15Mar2007
Posted by Joe
in Asus and Hardware.
Asus has revealed a new successor of the R2H at CeBIT, this time more rugged and with built in keyboard — reports crave.
… Like the full-sized Rugged Military NB, it’s not designed for the everyday consumer. It’s for the sort of bloke/bird who might find themselves climbing a mountain, traversing the desert, or possibly fighting insurgents in hostile environments.
Asus wouldn’t say exactly how rugged it is, but this early prototype has a 7-inch 800×480-pixel screen, integrated GPS for satellite navigation, a 1.3-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and some form of Via processor. It’s completely fanless, so it’s silent, and its 3.5W power consumption means the battery should last a long time …
More Images at Crave [cnet]
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29Jan2007
Posted by Joe
in Asus, Reviews and Specs.
CNEW reviews the Asus R2H. Compared to other UMPCs that they have reviewed this seem to be getting a better rating.
The R2H did manage to impress us with its decent battery life–usually a weak point for UMPCs. It ran for 3 hours, 41 minutes on our MobileMark battery life test. Both the Samsung Q1 and the Sony VAIO UX50 offered less than 3 hours of battery life on the same test. This is especially impressive given the R2H’s larger screen.
Asus R2H Ultra–Mobile PC [CNET]
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19Jan2007
Steve has found more details of the US700 series. Well I was wondering why the product is named US* and I hope we have the answer.
(US700 series compared with Asus R2H - it is slim!)
From the details, looks like this is designed and manufactured by a team named KIDC The name US700 series is probably because they are calling their UMPC as USPC — so what does that mean? Ultra Slim PC.
So anyone know about the KIDC? (Not sure if it’s the “Korea Internet Data Center“) The Korean site has the LG logo on the very top and not sure if it’s a part of LG. (If you are from Korea can you please let us know).
Head over here for tones of images of the KIDC US700 series. [via Carrypad]
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05Jan2007
Posted by Joe
in Asus and Reviews.
If you still looking for varied reviews of the Asus R2H, head over to Brighthand, They have the detailed review of the Asus R2H UMPC. Here is the final verdict from them
Conclusion
The Asus R2H is a device, like other UMPCs, has a bit of an identity crisis. It certainly can’t replace a laptop or desktop as an everyday PC, but it’s too large to replace a PDA.
If you have specific needs and you know the R2 might fit those needs given its feature set, I can’t say it’s not worth trying the R2 out. The cool factor is high for having GPS, a web camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth all crammed into this pretty looking device.
I’ll definitely say it’s been a fun toy to play with. But I can’t shake that feeling that it is a bit of a toy and not much more than that. If Asus had of put in something better than the atrocious Celeron M 800MHz processor it’s a device I would have wanted to play with a bit longer, but alas they did not.
The cost of the device at around $1,000 makes this device worth recommending to curious geeks with a bit of disposable cash to spare, but outside of that the audience is limited.
Pros
- Nice looking with solid build
- Integrated GPS and mapping software
- Lots of ports available for such a small device
- Nice bright screen, great for showing pictures
- Very usable buttons that are nicely placed and thoughtful
- Built-in microphone and camera makes Skype or video chat easy
Cons
- Overall performance is horrible due to slow Celeron M processor, especially slow when in battery mode
- Kind of heavy and chunky for a UMPC
- Some included software is badly implemented and buggy, or just shouldn’t be there at all
- Hard to use the device with native screen resolution because some windows don’t fit on screen properly
- GPS was very finicky to get working.
They also have some more details and test results that has not appeared anywhere else - head over here to read more [Brighthand]
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20Dec2006
Posted by Joe
in Asus and Rumors.
Looks like HTC would prefer to partner with OEMs to get their products out there, as it has always done. DigiTimes reports that
The stock price of VIA rose nearly 7% to close at NT$27.15 on December 19 due to rumors that the company will partner with High Tech Computer (HTC) on development of a new UMPC. The price reached a three month peak.
If this happens we’d have the best of breed UMPC. DigiTimes also confirmed that Asus is working on its 2nd release of UMPCs which this time will be powered by VIA. The company has already showcased them. It is also predicted that UMPC market will hit a whopping 130 million units during 2007.
VIA to take aim at UMPC Market [DigiTimes]
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