn’t it just do it out of the box?’

I understand that mobile PCs are great in particular circumstances. Project NOMAD looked at most of the mobile working issues as part of the Implementing E-Government Programme in the UK and in places, PDAs and Tablets have worked pretty well – but they’re usually for specific applications, and not as a lug-about desktop replacement.

I still remain to be convinced. As far as I’m concerned, the UMPC is more disappointing through being able to see Windows XP, but not use it how you’d expect in the first instance, and then you’re left looking at what is essentially a rather fat Pocket PC.

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