Cheap Subnotebooks and UMPC’s with touch keyboard size comparison

Published by rodfather on November 3, 2007 03:30 pm under Fujitsu U810, Gadgets, Tablet PC, umpc

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Since James liked the last one, I’ll focus on some devices that are hot in the news.

There seems to be a lot of demand for small, cheap devices but still retain a full sized touch keyboard.  But how small could you go?  By most accounts, the smallest you can go and still have the ability to 10 finger touch type seems to be around 9″ width devices like Panasonic R7 or Fujitsu P1610.  As of now, these devices can go up to the $1500-$3000 range.

Now we’re starting to see cheaper devices with the same width to provide the ’smallest you can go’ keyboard.  The differences here are the rest of the parts.  The innards use first generation UMPC’s components, such as the 7″ 800×480 screen,  but with stripped components, reduced storage and low memory.  Not to mention the lack of Windows which reduces costs considerably.  At $399 for the Asus Eee PC with Linux,  this is generating a lot of interest.

Size Breakdown

The Packard Bell Easynote XS and Asus Eee PC are in this same boat and are the most similar in size.  These are the OLPC clones/cheapass  subnotebooks with 7″ screens. 

The keyboard on them should be similar to the Vye S37/Kohjinsha SH since the width is around the same.  It’s funny how long the Vye S37/Kohjinsha SH is even with the 3 cell.  With the 6 cell, it may extend up to an inch more.

The Shift is interesting since it lacks length and a bit of width compared to the ‘bigger’ devices.  Along with the screen mechanism, there doesn’t seem much room for the keyboard.  The keys must be squashed vertically quite a bit.  I’m not sure if you can 10 finger touch type on this. 

Chippy was able to type fairly fast with just his thumbs though.

As for the Fujitsu U810, well, it has a touch keyboard but by no means full.  There’s been a lot of flak about whether the keyboard should even be there since it’s not very useful as a touch keyboard.  With all the keyboard combos with the function key, it may be frustrating.

It sounds more appealing to me looking at U810 as a thumb keyboard clamshell device but with the ability to touch type with four fingers if you want to have it sitting on a tabletop.  Plus it’s a convertible Tablet PC.

  • Rodfather
    I mentioned 'by most accounts', a 9" wide keyboard is what most people can deal with and still able to 10 finger touch type. Demonstrated by the Fujitsu P1610, Panasonic subnotebooks, and now the Eee PC.

    Don't give me this right or wrong bullshit. Whether someone is comfortable with a keyboard is subjective, a personal decision.

    I can now type fairly fast on the Fujitsu U810. It took around 2 months to get there and it's by no means comfortable. But that's me.

    I suspect this is Primaz posting this crap over and over and over. Move on with your clown sized pants.
  • James
    Alan is correct and rodfather is not. If you remember the era of the handheld hpc's? Psion 5mx, Revo along with HP Jornada 720/728's were 6.9" to 7.3" in length. I could type about 75-80% of my desktop speeds once I got used to having my fingers close together, which took about 30-45 minutes of using that form factor for the first time.

    The Fujitsu wasted a lot of potential keyboard space and should have designed it longer so that it would be touch type input. The same goes for the Sony, OQO.

    The era of the HPC clamshells had sales of over 2.3 million a year before the OS was stopped by MS. They proved that a device 6.9 to 7.3" by 3.6" by .90 to 1.25" could provide a jacket size touch type computer. To me we have the technology to take that to its true potential and make the industry first pocket laptop running full windows.

    What is the value of a thumb or pen input with full windows? not much as the market demonstrated a mere 350K UMPC's sold as stated in the 12/07 Forbes article.

    The only device so far that seems to provide true touch type and still fit into a jacket is the Samsung sph p9200 currently only sold in Korea but rumored at CES2008 to be in talks with Sprint to try to bring that and wimax (4G) products/service to the US. Intel has created some great chips which further provide more ease to create a pocket laptop but so far the designs are not right and just like what happened to all of the thumb and 7" umpc's, I suspect they will not do well either. When will computer companies realize what mainstream users want?
  • Alan
    You are wrong remember the great Psion 5mx with expanding keyboard? The device was a mere 6.9" yet was one of the best keyboards that easily could type at near desktop speeds. I personally typed about 75% of desktop speed touch typing the Psion 5mx.

    What UMPC's need is a modern Psion form factor.
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