UPDATE: UMID M1 Unboxed- Pricey and Too Small
Image courtesy of pocketables.net
Updated: The UMID M1 has been available in Asia for a while but it’s only just starting to get available outside of Korea. Pocketables has received a unit from Australia and the obligatory unboxing has ensued. The UMID is basically a tiny clamshell that tries to be a UMPC and a netbook at the same time, but in my opinion fails at both. That failure is magnified when you factor in the price range of A$1,000-A$1,400 for the M1. UPDATE: these prices are Australian Dollars, the U.S. equivalent is around $800-$1,000.
I had the chance to play with the UMID M1 at the CES early this year and I found the keyboard to be too small to be taken seriously. It was not even a good thumb-typing experience for me and overall I found the device to be too darn small to be a clamshell. The specs of the M1 are typical of little PCs, 1.3 GHz Atom, 512 MB memory, 16 GB SSD and a webcam (hooray!). The tiny size of the M1 forced UMID to make some design compromises, the most notable being the need for these goofy adapters:
Image courtesy pocketables.net
Check out the unboxing photos to see how attractive the M1 is and be sure and follow the Pocketables continuing coverage of the UMID.
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Thanks you just helped me to pick between this and an viliv S5.
$1000 to $1400? Yikes! Hello S5.
That price range makes the Vaio P look like a bargain.
OUCH!….
Can understand your take on this lil’ bad boy, but on the other hand, from reading posts from several users over at Pocketables who are really enjoying using the M1, I can see how the M1 does fill a certain niche….
For those interested in M1, check out fixup’s posts over at Pocketable forums…
Also, FYI, you can get the M1 direct from Korea as fixup and some others did for about $650, way less than price James quoted…
;-)
I just realized these prices are Australian dollars and have updated the post. The US equivalent is around $800 – $1,000.
James, when you started to write about viliv s5 I thought you are back with UMPCs… looks like not, just for S5
.. The price for the UMID is Australian reseller price in Australian dollars.
You can get UMID from Ebay for 650 US dollars and it looks like the real price will be closer to 500..
Second, It shares same hardware you have on your S5 but s5 doesn’t have keyboard at all… so you could use your huge bt keyboard with it as easily as with s5.
jkk, why must I embrace every single device? I don’t, I only embrace those I like using. I did not like the typing experience on the UMID as I indicated and for that reason I wouldn’t want to have that keyboard taking up room, weight, and price. A lot of folks like little keyboards and this is perfect for them but frankly I don’t know why I should also like it if I don’t?
I already updated the post to indicate these are Aus $ prices.
You are correct I could use the BT keyboard with the UMID too but for me if I have a choice to not use a device that already has a keyboard I don’t like then that’s what I will choose.
The UMID is a good device, it’s just not for me.
The pricerange lies more about 600 USD to 1000 USD if you look at ebay. Maybe James prices were aussie dollars?
It is competing in the viliv s5 league.
Sorry, should have refreshed the page earlier :). As a bonus for interested parties, jkkmobile.com and umpcportal.com are playing around with the umid for a week now and have several videos online. The built quality seems not to be the best, but it is one of the better pocketable umpcs with keyboard around.
$1,000 and build quality not the best? Doesn’t sound enticing to me. :)
What I am missing on this device is a normal SD-Card reader, normal USB and normal Audio Out/In. Especially no SD-Card slot makes devices uninteresting for me as I would like to use these devices as backup for my photography when traveling.
> The UMID is a good device, it’s just not for me.
James, I think if you had just included this one sentence at the end of your blog post, a lot of comments would have not been posted as your take on the M1 would have been much clearer…just my 2 cents…. ;-)
You’re right as always. The fact of the matter is I only played with the UMID for 30 minutes and my posting about the typing experience is the sum total of my feeling about it. It seems to be a nice little device although the build quality question now bugs me at that price.
$500 to $600 is reasonable in my eyes. $800, not so much for me.
Ummm….James, maybe you should go do what I did to start the day…go over to Starbucks and have a tall one….
;-)
Nope, it’s flooding here. :(
Wow, sorry to hear about that, James….yipes…
Hmmmm….well then….hope you have your own coffeemaker, until the waters recede….
Stay dry!
The coffee’s good, it’s dry inside. :)
I like small devices, but there appears to be too much compromise with this one.
When you have a device that requires adapters to make standard connectors, that brings the portability into question. The more things you have to carry, the less portable the item is.
I’m going to have to pass on this one.
To me the M1 is a great replacement for those OQO owners now that OQO is likely to go out of business. The problem is that entire market of a full PC computer that is limited to thumb input is not very practical nor large. OQO tried for 8 years and could not generate much sales.
The entire UMPC market other than netbooks if you consider them UMPC’s have suffered from this same basic flaw. People use full Windows software with a touch type keyboard and that is what they want in a UMPC. There is a very large market for people ok with a small screen and a reduced sized touch type keyboard so that they can have basically a laptop in their pocket.
UMPC’s could be the first to finally create that type of device which would sell very well. But so far UMPC’s have had weak sales due to thumb input and pen input, etc. yet people just want a pocket touch type keyboard computer so they do not need to lug a laptop everywhere.
The M1 from pictures looks cool but the moment you look at the specifications you can see the keyboard is a thumb keyboard. It should be redesigned to be about 7″ to 7.5″ long so that it would be a touch type keyboard; that size still would be jacket pocketable.
Viliv will be coming out with another device, the S7. This has 7″ screen and is a convertible. Standard ports, webcam, SD card slot and keyboard. This might be the jackpot. Think the S5 quality minus the compromises (hopefully).
No. We’ve been through this before. The main reason to buy an OQO is to get something that fits in a pant pocket. The M1 is too wide to seat properly in a pant pocket. At best, it sticks out the top.
If you don’t need the to fit in a pant pocket, there are so many other choices. They all have shockingly similar stats. I don’t see the point in singling out the M1. (At least the Viliv S5 and Aigo 8860 do fit a pant pocket.)
I am a little lost on how a mobile device can be too small.
you are obviously not familar with the Mactini…
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noe3kR8KqJc)
:D
you are obviously not familar with the Mactini…
scottsoapbox.com/2008/12/17/new-smaller-apple-notebook/
:D
How can the connector for that headphone jack dongle possibly be smaller than a headphone jack?
I dont like this horribe mix between a ds lite and a netbook, only likes umpc´s with thumb type keyboard (split or slide) without any type of keyboard.
If i need a laptop type of keyboard i will buy a netbook or a laptop not a umpc/mid.
S5 is larger and heavier than UMID M1. $800-$1000 is Justek’s price, way above the normal price of $500-$600. I.e., M1′s keyboard costs no more on weight, room and price.
Good points, fixup…
I agree, why not get a real keyboard if it doesn’t add much if anything in weight, room, and price…
I don’t believe the UMID can be used as a slate which is a deal breaker for me.