Second generation UMPC seeks business approval

Samsung hopes the Q1 Ultra's integrated support for Windows Vista will appeal to business users

Samsung announced the second iteration of its ultra mobile PC (UMPC) today. Due in May, it promises better features and performance for business users looking for a lightweight alternative to a notebook PC.

The Q1 Ultra is based on low voltage 800MHz Intel processor architecture, codename McAslin, runs the Home Premium version of Windows Vista and features a 7in WSVGA screen offering a 1024x600 resolution. It also sports a small thumb controlled qwerty keyboard, much like a Blackberry, to aid messaging and text input functions, and a biometric fingerprint reader.

The previous incarnation of the Q1 Ultra, called the Q1, was announced this time last year and has so far shipped to almost 100,000 customers worldwide, says Samsung. Dinesh Chand, UK product marketing manager for mobile computing, said that, despite looking like a consumer gadget, the Q1 has attracted a lot of interest from businesses, with the UK being the biggest European market.

“We have several ongoing trials with local education authorities that are looking to deploy large numbers of Q1s to secondary school students for virtual learning purposes,” Chand said. “We’re also working with around 15-20 key business application developers, as well as ISVs and content providers who are busy providing solutions for the product.”

Kyuho Uhm, vice president of Samsung’s computer system division, said that the integrated support for Windows Vista will allow companies to run standard business applications, such as email and other office applications. He believes that this alone will increase demand for the Q1 Ultra from enterprises, but the overall user experience, particularly the input method, has been improved as well.

“The most difficult thing with the Q1 was the keyboard, and that is the reason for implementing the keypad. The second difficulty was the resolution and brightness of the screen, [which has been improved] so you can scroll up and down when internet surfing,” Uhm said.

The Q1 Ultra has 1GB Ram, a 60GB hard drive and integrated camera and fingerprint reader. It delivers an estimated battery life of 3.5 hours, and features integrated Fast Ethernet, WiFi, HSDPA and Bluetooth connectivity. Compact dimensions of 227.5x123.9x22.9mm keep the device’s weight down to just 690g and final pricing is expected to be 1,199 Euros.