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UPDATE 2: I emailed Dynamism to check if they had any Vye S37 demo units to compare the screen between it and the Kohjinsha. They don’t have any in yet but will let me know when they do.
I talked with Steve and the production units should have the same glossy screen. Vye is finding out why the pre-production units had different screens.

UPDATE: The S37 was set to ‘silent mode’ which apparently throttles the CPU. Steve will post new results in the thread.

I’ve been following the Kohjinsha SH6/8 and Vye Mini-v S37 for quite some time now. It’s definitely one of top candidates for my next device. I was going to wait for the S37 to pan out since their US site says it will ship with a USA keyboard. I’m not so sure anymore.

Steve Paine of the UMPC Portal has posted a message in the forums comparing the Kohjinsha SH6 (Intel A100 600Mhz) and the Vye Mini-v S37 (Inte A110 800Mhz based on the SH8).

What’s interesting, in his test, the SH6 comes out slightly ahead in almost all the performance tests. This includes the Windows Vista Experience Index and CrystalMark. Could it be that the SH6 is running Vista Home and the S37 is running Vista Premium or are there other issues involved?

What’s worse, the S37′s screen is different than the SH6! WTF? That’s very disturbing. The S37′s screen has a matte finish and 30% dimmer than the SH6′s smoother finish.

I wonder if those differences are there between the SH6 and SH8. Did Vye swap the screen out?

I will closely monitor that thread.

Hi All.

UPDATE: There’s some problems with these tests so don’t take them as final yet. I’m speaking to Vye to try and find out what’s up!

I’ve finally got a chance to sit down and run the SH6 and S37 models I have side-by-side. Here are some observations.

SH6 bought from Conics.net. 2GB RAM. 40GB disk. 600Mhz processor. Vista Home. Black
S37 on loan from Vye. 1GB RAM. 100GB drive. 800Mhz processor. Vista home premium. Black

Both devices optimised:
Defender: OFF
INdexing: OFF
Screen candy set for best performance (No Aero)
Automatic updates: Notify but dont download.

Firstly, let me tell you something important. The screens on these two devices are DIFFERENT. I didnt notice it at first but now they are side by side I can see it. The S37 is dimmer and has a matt finish (you can hear your nail scraping on it.) The SH6 is brighter and has a smooth finish. Both are 1024×600 and both are soft touch. The screen brightness on the S37 is 30% dimmer (at full) than the SH6 (as measured with a light meter) The frame on the S37 is also slightly buckled. I have emailed Vye about this and am trying to find out if I have some sort of prototype or wether the OEM has done a screen swap.

Keyboard: The S37 has a tidier UK keyboard without the japanese writing. I like it a lot better but I guess its not affecting my productivity.

Build quality: Apart from the screen buckle on the S37, bothe are the same. The S37 has a logo on the back of the screen which looks big in pictures but is actually quite small.

Tests done under mains power….

Boot speed
S37 much quicker. (By about 20 seconds to the desktop.)

Time to settle (After boot up. Disk activity stopped) SH6 (Vista Home) much quicker (by at least a minute)

Windows Experience Index (test performed after fresh boot. After pre-caching completed.)
SH6: 1.8 (CPU=1.8, Memory=4.5, Graphics=3.4, Gaming Graphics=2.6, Primary hard disk=4.3)
V37: 1.7 (CPU=1.7, Memory=4.1, Graphics=2.9, Gaming Graphics=2.6, Primary hard disk=4.5)

But wait……Let me swap the memory modules over and give the S37 2GB.
SH6: 1.8 (CPU=1.8, Memory=4.5, Graphics=3.4, Gaming Graphics=2.6, Primary hard disk=4.3)
V37: 1.7 (CPU=1.7, Memory=4.1, Graphics=2.9, Gaming Graphics=2.6, Primary hard disk=4.5)

Exactly the same. Thats something I don’t understand…..
Will check some more performance scores and update this.

Crystal mark tests show the SH6 to be faster in almost every test. So at this point i’m going to stop testing and contact Vye. Something is wrong…..unless Vista HOme Premium is killing the results. Could that be the case?

Further testing…..

BIOS: S37 has a newer BIOS that saves the BT and WIFI state between boots/hibernate/standby. Better but presumably the SH6 can be upgraded.

General speed. The SH6 with 2GB feels faster. (THis is obviously due to 2GB ram and VIsta Home basic.) after swapping th memory, the SH6 still feels faster. There’s pretty much nothing in it and the only thing I can summize is that the tablet features (5 processes and quite a bit of RAM) are slowing things down for the S37.

More later……after i’ve spoken to Vye. Suggestions greatfully received!

Steve