Vye S37: first impressions
I had a late night last night and haven’t felt too well today, so my time with the loaner Vye S37 from Dynamism has been limited more than I’d like. Still, I spent enough time with it to garner some first impressions worth sharing. I’m still setting up the device to my liking in terms of settings and software because I prefer to use a device in my daily routine before offering up final conclusions.
Memory: First up I want to discuss RAM, and not just in the Vye, but in all mobile devices that are running Windows Vista. The Vye is made with a consumer friendly removable panel on the bottom so that you can upgrade your RAM. This is far different to the not-so-friendly (and warranty voiding) method I used on my Q1 and Q1P. Simply removing a single screw on the Vye provides access to the SODIMM slot: kudos on the design, it’s something that in this day and age should be on most mobile computers as a module swap is a two-minute process.
Getting back my point: I’ve booted the Vye up with 1 GB of memory and 2 GB of memory and I can almost guarantee you that you’ll enjoy the Vista experience more with 2 GB where possible. That’s a blanket statement of course because I think it applies to most, if not all mobile computers, but it’s one that I’m confident in stating based on my personal experiences.
With a single gig of RAM, the Vye does run Vista, but you’ll find much slower boot times and sluggishness when running multiple applications. I wouldn’t say that Vista is snappy with 2 GB on the device, but it’s noticeably better. If I had to compare Vista on the Vye with 2 GB and Vista on my Q1P with 2 GB, I’d say that the Q1P runs marginally better. Not dramatically, but marginally. I’ll attribute that to the difference in CPUs since the Vye uses Intel’s 800 MHz A110 whereas the Q1P uses the 1.0 GHz Pentium M. Quite usable, but requires a little more patience than I’m used to so far. Bear in mind that Vista could be indexing the device since this environment is under 24 hours old; performance may increase slightly over the next few days.
Battery observations: One of the first things I did was to install Notebook Hardware Control. It’s always the first action I take on a mobile device because it’s very informative in terms of the CPU load and battery drain. I will be running a Battery Eater test of course to determine the lowest amount of expected battery life: sounds counter-intuitive, but this tells you the minimum runtime of a battery under the highest possible load.
Notebook Hardware Control showed me that the battery was fully charged, had 0% wear (as expected) and therefore was capable of storing 58264 mWh. With WiFi on and the screen at 50% brightness, the power drain fluctuates but is averaging about -11 Watts. Given the 52 Watt hour battery, that would equate to around 4.5 hours of use, but again, this is just an initial observation. I should note that I’ve done no real optimizations other than shutting off the Vista Sidebar, simply because I don’t use it.
Speaking of sidebars, here’s one sidenote: the Vye has two modes for the cooling fan, one is Silent Mode where the fan doesn’t run as fast or as often and the other is Normal Mode. During my initial setup yesterday, I had numerous Windows Updates to download and install. While the Vye was pulling the downloads, Notebook Hardware Control popped up a warning: the CPU temperature was at 176-degrees Farenheit, which is 80 degrees Celsius! I didn’t know about the fan modes up to that point, but I quickly sought them out. Turns out the Vye’s default is Silent Mode, which I don’t agree with. I’d rather see it be Normal Mode so that the device doesn’t overheat by default; let the user change to Silent Mode as needed. There could be a way to change that, but I haven’t looked just yet.
Screen: this is one of the biggest appeals to me as a Samsung Q1P user. I’m used to the 800 x 480 screen of the Q1P, but I was always left wanting more. The Vye definitely doesn’t disappoint in this category with its 1024 x 600 screen. It’s extremely bright, so you don’t need to put the brightness level up very far. In addition, the crispness of this resolution on a 7-inch screen is outstanding! Any more on a screen of this size would be overkill; this seems just about right to me.
Videocamera: I like that Vye has a small videocamera built in to the top bezel above the screen, but I’m not so sure I’d use it all that much. I use the built-in iSight camera on my MacBook Pro every day for Skype video calls or the occasional video, so why wouldn’t I use the one on the Vye? It comes back to what’s under the hood. This morning I used the Vye to have a video chat with James over Skype and the experience was less than optimal. My video was choppy and both sides of the voice conversation went in and out. Clearly, the number of folks on the Skype network can play a part (and there were over 10 million at the time), but again: I do this type of activity nearly daily without any issues on a more powerful machine. I turned my video off to allow the processor a little more breathing room and the conversation cleared up noticeably. When James turned his video off so that the Vye wasn’t rendering it, our voice call sounded perfect. I could be wrong, but I think that Skype video calling is pushing it just a tad with the Vye.
Keyboard: I’ve only dabbled with it since I’m still setting things up, but I did peck out a few e-mails in Outlook 2007 with it this morning. The best way I could describe it: yes, it is usable, but it’s probably the smallest I’d go in terms of a useable keyboard for true touch-typing. It does work and as I use it more, I’m getting used to the small travel between keys. More to follow as I spend time with it to give it a fair shake.
Inking: I’ve done practically zero inking on it so far, but I wanted to mention it since I’m sure someone will ask. I have calibrated the screen and inked a Google search term or two, but that’s about it. I’ve already noticed that the screen seems… "squishy-er", for lack of a better term, than the Q1 series. There’s a little more give in it as I press stylus to screen; probably not an issue, but definitely a different feel to me.
Overall, this is a nice device so far. I like that it can run Aero Glass as I’ve almost forgotten what that looks like! I’m not sold on the Vye in slate mode due to the extra "base" that sticks out. I do like the mouse buttons, scroll buttons and pointer stick, but as I’m more of an inker, I tend to navigate around with a stylus than with hardware buttons or a mouse pad. Still, these all work well and I’m going to force myself to use them; perhaps they’ll win me over? More to follow, but I wanted to share some very initial thoughts…
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Hi Kevin.
“the smallest I’d go in terms of a useable keyboard for true touch-typing”
Totally agree. I think the keyboard on the HTC Shift is just slightly less useable than the S37 and therefore not good for touch typing. The S37 is something one gets used to without much of a problem.
Sorry to hear about your battery drain results. I was hoping that Inventec had improved the battery drain. Obviously not.
Steve
How does its size compare to the Asus Eee? (I’m wondering about similarity of keyboard dimensions especially!)
I’ll have to dig around for the keyboard dimensions, but here are the overall dimensions for now.
Asus EEE PC: 22.5cm x 16.4cm x 2.15~3.5 cm, weight <1 kg
Vye S37: 21.8cm x 16.3cm x 2.54 cm, weight = 2.17 lbs / 985 g
In other words, only millimeters apart in terms of size, very similar weight. I’d suspect the keyboards to be approximately the same as well, but we’ll have to check the layout to see if there are more/less keys would could be a minor factor.
Just for fun, here’s the size of the Fujitsu P1610. I only mention it because James and I were discussing the similarities and differences between the Vye and the P1610.
23.1cm x 16.6cm x 3.4~3.7cm; Approximately 2.2 lbs. with a 3-cell battery
Pretty close!
Having a samsung q1 and now a P1610. The resolution of the screen does not seem to be a factor in my choices. I’ve adapt to the 1200+ resolution and 800+. From my personal experience, both have it’s advantages. Having a 7″ 800×400, I have no issue viewing the screen at normal arms length. However, much effort it takes for the same distance viewing with the P1610.
I’m always curious about inking on any device that has a touch screen.
Is it like the Q1 or like the Asus R2H?
As far as I am concerned, until that question is answered, it really doesn’t matter about any other specs.
Good inking (R2H), I’ll be interested in learning more. Like the Q1, I’ll pass.
Some people are okay with the Q1 inking ability and that’s all well and good for them. But for me, any device with a stylus should have that question answered before I’ll care about anything else.
Keep up the good work and let us know when you run across that answer.
I have the S37 (600Mhz) and my past umpc is the R2H. Inking was probably the best thing about the R2H, the Vye37 does an ok job but the pen feedback does not feel as nice or as smooth, this is primarily due to the screen being “squishy”. It is a soft touch screen you have to be careful with vectoring i.e. loose sleeves. It may take a little bit of adjustment to resting your hand on the frame not screen.
There is a little bit of lag in writing, but I think this is due to Windows Aero Glass. The ink itself for handwriting looks a bit more jagged, and this is probably due to the soft screen, and the higher resolution. Vista still recognises handwriting fine though I find I need to write larger than I did before for best results.
For me, I find inking useful but frustrating when I need to make any substantial text input. For browsing and the internet I tend to use tablet mode. If you a heavy inker, this is probably not the best device for you; the design lends its self to laptop mode rather than tablet; and this suited my needs more.