The 701 has Bluetooth 2.0 on board for wireless devices, and a pair of USB ports - one on either side of the UMPC - for peripherals needing a fixed connection. Below the left-hand side USB port you'll find a Wi-Fi power switch; around the other side the USB port is accompanied by the power control, volume keys and an earphone socket. The power control doubles up as the hold control. The telescopic metal stylus slide into a bay at the bottom of the unit.
The 701 retails through Ubiqiuo's exclusive UK supplier, Expansys, for £560. An extra £70 gets you the 701 and the Standard Accessory Pack, which comprises a portable USB keyboard and a leather case to keep the two devices in. You also get some cable ties and a screen-clean kit, but who cares about those? The Accessory Pack is worth it for the keyboard.
You'll also need an optical drive, of course, since one isn't bundled. Yes, you can share a desktop PC's DVD drive over the WLAN, but that's not a simple solution.
What is included is a self-assembly plastic stand, which works but isn't as handy as the fold-out stand that's built into the Samsung Q1. You can also tuck the 701's stylus into a hole in the back the device to create an ad hoc stand, which is fine as long as you don't need the stylus.
The 701 doesn't have the well-built feel that the Q1 does. It also lacks the Q1's integrated Ethernet port, CompactFlash card slot - or any memory card bay, for that matter - and VGA connector. Still, of the two units, the 701 would win my money. It's cheaper and, more importantly, is a darn slight easier to use than the Samsung thanks to the superior control layout and that oh-so-useful joystick control. Of course, Sony's Vaio UX1 has all these too, looks way better and has a built-in keyboard, but it's almost four times the price of the 701.
The 701's processor is a VIA C7-M clocked at 1GHz and backed by 512MB of memory. There's a 40GB 5,400rpm hard drive for storage. I ran PCMark05 on the machine and got a score of just 517, which is pretty poor. This isn't a performance-oriented machine, though since it's more expensive than plenty of fast budget notebooks, perhaps it score more highly.
COMMENTS
Does no-body sit watching TV while browsing the web?
Got one of the Origami devices specifically for browsing the Internet while watching TV instead of burning a hole in my jeans with a laptop. It's too expensive, currently too heavy and takes too long to boot up, but at least the screen size is right (tried this with PDAs and they are awful), the processing unit is not on my lap but stands up free so I don't bake my nether regions. I don't need a keyboard for browsing and I can Skype while watching Wales trounce England.
It is the minimum space for hand bagage on planes yet still allows me to take powerpoint presentations with me that I can still be editing to the last minute, and I can stream video (and maybe in the long term apps too) at home across the wireless network to it without needing a separate optical drive.
If these things got to a decent price we might get a few for home use, so we can all browse at the same time.
No application?
Like the poster above, there's few applications which someone requires on the move that there isn't already a well optimised device for.
Why play video or mp3s on a UMPC when the battery life would be awful?
For office applications a Windows Mobile device will do.
Nice, but ...
It sounds nice, but, like most UMPCs, seems like a solution looking for a problem. My wife used a tablet PC at her oncologist's office, but that was a specialized application. And $1225 with a keyboard is a little much for a 1GHz, 512 MB, 40 GB machine. And no optical drive. You can get a small laptop with much more horsepower here and still have the money left over for an external keyboard, mouse, monitor and software. Maybe the ubergeek will go for it. Or the business man who thinks he needs the latest in technology to get the edge. (The bizgeek) But I don't see an advantage for me.
