Out of the box
If you have even the smallest geek bone in you, and you probably wouldn't be here if you didn't, you'll immediately be tickled pink at the size of the FlipStart when you first take it out. It does look somewhat bulky, entirely to do with the extended battery that locks into the base of the unit. There isn't much you can say about the bulk of a battery. And while it may feel big, it actually feels just right to hold. And unlike the OQO's uncomfortably warm battery (model 01, the company hasn't sent me a model 02 to test), I have yet to feel the FlipStart become unbearably hot. Count me in the camp of people who would prefer a bulkier yet cooler and longer-lasting battery over a slimmer yet hotter and shorter-lasting battery.
The build quality is great. The surface feels rugged all the way around. The FlipStart looks and feels as if it could take a beating, although you won't find me doing drop tests.
Overall, I'm not concerned about the size, and I suspect that if you could hold the device yourself, you'd quickly realize it wasn't that much of an issue.
Ports, buttons and vents
Next up are the buttons and ports and air vents. There aren't that many of either. You have 3 air vents, a headphone input jack, 1 x USB 2.0 input, a scroll-wheel and confirm button for the FlipStart Control Center, 3 audio buttons (back, pause/play, forward) and 4 indicator lights (power, battery, hard drive, WiFi indicator. Very simple.
The audio buttons are a great addition, and a quick way to flip through tracks when using the FS as an mp3 player. I'm amazed at how quiet and cool this device is, top marks in that department. The only real let down is the lack of additional USB ports. To be fair, this is a handheld device. It's hard to imagine comfortably FlipStarting with anything other than a USB key plugged in. If you need to connect a mouse, transfer files or install programs, you can always setup a USB router and get things done that way.
Controls
The keyboard and inclusion of both a trackpad and trackstick are brilliant. While most people seem to prefer a trackpad, I prefer the trackstick. Even for its small size, the trackpad is quite usable. Inteded to be used with both hands, the left and right mouse buttons are located on the far left of the device while the trackpad/stick are on the far right. The arrow key pad is supplemented with home, page up, page down and end keys (by pressing the Function button). There is also a very handy Ctrl+Alt+Del button, a zoom button to magnify a portion of the screen, play controls (play/pause, stop, back, forward, volume and mute), a handy task switcher (Alt+Tab), a Desktop button which hides all the windows (push it again to bring them back) and the FlipStart Control Center buttons which brings up the FlipStart Navigator, unique to the FS.
The regular keyboard is layed out wonderfully. Shift buttons and the Backspace, Esc and Tab buttons are slightly larger than the rest for easy reach. All of the keyboard buttons are easy to push and give a satisfying hardware click. If you've ever used a Hiptop, the buttons are just as easy to push. The keyboard is backlit, and you can easily set the backlight settings to be adaptive, off, turn off after x time, etc.
Obviously on such a small device, the layout of the keyboard and the way the buttons feel is absolutely integral. Too hard and you'll get sore fingers and CTS, too soft and you'll spend all your time hitting the backspace key. The FlipStart team hit the perfect balance -- the keys are adequately spaced apart, logically layed out and easy to use. Rest assured you won't be hitting any keys accidentally, and you won't dread using the keyboard to type, whether it's a sentence or multiple pages of text.
The screen
Many of you have complained about the lack of a touch screen. I'm not one of those people. I imagine that having a touch screen on a 1024x600 resolution device would probably feel like trying to crochet a delicate scarf after Friday night on the town for my 30th birthday. Not to mention, you could count on losing some of that precious battery life with the extra power necessary to run the screen. Yes, the OQO has a touch screen, but it also has a significantly lower resolution of 800x480 and requires far more scrolling. I have yet to do any horizontal scrolling on the FS.
The screen is an absolute treat. Even on the lowest brightness setting it's usable. Because of the physical size and great resolution, graphics look better and text looks smoother. If your eyes aren't that great, I highly suggest you test the device out in person before buying, as text is small. That said, you can obviously bump up the size of the fonts in XP and your browser to make the device very usable.
Overall, I find that the high resolution makes this handtop more than just limited to email or business tasks. I could easily see myself doing any number of jobss that I do on my desktop computer -- image editing, web dev, server maintenance via ssh, browsing, etc etc. If other handtops have left you feeling cramped, you'll feel comfortable with the FlipStart.
Power
I'll be covering this in detail with benchmarks, but I have experienced no problems with the CPU nor RAM of the FlipStart. Startup is quick, opening programs is fast and the few limited tasks I've thrown at it have yet to cause any concern. Hopefully I'll have time to load up some games and see how the 256MB (virtual) GPU RAM holds up. C&C 3 or WoW on a handtop anyone?
First impressions
Yes, it's a touch bulkier than we all thought it would be. No, it's not a screaming 2GHz Core 2 Duo. But it's a wonderfully thought out, lovingly tested and beautifully packaged handtop, that much is evident. It's good to see a company that's comfortable with weathering criticism and vaporware accusations in order to release a great device rather than chugging out updated models every year or two. Not everyone will be happy -- the size might be too bulky and the specs too underpowered for some. In use, it doesn't feel that bulky and just because the numbers aren't the best doesn't mean it's any less usable and/or capable. The FlipStart E-1001S is a powerful, functional and lustworthy handtop.
Many people bemoan the fact that the FlipStart E-1001S has been delayed numerous times. With the recently announced specs people are further upset by the seemingly low-powered specs and bulky size. While a few of these opinions are based on actual reviews, many are simply based on a list of numbers and pics, so I thought it important to post a series of in-depth reviews on various parts of the FS to see whether the complaints stand up and the concerns are valid. This initial blog will go over my first impressions and in upcoming segments I'll cover other parts of the device in detail.
Out of the box
If you have even the smallest geek bone in you, and you probably wouldn't be here if you didn't, you'll immediately be tickled pink at the size of the FlipStart when you first take it out. It does look somewhat bulky, entirely to do with the extended battery that locks into the base of the unit. There isn't much you can say about the bulk of a battery. And while it may feel big, it actually feels just right to hold. And unlike the OQO's uncomfortably warm battery (model 01, the company hasn't sent me a model 02 to test), I have yet to feel the FlipStart become unbearably hot. Count me in the camp of people who would prefer a bulkier yet cooler and longer-lasting battery over a slimmer yet hotter and shorter-lasting battery.
The build quality is great. The surface feels rugged all the way around. The FlipStart looks and feels as if it could take a beating, although you won't find me doing drop tests.
Overall, I'm not concerned about the size, and I suspect that if you could hold the device yourself, you'd quickly realize it wasn't that much of an issue.
Ports, buttons and vents
Next up are the buttons and ports and air vents. There aren't that many of either. You have 3 air vents, a headphone input jack, 1 x USB 2.0 input, a scroll-wheel and confirm button for the FlipStart Control Center, 3 audio buttons (back, pause/play, forward) and 4 indicator lights (power, battery, hard drive, WiFi indicator. Very simple.
The audio buttons are a great addition, and a quick way to flip through tracks when using the FS as an mp3 player. I'm amazed at how quiet and cool this device is, top marks in that department. The only real let down is the lack of additional USB ports. To be fair, this is a handheld device. It's hard to imagine comfortably FlipStarting with anything other than a USB key plugged in. If you need to connect a mouse, transfer files or install programs, you can always setup a USB router and get things done that way.
Controls
The keyboard and inclusion of both a trackpad and trackstick are brilliant. While most people seem to prefer a trackpad, I prefer the trackstick. Even for its small size, the trackpad is quite usable. Inteded to be used with both hands, the left and right mouse buttons are located on the far left of the device while the trackpad/stick are on the far right. The arrow key pad is supplemented with home, page up, page down and end keys (by pressing the Function button). There is also a very handy Ctrl+Alt+Del button, a zoom button to magnify a portion of the screen, play controls (play/pause, stop, back, forward, volume and mute), a handy task switcher (Alt+Tab), a Desktop button which hides all the windows (push it again to bring them back) and the FlipStart Control Center buttons which brings up the FlipStart Navigator, unique to the FS.
The regular keyboard is layed out wonderfully. Shift buttons and the Backspace, Esc and Tab buttons are slightly larger than the rest for easy reach. All of the keyboard buttons are easy to push and give a satisfying hardware click. If you've ever used a Hiptop, the buttons are just as easy to push. The keyboard is backlit, and you can easily set the backlight settings to be adaptive, off, turn off after x time, etc.
Obviously on such a small device, the layout of the keyboard and the way the buttons feel is absolutely integral. Too hard and you'll get sore fingers and CTS, too soft and you'll spend all your time hitting the backspace key. The FlipStart team hit the perfect balance -- the keys are adequately spaced apart, logically layed out and easy to use. Rest assured you won't be hitting any keys accidentally, and you won't dread using the keyboard to type, whether it's a sentence or multiple pages of text.
The screen
Many of you have complained about the lack of a touch screen. I'm not one of those people. I imagine that having a touch screen on a 1024x600 resolution device would probably feel like trying to crochet a delicate scarf after Friday night on the town for my 30th birthday. Not to mention, you could count on losing some of that precious battery life with the extra power necessary to run the screen. Yes, the OQO has a touch screen, but it also has a significantly lower resolution of 800x480 and requires far more scrolling. I have yet to do any horizontal scrolling on the FS.
The screen is an absolute treat. Even on the lowest brightness setting it's usable. Because of the physical size and great resolution, graphics look better and text looks smoother. If your eyes aren't that great, I highly suggest you test the device out in person before buying, as text is small. That said, you can obviously bump up the size of the fonts in XP and your browser to make the device very usable.
Overall, I find that the high resolution makes this handtop more than just limited to email or business tasks. I could easily see myself doing any number of jobss that I do on my desktop computer -- image editing, web dev, server maintenance via ssh, browsing, etc etc. If other handtops have left you feeling cramped, you'll feel comfortable with the FlipStart.
Power
I'll be covering this in detail with benchmarks, but I have experienced no problems with the CPU nor RAM of the FlipStart. Startup is quick, opening programs is fast and the few limited tasks I've thrown at it have yet to cause any concern. Hopefully I'll have time to load up some games and see how the 256MB (virtual) GPU RAM holds up. C&C 3 or WoW on a handtop anyone?
First impressions
Yes, it's a touch bulkier than we all thought it would be. No, it's not a screaming 2GHz Core 2 Duo. But it's a wonderfully thought out, lovingly tested and beautifully packaged handtop, that much is evident. It's good to see a company that's comfortable with weathering criticism and vaporware accusations in order to release a great device rather than chugging out updated models every year or two. Not everyone will be happy -- the size might be too bulky and the specs too underpowered for some. In use, it doesn't feel that bulky and just because the numbers aren't the best doesn't mean it's any less usable and/or capable. The FlipStart E-1001S is a powerful, functional and lustworthy handtop.
Other parts of my detailed look at the FlipStart
FlipStart E-1001S first impressions
FlipStart E-1001S Pics and details
FlipStart E-1001S Benchmarks
Gaming on the FlipStart E-1001S
Interview with FlipStarts Keith Amodt
