Hand-Held Laptop: Samsung Q1 Ultra Mobile PC

The screens on most handheld devices are too small to enjoy watching photos, videos or TV programs. To appeal to this audience, Samsung of Korea and Asus of Taiwan introduced an ultralight tablet computer at the CeBIT Show 2006 in Hanover, Germany yesterday that’s bigger than a handheld but smaller than a tablet.

Called Project Origami by Microsoft and running on its XP Tablet PC Edition OS, the Q1 melds a laptop with a media player in a DVD-sized (9″ x 5″ x 1″) device with a 7″ diagonal screen. Sound like a winner? Not quite. ZDNet says, “Samsung’s first-generation Ultra Mobile PC is an intriguing device, but currently you don’t get enough functionality or battery life (2-3.5 hours) for your money (€1,000 or £700).”

It has a 60-GB hard drive, supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and sports two USB ports.
Read the review.