Handtops, UMPC - Vega In My Hands

11/01/06 + wormdrummer

Hey People,
I just received a Raon Vega and am putting it through its paces. I already own an oqo, so I will be able to compare the 2 devices. First Impressions:

1. Very well built, feels nice in the hands, about the same fatness as the oqo with the extended battery, but not as high. Wider than oqo and screen is more widescreen than oqo. Heavier than it looks with battery attached.

2. Very fast boot times, nice and clean not much pre-installed crap on there, only a power setting utility and a control panel.

3. The built in mouse is crap. Very hard to manipulate. It's kinda of like using your D-pad on your psp to move the mouse. It is neat though that you can press a button to turn it into a cursor pad so that you can play games on it like a psp. I am getting more used to it though, so I think it wil lget better over time.

4. Screen is fantastic, just as good as the sony ux series. Similar resolution to the oqo, so it is very readable, nice and bright. The touch screen is very accurate and you can use anything to move the cursor, not just the pen.

5. Keyboard layout takes a while to get used to. It's handy having Enter, ESC, Backspace etc on the device, but not as good as oqo, as it is missing all the letters. You can configure the keys to your liking to do anything. The onscreen keyboard comes up with a push of a button, but its just a re-labeled version of the built in win xp keyboard. I'm going to install tablet xp.

6. In the bios, you can allocate from 16mb up to 256mb of RAM to the video card... not had much time to test this out though, not sure what effect it has. Also you can set the processor to 100mhz, 200mhz, 300mhz, 400mhz, 500mhz or Auto to save baterry life.

7. Seems to run very fast... Windows open immediately, file explorer, internet no pause waiting to load. Much Much faster than the oqo 01+.

8. Lack of wi-fi and bluetooth is annoying, however the usb wi-fi key is fantastic... great performance and range (it has better range the the wi-fi on my sony SZ series). It has led lights on the end to show you when it is doing something. I just stick it into the usb slot on the top of the device and it doesn't bother me.

9. The plastic port protectors are annoying and get in the way around the sides of the device. I think I may just pull them off.

10. There is no fan in this machine. Just ran windows update for the first time, so processor was going full tilt for over an hour, and the device does not get anywhere near as hot as the oqo. It does get warm to the touch however, but not uncomfortably so.

11. The ability to plug it directly into another machine via usb is fantastic, you can copy files on and off the hard drive without switching the machine on!.

12. I am gonig to install Tablet XP on it as right now it has XP home installed. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work as there are only drivers for the screen, audio, and the control panel (keyboard). Hopefully tablet xp will detect the touch screen ok. I will also try vista, and let you know.

13. The built in Mic is great, very clear.

I'll post more when I have had a better chance to play with it. I'm enjoying it more than the UX Vaio that I had. Lack of wi-fi is annoying but not that much of a problem, I must say that I am very impressed. It may finally be time to sell my oqo.

11/02/06 + scoobydew30

Thanks for the responses wormdrummer.

11/03/06 + diJenerate

@wormdrummer,
yes, thanks for the responses. I have another question, or rather a request... Could you try to play back a trailer from here in each resolution, Small, Medium, Large, HD and tell me how the CPU performance differs on each and if any of the resolutions refuses to play or drops frames badly when playing.

Thanks,
diJenerate

Recent Blog: Why the iPad (iTampon) should be boycotted

11/03/06 + illucid

Wow. I'm impressed that it actually ran with a reasonable speed.

Just to sort of second whats already been said (and what you're saying too!) some further performance comparisons would be excellent!

If it seems like its running reasonably in other tests i might have a poke around for one.... Have to say though - the idea of a yahoo branded UMPC also sounds pretty cool to me (their mobile stuff seems nice and well integrated - better than googles efforts so far in my opinion)- especially if they get that twist kind of one with the keyboard built in.

11/04/06 + MeanSquare

Can you run SI Software's Sandra benchmarks or FutureMark's PCMark version 5 on it. I'd be interested in some raw numbers for comparison.

Recent Blog: MeanSquare's Review of the Sony UX (with comparison to OQO)

11/04/06 + diJenerate

MeanSquare said: "Can you run SI Software's Sandra benchmarks or FutureMark's PCMark version 5 on it. I'd be interested in some raw numbers for comparison."

The problem with the FutureMark benchmark is that Future (a Microsoft and Intel Interest) makes benchmarks for Intel systems running Windows and DirectX engines. You can guarantee low scores on the Vega since the only requirement it meets to get a good score in that synthetic (read: 'fake') benchmark is that is runs MS WindowsXP.

My $0.02,
diJenerate

Recent Blog: Why the iPad (iTampon) should be boycotted

11/05/06 + wormdrummer

Quick update: Tried to install vista. It installed fairly quickly. Only problem is that the display does not work at all. The display went blank during installation and is also blank when booting into vista. The HDD light wents nuts while it was installing so I know if got pretty far, but without the display it was impossible to tell how successful it was.

So I'm back to running xp tablet, which is fine. A couple of annoying things I noticed. There is no shortcut key to change to an external display. To change display between internal and external screen you have to go to display properties and change the setting manually. Just wish there was a shortuct to do it.

You have to have an external usb keyboard to re-install windows. The built in keyboard does not work (only the del key works to get to bios). Without a usb keyboard you cannot "Hit any key to boot from dvd". I am tracking down the suggested software to run as asked above. Will let you know how I go. I hope it gets good results, because it does suprisingly run really fast.

11/05/06 + MeanSquare

diJenerate said: "

MeanSquare said: "Can you run SI Software's Sandra benchmarks or FutureMark's PCMark version 5 on it. I'd be interested in some raw numbers for comparison."

The problem with the FutureMark benchmark is that Future (a Microsoft and Intel Interest) makes benchmarks for Intel systems running Windows and DirectX engines. You can guarantee low scores on the Vega since the only requirement it meets to get a good score in that synthetic (read: 'fake') benchmark is that is runs MS WindowsXP.diJenerate"

True. I had the same results on the OQO. I was more interested in the numbers that aren't associated with the graphics sub-system. (It's pretty clear that the Vega isn't a graphics powerhouse by any stretch.)

Recent Blog: MeanSquare's Review of the Sony UX (with comparison to OQO)

11/05/06 + wormdrummer

Ok, I ran both PCMark 05 and Sandra, but nither would give me a score. PCMark would only run 11 tests, and refused to give a final score, and on Sandra the tests just failed to even start.

11/07/06 + rr0123

Any further thoughts? Have you become accustomed to the mouse?

11/07/06 + scoobydew30

Hi wormrunner, do you think the screen is bright enough for a well-lit room? Would you say it is a bright screen and easy to read even though it's 400:1 contrast and 200cd/m2 luminance? I just saw a Sony UX in compusa and although it was nice it was a bit darker than I think would allow it to be used in anything brighter than a semi-lit room.
Just wondering if you find it difficult to watch darker movies and such. Is the mouse pad too loose and inaccurate for playing older games on it? How is ritepen with it? Thanks, Scoob.

11/07/06 + GenM

wormrunner - do you have any disagreements with Steve at link ? Anything to add?
His review is pretty positive, too.

You have a production unit, and his was pre-production, so i am wondering if there are any differences.

Recent Blog: OQO holds Patent on Laptop Enclosure

11/07/06 + rr0123

that review mentions a partion of 4GB. Does the Dynamism model eliminate that partition?

11/07/06 + wormdrummer

Mine came with a 1gb partition with all the drivers installed. The other 29gb was set as the c: drive. I didn't get mine from dynamism, but from tegatech.com.au . The mouse is working much better now, I adjusted the sensitivity in the properties box. It would be great for old school games.

The screen is fantastic. Best viewing angle I've seen on any device, very bright and clear. Great resolution too. Easily see dark movies. It is quite reflective though, so daylight use isn't the best. (oqo is the only device I have ever been able to use ok outdoors.)

I can't really see any differences in the production and pre-production. The only things that are bad for the unit are: the lack of built in wireless, no full keyboard (although its great with tablet xp), and how fickin hard it is to change the screen to an external monitor easily. (by default the image appears on both, but looks really bad on external monitor until you go into display properties and change the settings manually).

For someone looking for a media device that can get e-mail, surf the net etc, I couldn't recommend this machine more. It's great. Also since it has two usb ports theres no problem powering external dvd drives etc.

11/08/06 + GenM

Thanks, wormdrummer - looks like the Vega would make a good core for a wearable computer system. Carrypad has already declared it his favorite for a Car-puter. Lots of possibilities.

Recent Blog: OQO holds Patent on Laptop Enclosure

11/13/06 + chippy

Great thread. It sounds like the production models are pretty much the same as the pre-production model that I had. I'm so impressed that Tablet Edition works on it.
The Vega is a real hiidden gem.

Wormdrummer. Do you have any objections to me quoting bits from this thread in a journal post today?

Regards
Steve
Carrypad.com