Ever since we heard about the Sharp Willcom D4, I’ve been waiting to see how it would work in the real world. After all, device specs on paper don’t always equate to exact expectations and to be honest, every individual has different expectations due to differing computing needs. Tech-On, an Asian-based site, picked up the small D4 and a put it through paces for about a week. I’m expecting to see a list of positives at some point, but Tech-On has focused on the "not so good" aspects for now, some of which I’ve highlighted:
- Short battery life (claimed: 1.5 hours, measured: about 1 hour)
- When not locked, it easily starts up even when something touches the screen by accident.
- The cooler fan is noisier than expected.
- You can’t operate the D4 while wearing one of the standard-length straps available on the market.
- The location of the mouse button on the left makes it difficult to press when using the keyboard.
- The optional Bluetooth handset seems to be required to quickly answer incoming calls.
- It becomes so hot that your hands or your desk also get hot.
I’m only going to focus on the first point because I think it’s the biggest challenge: the actual run-time of the device on a single charge is very unattractive to me and probably will be for most consumers. Yes, it is amazing that such a small device can run Microsoft Windows Vista; I’m not taking anything away from the D4 on that front. But I think back to many of the first impressions of the somewhat similar OQO: one of the biggest complaints was short battery life.
The D4 runs on Intel’s Atom, which is undoubtedly more power efficient than prior mobile chipsets. The problem I keep coming back to is that consumers really don’t care directly that the Atom uses a maximum of 2.5 watts. They care about how long the device will run before requiring a recharge, which unfortunately is directly tied to current limitations of battery technology. There is an extended battery that’s estimated at 4.5 hours of run-time, so we’ll have to see how it actually performs. I suspect folks will get 3 to 3.5 hours at most with it.
Yes, it’s great to see the D4 and other small devices that offer full computer functionality. Unfortunately, great innovations by Intel and others will never recognize their full potential until we gain some traction in the area of mobile device batteries.
(via Pocketables)
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