.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE The OQO Model 01: an amazingly tiny Windows XP handheld
.AUTHOR Jason Giacchino
.SUMMARY The OQO is a piece of hardware that in many senses defies the current classification structure that is used to identify mobile computing systems. Technically, the unit actually falls into a sub-ultra portable notebook class as it is physically more compact than any ultra portable notebook on the market today. Is it for you? You’ll need to read Jason Giacchino’s review to know for sure.
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.IMAGEPAIR Z RIGHT
.H1 Special congratulations to Jason on his first science fiction novel
ZATZ authors are amazing people. While they often write about technology in the virtual pages of our magazines, many of them are accomplished experts and authors outside of the ZATZ publishing realm.
Jason Giacchino, the author of this article and a recent frequent contributor to Computing Unplugged Magazine is one of those amazing people. Jason has just finished his first science fiction novel, Human Interface, which looks to be quite the read.
I’m looking forward to reading Human Interface. If you’re interested in checking it out, links to the Amazon listing are at the end of this article. — David
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It was foolish to even attempt to reveal a piece of hardware as unique as the OQO Model 01 in front of the unintentional audience of casual onlookers making up the mid-afternoon lunch crowd at my favorite coffee joint. Men dressed in suits cautiously lowered their Business sections to steal a peek, teenagers glanced at the unit then quickly looked away, employees stared blankly as they wiped down tables adjacent to mine.
I imagine most were certain that they were mistaken at first, this tiny piece of hardware wasn’t really running Windows XP was it? I purposely laid the unit flat while taking a sip of my coffee in effort to ease their curiosity. The crisp display of familiar green pastures and blue clouded skies behind the desktop icons spoke their message as well as any words could have; indeed Windows XP, as shown in Figure A, this certainly was.
.FIGPAIR A The OQO is PDA-size hardware running desktop class software.
The OQO is a piece of hardware that in many senses defies the current classification structure that is used to identify mobile computing systems. Technically, the unit actually falls into a sub-ultra portable notebook class as it is physically more compact than any ultra portable notebook on the market today.
.BREAK_EMAIL The real question is: is this computer for you. Maybe. Maybe not. Tap here to learn the answer.
It is marketed as an Ultra Personal Computer or uPC and is, in fact, only slightly larger than the average PDA, measuring in at 4.9 inches wide, 3.4 inches long, and 0.9 inches thick with a 5 inch transflective VGA (800 x 480 resolution) screen.
Weighing in at 14 ounces, however, keeps the unit from being confused with a true pocket PDA, although it does feel comfortable (albeit warm) in the hand. The slide up screen reveals a competent QWERTY thumb-board that indeed functions most effectively through thumb typing, although the layout is adequate for limited two hand, touch typing data entry once the unit is laid flat on a surface.
The cursor is controlled via the TrackStik shown in Figure B, a rough textured pencil eraser type touch stick that separates the keyboard from the dedicated number pad (a nice feature absent on most hand held devices).
.FIGPAIR B A majority of mousing is done with the responsive little Trackstik.
The TrackStik takes very little time to become acquainted with and actually makes navigation (particularly when blended with typing) a swift and natural affair. The left and right click buttons are on the opposite side of the thumb-board, designed for left hand thumb pressing.
In addition the bottom of the unit offers a useful thumb-wheel that allows for quick scrolling through Web pages, documents, and application switches. Like a convertible Tablet PC, the OQO Model 01 can be operated similarly to a slate, with the included stylus, while the screen is closed over the keyboard.
Surprisingly, OQO opted to run Windows XP Home and Professional as the system’s operating platform rather than the more stylus application-friendly Windows XP Tablet Edition which includes features such as handwriting recognition and the ability to toggle between portrait and landscape visual operation.
As standard Windows XP includes neither feature, it isn’t difficult to quickly get caught up in the "would haves, could haves" of the machine upon initial exploration. Running standard Windows XP also presents another double-edged sword in the form of software support, as although the system is capable of running the incredibly immense Windows supported software library, many impressive hand held specific applications are, in turn, not compatible with the unit.
However in all fairness to OQO, the unit’s target demographic is the professional who requires a blend of desktop power with levels of mobility that make notebook and even Tablet PC’s too bulky. As such, the Model 01’s OS selection coupled with Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business Edition does make some sense.
.H1 Impressions
The photographs, like that in Figure C, don’t actually do the Model 01 justice in capturing how truly compact the unit is.
.FIGPAIR C The Model 01 tucks away into a hardware design only slightly larger than a PDA.
Aside from being slightly thicker and heavier, this tiny PC wanders into PDA territory more effectively than the much larger laptops it aims to replace. Being that the unit has successfully made its rounds through most journalist scrutiny already, I view this opportunity of reviewing the hardware after the initial dust has settled an advantage due to the fact that I have a slightly better grasp of what to expect without the debut hype to contend with.
Having said that, I want to begin by dismissing many of the complaints others have used as grounds for assessment point deduction in their reviews involving screen size (or readable text size for that matter). In understanding that the primary objective for producing such a unit in a sea of laptop and Tablet PC’s is near-PDA size and portability, it becomes hypocritical to fault the hardware for succeeding.
As far as the screen goes, the VGA display is crisp and actually quite generous at 5 inches wide. Those comparing text readability of the Model 01 to the displays of a full size notebook or desktop display are missing the point.
The option of using it as a stand up unit with included sturdy metal, rubber gripped support and built in thumb-board or as a portrait slate/ digital pen option is truly convenient. The thumb-board itself is surprisingly capable of text entry despite the initial impression of tiny, closely spaced keys, shown in Figure D.
.FIGPAIR D The tiny fold away thumb-board is surprisingly functional.
However due to the responsive, snappy, click feedback of each key depression, the process of data entry is fairly effective (as indicated by this review which was written on the Model 01).
Using the Trackstik and left and right click buttons mounted turned out to be very natural and made mousing less of a chore than it might have been in a unit so compact. The digital pen, however, wasn’t quite as responsive.
As it is a true digital pen (as opposed to a stylus/touch screen combination found on most PDAs) this unit traces movement of the pen on-screen just by pointing the tip of the pen in the screen’s direction. Not a fault in its own right, the problem is that often the cursor isn’t exactly where you would expect it to meet the pen tip when it does actually connect with the screen to double click or highlight and drag.
In addition, connection with the screen produced an outwardly spreading water droplet effect around the point of contact. To further add to the versatility of the function options, Windows XP includes an easy to use on-screen keyboard, shown in Figure E, which proved especially beneficial for closed screen tablet work.
.FIGPAIR E With the screen closed, the digital pen and on-screen keyboard can come close to Tablet functionality.
The accessories included in the $2,000 package are an interesting blend of form and function and to some degree, actually push the marketing of the Model 01 into another class of computing: the desktop replacement.
The docking cradle shown in Figure F is a unique configuration of connectivity within itself.
.FIGPAIR F Here’s a side view of the Model 01 in its included desktop stand.
Rather than riddle the device full of connectivity ports, the docking cradle itself contains (in the order closest to the unit first): Firewire (1394), power supply input, USB port (1.1), audio output (3.5 mm headphone jack), Ethernet port, and VGA output for connection.
The intention, of course, is to provide the ability to connect an external optical drive through the Firewire, to allow the unit to be plugged into a wall outlet, connection with a USB keyboard/mouse, speaker installation, Ethernet network setup, and connection to an external monitor to transform the portable device into a functioning desktop.
Although a bit sluggish for home use and appearing as a contradiction of function in removing the unit’s main asset (its portability) you may be wondering about the benefit. It is in the business environment that this setup begins to make perfect sense. Professionals looking to detach from their work space and bring their actual desktop right out into the field will find this quick detachment system brilliant.
I, for one, can relate to the benefit of taking one’s whole system home to catch up on work after business hours. At the very least it does away with having to transfer data from a stationary system to a portable unit and, as a direct result, removes the burden of having to pick and choose what files to transfer.
The hardware components themselves are somewhat lagging in terms of current desktop technology, a difference slightly less dramatic compared to notebooks, barely behind Tablet PC standards, and right in the mix with current handheld specs.
The unit’s main processor is a 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe, that although sluggish when directly compared to a Pentium M, the chip is quite adequate for most business application demands and was presumably selected with maximum battery life between charging sessions in mind.
The Model 01 also comes equipped with a 20 Gigabyte internal hard drive and operates with 256 megabytes DDR DRAM. Interestingly enough, the pint-sized package uses 3D acceleration in the form of the Silicon motion Lynx 3DM+ with 8 MB of dedicated video RAM and output to external displays up to 1280×1024.
Professionals should have little to gripe about in regard to connectivity options as well. Aside from the cable included Ethernet port, the actual hardware comes equipped with both Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities. The hardware functions efficiently as a stand alone unit and as a networked device as well.
In fact Windows XP (Home or Professional) provides the ideal platform to make efficient use of the included wireless feature set (although, again, the Tablet PC extensions might have added some value).
The OQO isn’t without a few fairly impressive non-standardized goodies. One very cool feature is active hard drive protection that claims to have the ability to detect free fall in case of an accidental drop and parks the HDD head before impact with the ground. In addition, there’s an ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the screen’s back light to optimal viewing level. This feature was quite impressive, resulting in an easy to read screen at all times during our testing session (which included indoor, outdoor, and just about all hours of the day/night lighting conditions).
However, although the included internal microphone is a nice touch, it is slightly nullified by the Model 01’s lack of a speaker. There is a headphone jack included but at times it seems more practical to have included a built in speaker and a jack for the microphone; especially when considering the fact that unlike the mobile specific operating systems, Windows XP isn’t quite as microphone friendly.
In addition, the removable 4000 mAh Lithium polymer rechargeable battery’s performance was only mediocre at best. We repeatedly experienced a little over 2 hours of fairly non-demanding (Microsoft Word document) editing before the battery’s fuel gauge indicated it was time for a recharge (a few moments before the unit kicked into hibernation).
.H1 Conclusions
Based upon all of the research I had conducted and assembled before sitting down with the actual unit, I believe it’s safe to report that the OQO Model 01 is a misunderstood piece of hardware that is going to struggle until it firmly establishes its market in the hierarchy of mobile computing technology.
It really isn’t fair to compare the Model 01 to either the notebook or the PDA. On one hand, it so very closely resembles the appearance of a PDA. On the other hand, the features and components of the Model 01 are much more closely aligned to a notebook computer. And yet, such comparisons are nearly inevitable.
The beauty of the Model 01 is only truly discovered once the unit is isolated from comparison and is actually evaluated on the intentions of OQO and how close they’ve come to what they set out to achieve. Although Tablet Edition may have been a wiser OS choice, the novelty of having the full power of Windows XP Professional complete with Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003 never wore thin.
Home users will likely fail to understand the brilliance of Model 01, focusing instead on its dated specs and compact screen, while PDA aficionados are likely to get discouraged in an OS that isn’t compatible with all of the handheld applications they’ve come to depend on.
It is the professional who struggles with the bulk of a laptop and the hassle of file transfer who will quickly understand the convenience and design of the Model 01. With a pretty hefty sticker price, odds are it will be professional users who already rely on mobile computing usage who will make up a majority of the production unit purchasers anyway. If you happen to fall into the latter demographic, the OQO Model 01 could just well be the exact piece of equipment you didn’t know you’ve been missing.
We give it a very capable 3 out of 5.
.RATING 3
Special thanks to Deniz Bolbol and Jack Giacchino for providing photographs.
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.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Jason’s novel, visit http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1413783376.
For more information on the OQO Model 01, visit http://www.oqo.com.
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