Handtops, UMPC - Meansquare OQO 02 vs. Sony UX

Meansquare OQO 02 vs. Sony UX
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thread starter

07/08/07 + educationk12

You'll have to scroll down the page of this link, because the choice of putting an 01 picture on the top of the screen makes most people think it is aboout an 01 and they don't bother scrolling down.

link

BATTERY

One big mistake I made was comparing the OQO 02 with a double capacity battery with an Sony UX with a double capacity battery. After owning an OQO 02 and a Sony UX390n, I have decided that apples for apples the comparison should be made between real battery life. My sony UX390n with a standard capacity battery lasts just as long as the OQO 02 with a double! This means that using equivalent battery life that the OQO is heavier and the same overall size as the OQO 02.

NOISE

UX is a lot quieter.

HEAT

UX is a lot cooler.

KEYBOARD/MOUSE

After hours of use on the 02, my hands start hurting, yet I don't get this with the UX due to the ergonomic design of the mouse and palms, however I the 02 has a far superior keyboard. But what good is it if my hands feel like I have arthritis...and i've never had that feeling other than with the oqo.

Screen

I like the oqo better, you can do 1200x720 andthe extra .5 does make a difference. If the OQO was still stuck at 800x480 then I'd go with the sony, but the OQO wins with the screen. However, see my next comment.

DOCKING

Due to it using an Intel, the Sony wins with docking to external monitors (unless you need to do 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 and then you better make sure it'll do it on your monitor before buying the monitor). The external monitor support seems to not work well at all when the OQO has interpolated turned on, or at least is very buggy. The oqo has the dvd in the dock which is nice, yet you have to be plugged into the wall in order for it to work which means it's not mobile. I was disappointed when I learned this needed external power, but I guess that is why it is called a docking station and not just a low 8x dvd burner.

EVDO vs. EDGE

I have to say after having two 02 devices with Sprint. I would go with the UX390n EDGE any day...the disconnection issues with EVDO in New England states is awful. I hear it works well in the south and the west though, but if you live in the northeast then don't get EVDO unless you use a PC card with EVDO router which will use it's own special software to stay connected such as the Kyocera KR1 & Dlink DIR450.

BUILD QUALITY

I've had two RMAs with the OQO. A dead on arrival battery (yes I tried everything) and dead pixels in the OQO screen. The Sony doesn't have any RMA issues, but that isn't to say that there aren't any...but it does seem clear that OQO has more RMA issues than Sony from the posts in forums. I lost count how many RMAs I had with my 01/01+ devices, so the two RMA for the 02 is quite an improvement. I think it has a lot to do with outsourcing to Asia when Sony is right there in Asia with past experience.

PERFORMANCE

No comparison, the UX does what an Intel 1.33Ghz machine should do and combine that with the SSD speed...now don't get an SSD if you think it'll make your processor faster...it really just makes the hard drive read stuff super fast, but your 3D and such will be the same overall. The oqo tends to freeze up alot with most of my applications, which means a lot of reboots but if I do light stuff on it, it can handle it o rif I don't have too many things open and ask it to do too much, in other words, it will work if I am super patient and tread lightly. When using Intel based machines I don't have to tip toe.

WHICH IS BETTER?

So all in all, my view on the two devices is mixed. The advantage I see with the OQO is the screen and raised keyboard, yet all the other advantages that I thought it had over the UX have changed after owning both devices. Which would I recommend, well if I had a choice between the two...I'd pick the Sony just like meansquare. However, if my OQO had HSDPA in it and especially the HSDPA/GSM in it, then I might see saw over to the OQO because wireless internet is very important to me. But I suspect both Sony and OQO will be adding this in the near future. I think choice of processor is what has made the OQO not be what it could have been, and hopefully the next generation of the OQO will be Intel based. That is if Apple doesn't come out with an iPhone like UMPC device first. Although Apple doesn't seem to use their resources to develop new hardware devices one after another, they tend to take time to bring out an all new device from the ground up. So I suspect that wouldn't happen anytime this year.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I should have never compared the OQO double capacity with the Sony UX double capacity. If you can get by with very little battery life then the OQO standard would be your small UMPC device, but if you are considering the double capacity for the OQO then think standard with the UX.

P.S. .....

Ecsk2 asked me a good question..

Why did Sony, Flipstart and OQO come out with EVDO devices instead of HSDPA? Seems like HSDPA is more global, therefore bigger market.

Replies

07/10/07 + educationk12

MeanSquare said: "
I am using PPt 2007. I had been using 2003 before I updated to Vista. I started out with doing massive tweaking on my machine. Then I did a clean install of Vista to clear up a problem I was having with MS Office and I noticed that the performance wasn't tanking even without the tweaks so I left well enough alone. I suspect at least some of it has to do with having a Solid State Drive which handles Vistas more aggressive pre-Fetch and Super-Fetch and the swap file without the performance and battery drain of a conventional drive. However, my performance under Vista is pretty much the same as my performance under XP was.."

Yeh, I think it has everything to do with the hard drive. I think if I turned off the auto-save feature then it'd be okay...it's the constant auto-save feature that makes me have to stop writing. I rarely do powerpoint so it's not a big deal. I did have it freeze up and crash with just powerpoint on...the oqo that is..I guess when i upgrade it to ssd then it won't be a big deal. I use Excel all day long, and it has that autosave feature too that takes forever, so I just need to figure out if I can turn that off on the oqo until I upgrade to the ssd.

MeanSquare said: "

(As an aside, I think SSDs may change a lot of conventional wisdom. For instance, you don't have to defrag them. In fact, you probably shouldn't ."

OH, I didn't know that...I've never defragged mine. Thx for the tip!

edited: Jul 10 2007 + educationk12

MeanSquare said: "ed: No. It does what I'd call interpolating in the sense that, although the display isn't actually capable of showing every pixel in a 1600x1200 array, it shows enough them that the picture looks OK. I suspect that on a larger screen, you'd be able to see some "artifacts" of the interpolation. What I was wondering was whether the OQO does that as well. In other words, do you see the whole display on the OQO's 800x480 pixels or does it scroll so you're only viewing part of the screen at one time..)."

No scrolling or spanning. It shows up like any other WXGA screen, yet there is some distortion but not enough to hinder my ability to read text...plus I'm use to that because I bought an overpriced plasma years ago which has 800x480 native resolution and I use it at 1280x1024 and every other display I have is over 160dpi. I like it better than the UX, but if i could get the UX to do higher then 1024x600 then that would be awesome.

MeanSquare said: "
The way I "fooled" the screen is to use one of the options in the Intel Graphics driver that allows you to see any graphic mode the card is capable of regardless of the actual attached screen. (Theoretically, that would allow me to do something like that on the built-in screen as well. I haven't tried it yet.)."

Okay, you have me slobbering all over myself like Pavlov's dog. Would you mind telling me exactly what you did?

07/10/07 + educationk12

Actually, one time I was able to get 1600x1200 on a 7" indash car LCD which had a native resolution of 800x480 I believe...but I didn't have a use for looking at a screen in my dash so I have just put the motorized LCD display back in the box and it's been sitting in my closet. But if I could do this with higher resolution laptop screens then that'd be great.

07/10/07 + MeanSquare

That's basically what I've got. It's actually an 8.4 inch monitor that runs on 12v DC (obviously for use in a vehicle). I've got that mounted on the top of a Pelican hard case and the docking cradle mounted in the base. In addition, I've added an APC Universal Power Supply which supplies the 16v for the UX system and cradle and has an additional outlet that puts out 5v @ 2amps for charging phones and other devices that you can charge with a USB cable. I take that 5v @ 2amps and put it through a DC-DC converter to bump it to 12v to power the display. This way I can operate the entire system off of a single AC wall socket or car or airplane DC. I've also got a small USB keyboard plugged into the docking station for much faster typing. The whole thing closes up into the Pelican case which is water-proof and lockable, but unfolds into an easily transportable "office." I actually made a larger version with a 19 inch 1400x900 widescreen monitor in a Targus laptop carrying case but it runs on AC only.

As to the trick to fool the graphics system into allowing modes that don't have a 1 to 1 pixel correspondence is to call up the Display Properties, click the Monitor tab, and _deselect_ the option to "Hide modes this monitor cannot display." The option is poorly worded. Conceivably some of the modes will actually be un-displayable, but most simply force the graphics chip to interpolate. I suspect that's something of what OQO is doing internally with their interpolated modes.

I confess, I didn't expect interpolated modes to look good, so I essentially disregarded that feature on the 02. When I rigged up my "portable office - mod 2", I was playing around and discovered the (interpolated) 1600x1200 and was surprised at how good it looked.

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

edited: Jul 10 2007 + educationk12

The problem is even when you do uncheck the hide all modes box, it seems most displays won't go beyond what the factory specs say they will...like my plasma says it will do 1280x1024 and that's what it does regardless of whether the box is checked or unchecked. I suspect it has something to do with these 12volt systems and lacking certain firmware/hardware inside them...which is good for 12v monitors....last time I checked which was a couple of years most of these monitors were 800x480 screens.

yeh, its surprising how good the oqo looks at 1200x720. I didn't expect it to do it well at all especially after the Q1's poor interpolation to 1024x600.

I know you are using your UX, but do you think 1920x1200 is possible with your 8.4" setup if you were using the OQO?

Can you get that 19" to go higher than WXGA+?

Like my 8.9" Flybook will only go beyond 1024x600 with spanning...it'll do 1920x1080 and I hate spanning. But it does have an external VGA port and those 12volt car LCDs are thin and don't consume much power...I suspect I might be able to modify the flybook to where I put one of those 12v displays on the back of the flybook, which you can make the back the front since the lid rotates around...hmmm. I'm going to go grab my 7" car display and play with it. I get so easily distracted...I'm never going to get my work done. lol

07/10/07 + MeanSquare

I think you may be right about the 12v displays. The specifications on my particular one are 800x600 native but supporting much higher resolutions so something in the monitor is either saying that it's capable of such or it just gives no indication at all. I went with the 8.4 inch monitor in part because it had the native 800x600 instead of just 800x480. I haven't tried going beyond 1400x900 on my 19 incher, but I did crank the resolution up beyond the native resolution of a 17 inch monitor (which only does 1280x1024 natively). It was a bit fuzzy at the highest setting, but actually not bad at the next level down.

If in fact it is the monitor that's fooling the system and not that setting then there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do 1920x1200 from the OQO.

I'll be interested to know how the Flybook with the additional monitor works out. I think there's a little bit of ADHD in all of us techies

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

07/10/07 + edgemaster

Meansquare, could you please either post models/links for your setup?? Sounds very interesting and something I could put to great use.

Recent Blog: OQO vs. Flipstart

07/10/07 + edgemaster

ed: If you want HSDPA in the OQO, why not use tnkgrl's guide to do so?? It seems to me that is what you were lacking in your OQO, and it won't void your warranty because I have checked, and you are legally entitled to upgrade some of your components. Simple!!

Recent Blog: OQO vs. Flipstart

07/11/07 + educationk12

Yes, I am using tnkgrl''s guide. We pretty much have the same HSDPA, however my HSDPA chip also has GSM voice, but whether I can get it to work in the OQO is unknown until I try.

I too would like to know what the model is for meansquares 8.4" display as well as his 19" display....assuming the 19" is also a 12volt system.

07/11/07 + edgemaster

Yeah, my ux380 comes friday, and I would really like to see/try this setup.

Recent Blog: OQO vs. Flipstart

07/11/07 + MeanSquare

I'll see about getting some pictures up soon, but I've got a lot of other things going right now. The basic recipe is:
* Pelican 1400 case. (You can actually fit everything but the keyboard into a 1200 case, but I wanted to be able to carry the keyboard as well. If I got one of those classic StowAway foldables, It would all fit. I also found a sub-mini keyboard that fits, but it's too small. It slows down my typing.)
* 8.4 inch Flush Mount DC powered monitor
* Samsung Q1 USB keyboard/trackstick. (There are others, but this is the smallest non-folding keyboard with normal key spacing I could find.)
* Sony UX docking cradle.
* APC Universal Power Supply
* multiple strips of 1.5 inch wide Industrial Strength Velcro and a few 3M self-adhesive wire holders
* AnyVolt DC-to-DC converter
* At least half of a USB cable with a male end
* Right angle VGA adapter
* VGA M-M gender changer

* Remove the foam from the Pelican case, but save it for later.
* Place opposite sides of Velcro strips on the back of the Monitor and the case top to fix the monitor in place in the lid. Place the monitor toward the top of the lid leaving clearance at the bottom. (If you carry the UX in the case while traveling, the top edge of the UX fits into this clearance area.)
* Remove the round connector and isolate the two power wires from the audio and composite video input lines. (You could also leave the connector intact and deal with the power connector on the supplied cable, but then you have a lot of extraneous cable laying around.)
* Connect the monitor inputs to the output of the AnyVolt DC-DC converter.
* Cut the USB cable and isolate the USB power wires.
* Connect these to the input of the AnyVolt DC-DC converter.
* Plug in the APC Universal Adapter and plug the USB connector into the USB power outlet. Adjust the AnyVolt converter to 12v output.
* Use Velcro Strips to affix the AnyVolt converter to the lid of the case to the side of the monitor.
* Use the 3M wire clips to secure the monitor power cable.
* Place the right-angle VGA adapter onto the UX cradle and the VGA gender changer on the end of the monitors VGA input. (The monitor has a female connector, which is why you need to change the gender.)
* Use Velcro Strips on the bottom of the UX cradle and on the bottom of the case to affix the cradle to the base with enough clearance for the VGA right-angle adapter. (If you don't use the right angle adapter, the standard VGA connector requires way too much clearance at the back of the cradle. USB and Ethernet connectors don't need as much and will work as is.)
* Use the 3M wire clips to secure the VGA cable in place with enough "play" to allow the lid to open and close with the cradle in place.
* Use the Velcro to affix the APC Universal Power Adapter at the bottom of the case in the area in front of the cradle. Make sure that you allow for both the AC and car/plane cords to connect to the adapter while in place.
* Use the 3M wire clips to secure the USB/power cable in place, again with enough "play" to allow the lid to open and close.

That's pretty much it. You can use the foam insert, after picking out a UX+cradle sized hole into it to secure the UX in place for travel. The keyboard can ride in the case, on top of the foam against the monitor. (The monitor casing keeps it from rubbing against the screen. You can carry both the AC and car/plane cords inside the case, under the foam, next to the APC adapter.

I also have a set of Plano small parts/tackle containers which I keep in the case. I've ripped out a bit of foam to accommodate them (and my Microsoft Bluetooth Presenter Mouse). They tackle containers hold USB/Ethernet cables and miscellaneous odds and ends that I might need.

The goal was to have something for those business trips where I'd like to have a larger monitor and keyboard for use in my hotel room, but don't want to carry all that extra stuff separately and spend all the set-up and tear-down time (not to mention the worring over having it stolen). The case has a hole for a lock which prevents the case from opening. I put the lock through the hole and then through a security cord which I thread through the bed frame. The case hides under the bed while I'm gone, but even if the help finds it, they can see it would take a major amount of work to make off with it.

To use it, I just unlock it, flip it open, pop out the foam, plug in the power, put my UX in the cradle, and I'm good to go.

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

07/11/07 + MeanSquare

You can find the link for the 8.4 inch DC-powered monitor in the previous post.
The 19 inch monitor that I mentioned in a LG L196WT0 widescreen monitor (with a 2ms refresh time(!))

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

07/12/07 + ecsk2

Since we are on the LCD topic, would a touchscreen work with the OQO 02?
I guess the touch control part hooks up to the USB?

07/12/07 + edgemaster

Could you fit a mouse and mousepad in there as well?? Or do you just use the little trackstick on Q1 keyboard?

Recent Blog: OQO vs. Flipstart

07/12/07 + 2disbetter

MeanSquare said: " "

Do you have a picture of this little unit you've made? I'm at work and blocked so i can't check your site.

Very genius.

2d

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