The OQO

Okay, this thing is just freaking cool. I want one. I NEED one. The only thing is, can it run SL?

www.oqo.com

As with all MSFT attempts at mobile computing, the power life of the spec'd battery will not be sufficient to make this a practical mobile device.

If you are essentially running this thing in safe mode at low/long life setting with no net cards enabled, no CD rom, etc., you MAY get 3ish hours out of it.

If you are running this with your wireless active and in a bright room (so you will need higher contrast/greater screen bright), and are using any USB devices at all, you MAY get 2 hours (unlikely though) when the battery is brand new. After a time, and not a very long time, the battery will no longer hold the charge and the unit will go dead in 20 minutes.

I was interested until I saw the power specs. Then I knew it was another dud. I've owned, and developed for, Pocket PC, Windows CE, and the XP mobile builds. They just can't create a unit that powers it long enough. It's why Nokia and others pulled the plug on the Pocket PC phones (which are overpriced turkeys).

It might be fun for a while, but unless you're rich, I'd make sure it was out for a while so I could get some practical info before buying. You should see the stack of mobile devices I got from vendors, none of which I use anymore, with the exception of one old black 'n white palm.

Ok, watched it... besides the "cool" factor and the "gimmie" factor, here it is:

Tiny keyboards are hard to type on
1GB is nothing
The screen is tiny
Battery life is very, very short, so forget about the roadtrip
Non upgradable - and computers NEED to be upgradable
Completely propriatary
Only one place you can get that thing fixed... the manufacturer
By the time the world's taken over wtih 802.11g, that'll be obsolete

The most useful thing that this does is acts as a hard drive, and any iPod can do that. If you really want multimedia, get one of the archos ones. Those use non-proprietary parts (except for the LCD) and the battery life is incredible. I have no desire to have a mobile computing device more powerful than a PocketPC or PDA (I have a PocketPC, and let me tell you, it wouldn't be much more helpful even if it COUlD act as a full computer).

Bottom line? Useless.

Tcoz, where are you getting your battery numbers? I keep seeing 6 hours battery life on every site I've found about the device -- that's 3 times more than my laptop had.

Darwin, when you say 1gb, what are you referring to? If you are talking about the HDD, it's 20 gb, not 1.

I think it'd be very useful, if it can do everything my laptop does (or did, before gravity decided to act upon it and make it stop working).

Gravity Sucks!

It looks like a cool deal, but I never really had the need to have a mini-computer. I still dont even have (or want) a cell phone, so I would be a hard sell.

Oh, I meant 1GhZ, my bad. Not too shabby, but I wouldn't expect to use it for anything other than a fancy-shmancy notetaker. No chance of running any games on it. Yeah, even Quake 1. Ok, maybe some shockwave games... but hell, you can do that on a PocketPC.

Anyway, you can get a 40GB laptop with at least 1.5GhZ. And that thing looks very much NOT sturdy, so if you dropped your old one, I wouldn't count on this standing the test of time. The HD is shock mounted, though, so at least you wouldn't lose any data.

Archos' are famous for being sturdy, and I seriously think that an OK laptop and an archos for mobile use are no match for this.

And besides, I couldn't find any reveiws on it. At least wait for some reviews to come out before you rush into it... never good to be the first with a product like this.

Seriously, if you're looking for a laptop replacement, try a laptop. This just doesn't look like it'll cut it for you.

Well, it's not out till the fall. I won't buy one until I try one out. Even if it can't do what I need, it's still cool. I'd LOVE to watch DVDs with it on a plane.

Hehe, yeah, it IS cool. But (to harp on the archos again) http://www.archos.com/products/av300_series.html?sid=j22k23oyb2sysjcb33s3ks

Everyone REALLY likes that thing. I'd love to see some reviews on the OQO, though!

My buddy has a tablet PC. The college campus where he goes is wired for wireless all over campus, so he can be on SL wherever he is.

He never really got into SL though - what a waste!

Tablet PC's, while generally larger than this device, are probably something more practical to look at. They're ultra sexy as well

I forgot about Tablet PCs! Yes, if you want something like this, James, I think I'd recommend the TabletPC. Probably not as expensive as this, and much sexier. They perform better, too, and you can play games (SL included) on them.

I'm also looking into Tablet PCs, but, honestly, I want something small like this. I don't like carrying things.

Ah, so is THAT why you dropped your laptop? Hehe

This won't run SL. Looks like 3d acceleration is an add-on. And even if the thing manages to have a 3d accelerator in it, it'll run SL at about equivalent to the minimum system requirements, which mean it's going to be horrible.

I'm not even sure that the Transmeta processor has the various x86 enhancements that SL probably utilizes, so it'll end up doing more work. But I am probably wrong on this.