Courtesy of Timlechat!
A few weeks after its announcement at CeBit 2006, this Q1 hit the stores all over the world, and that's a good move from Samsung for expats all over the world. Here are some pictures of the unpacking process of the Q1:
The packaging consists of 2 parts: 1 side containing the Q1, and 1 containing all the accessories:
When it comes to accessories, this is what I got in the box:
a 230V/19V adapter
a Windows XP Tablet PC Edition installation CD
an AVStation installation CD
a Windows XP Tablet PC Edition manual
a lanyard to attach the Q1 to your (left) wrist
a USB (extension) cable
a small (cleaning) cloth
3 quick reference guides (that I did not really pay any attention to)
The announced weight for the Q1 is 779g, but mine weighed in at 762g... The complete pack weighs 2.5kg, which is quite a lot to be honest.
The dimensions of this device are 227.5x139.5x26.5mm and on paper that does not say that much, but when you have the Q1 in your hands, you realize that it's really small! I put a CD and my C500 next to the Q1 as references.
So what connectors does this device have?
The right hand side:
The power plug, a USB 2.0 port and a VGA connector
The left hand side:
A non-identified port (most probably some sort of power port for one of the accessories), another USB 2.0 port, a 3.5mm audio jack, a double button for the sound volume, a Hold button and a small hole for the lanyard
The top:
An air ventilation outlet, a double Power/AVS button, a CompactFlash slot, an Ethernet port and a small hole that could be used to connect an antenna
The bottom:
The battery lasts between 3h30 and 4h (3h when everything is maxed out) and has a charge indicator, which is a very good idea from the manufacturer and something other mobile device manufacturers should adopt too.
The back, without the battery:
And that's where we see that the international constructors warrant is 1 year (the small blue square)!
To put the device down, there are two small arms:
The biggest is foreseen to enable media playback and the small one is designed to enable text input.
So that was our guided tour of the Q1, and now let's recap what is hidden underneath the casing of this Q1: an Intel Celeron M CPU running at 900Mhz, 512MB of 400Mhz DDR2 RAM, a 40GB 1.8" HDD that spins at 4200rpm (unconfirmed info mentions the possibility to order it with a 80GB HDD), an Intel graphics chipset with 128MB of shared RAM, a very nice 7" WVGA screen with a 16:9 ratio, 802.11g wireless connectivity and Ethernet to connect wirelessly, Bluetooth (for phone connectivity for example) and (as mentioned before) 2 USB 2.0 ports, a VGA connector to connect an external screen and an audio out connector.
So what's it like when using it every day?
Well, yu fiddle with it first...
You sort out the resolution parameters...
800x480, 800x600 or 1024x600 (the screen is at 800x480), these are the "favourite resolutions", but there are many to choose from, just like on any PC, primarily for use with an external screen (through the VGA port).
Other settings to play with:
The settings are the following:
brightness control, networking, sound, double-screen, SRS (WOW xt, Trusurround xt or no SRS), charge indication of the battery and rotation of the screen (by intervals of 90 degrees).
There are a number of "additional" features straight from the Samsung laboratories:
- as you might have noticed in some presentations, there is a writing recognition system like on PDA's, Poclet and TabletPC's. This system is really good on this Q1 and moves into the dedicated user writing recognition... without a lenghty "learning" procedure during the setup process. A USB keyboard is still a necessity though when you want to enter long texts.
- the AVStation is some sort of OS that can be launched instead of WinXP and it allows you to read all the media contained on the device. The power consumption is minimal in this mode and the battery life goes up drastically in this mode. Another afvantage is the short boot time (20 sec for AVStation as opposed to 1min for XP)
So, what are the negative points of this Q1? Despite the fact that this is a different kind of product, it hits the market a bit too late, AFTER a bunch of ultra-portables have conquered the market already... only the battery life of 3h30 can surpass sone of these ultra-portables. The lack of an internal optical drive is a big no-go for a lot of people (despite the added weight and negative effect on the battery life). The price of 1200 EUR is just way too high, it surpasses the 1000 EUR-mark by far, and let's not forget that it was supposed to retail for 800 EUR (2/3 of its current price). In the US, it will retail for 1200 USD, so if you want to pick one of these up, you know where to get one...
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