Handtops, UMPC - FlipStart Flops? Maybe not. - Sony UX, OQO, UMPC, FlipStart

The revelation of the new century has finally come, with a fizz, plop flop! Conceivably the most anticipated and waited for handtop device ever, the Vulcan FlipStart E-1001S was heralded in today with a fanfare of raspberries.

No trumpets and bugles for this long anticipated device, the comments ranged for the most part from lukewarm to derisive. The device that was supposed to bring on the new age in handtop computing is charitably described in one quarter as “very good for first version”. Dammed by faint praise.

And yet, once one gets past the first wave of disappointment, what is really wrong with the beast?

Using only 512 MB RAM is a strange decision with Windows Vista just launched, but then, as has already been commented on, this is a device that is probably priced and aimed at vertical markets, an area where Vista is going to take a while to penetrate. So 512 MB RAM is probably sufficient.

What about the 30 GB HDD? For such a big unit, surly this is not the largest capacity HDD that they could have shoehorned into the space? Even the new OQO Model 2 had a drive capacity double that! But again, if one looks at the vertical integration market, that is probably sufficient.

And then there is the safe, reliable well tested and now antiquated Pentium M processor. This veritable CPU will get the job done at 1.1 GHz, and is almost reliable enough for consumer electronics, so maybe this was not such a bad selection?

After an almost four year wait, the inclusion of an LED back lit LCD Panel and EV-DO does not take the sting out of the lack of high end components for the price. But is that the real reason that there is so much disappointment about this device?

The answer to that is simple, the Sony UX and the OQO Model 2.

Had the FlipStart made it to market a month or so before the release of the Sony UX, it would have been flavor of the year. But the Sony UX upped the bar on what performance could be squeezed from a handtop, especially a larger than shirt pocket sized handtop. By the time the OQO Model 2 came along, the Sony UX was the new standard. The OQO measured up to that standard by producing an (anticipated) acceptable level of performance in a very small package. And it did not hurt the OQO Model 2 a bit that it looks the part, with its metal cladding and so forth.

Now the stage was set. The folks at Vulcan hung out their teaser, and we all waited. This was the maverick device that was going to show everyone how it was done. This was the future, the holy grail, the ultimate office in your pocket. Just look at what they had four years ago, how much better is it going to be now?

Then the news dropped like a thunderbolt from the sky. And as is the case with most thunderbolts, hit the ground, and we were all left standing in the rain.

The FlipStart is not bad. It is a good deal uglier than its four year old prototype, and a whole lot thicker, and it is clad in plastic, not metal, and it is heavy, but it does have its good points.

Top of the list must be the 3 to 5 hour (conjecture I know) battery life. That on its own must be worth a bit of flab? Or how about the LID module? It has been almost universally dismissed as unimportant, but I have a feeling that, for the type of use that folks are going to make of this unit, it is a brilliant idea. If Vulcan can get it to do other things as well, it may well be the single item that saves the entire design.

The inclusion of a touch-pad in the unit is a little piece of heaven for all of us who have never managed to fall in love with the eraser top pointer used in almost all other handtop designs.

The keyboard looks to be OK, no great revelation there, but not bad either. The screen resolution is the same as the Sony UX, but with a screen size of 5.6” v/s 4.5”, it should be a lot easier to read. I would call that a plus. And, for all of us out here who have been waiting for a clamshell design, its a clamshell!

In the final analyzes, there is probably a little more flip than flop, although the 512 MB RAM and 30 GB HDD need to be looked at sooner than later for the FlipStart to really be a success with the enthusiast users.

The FlipStart will probably do reasonably well in the market that it is intended for, and that will ensure a Model 2, that might well meet the approval of the enthusiast Handtop community.

I am not sure that Sony pays that much attention, as their biggest market for the UX is still in Japan, but one thing is for sure though, OQO will be breathing a sigh of relief. The FlipStart could have been a potential OQO killer, but instead it is a solid, unimaginative, rather safe and pedestrian device that is never going to set the world on fire.