SlashGear Japan
The glitz, the glamour, drunkenly ringing your step-mom at 3am to tell her you’ve married a transgendered hooker called Analise… it’s the high-tack spirit of Las Vegas that Raon Digital has summoned to perfectly gloss the latest on the “is that a PC in your pocket?” catwalk. Flaunting the same 800×480 resolution of its UMPC brethren, only squeezed into a UX50-alike 4.5 inch screen, this “Ultra Portable PC” appears to have pitched its tent firmly in the multimedia/gaming camp. Noble aims, but given reviewers’ general lack of excitement when hands-on with the first generation of UMPCs, you’d be forgiven for harbouring step-mom-like suspicions that the relationship between gamer and Vega won’t last.
Like Analise, however, the Vega has a few hidden surprises, not least under the hood. For there, glistening proudly, lies AMD’s oh-so-special Geode LX800 processor with its cluster of graphics wizardry, capable of spitting out 3D graphics that might have some PSP owners wondering what they’d get for trade-in. Because here’s the kicker: Raon Digital are hinting at a bargainous $700 for the Vega, nicely undercutting far-chunkier UMPCs. Okay, you could pick up a few PSPs for that, or – as naysayers will doubtless bleat – one of Sony’s finest and a cheap laptop from BestBuy, but how likely are you to whip your laptop out on the subway to check email, or bother hooking up a DMB tuner (one of the Vega’s optional accessories) to watch TV? Add that to the 5.5hr promised battery life and the deal gets sweeter.
The big question, of course, is when. Lucky Korea gets the Vega sometime in September, apparently, with International release “very likely”. We could sob over the few specific details, yes, or we could concentrate on saving up our milk money. After all, you could spend more on an Elvis-themed wedding.
7 Responses to “Vega – a tiny UMPC for tinier wallets”
Vincent Nguyen August 13, 2006
When will these vendors learn….no keyboard makes a crappy UMPC!
NeutralFacebook User August 13, 2006
lol it beats the purpose of mobility
NeutralMichael August 13, 2006
Let me rephrase this…the UMPC needs an “integrated keyboard” not external keyboard.
[quote comment="191"]lol it beats the purpose of mobility[/quote]
Neutrallooboo yanki August 14, 2006
Why can’t they put on a small keyboard that covers and protects the screen then you could flip it down or around to the back to get it out of the way… Unless you need it. Then just flip it down.
So easy, so obviouse, so nessessary.
UMPC manufactures! wake up!!! And put in or release an accessory to ad cell wide networking!!!
NeutralVincent Nguyen August 14, 2006
I think that design is flimsy. It’s done on the Sony Ericsson P900 series. Not very stable and makes it difficult to us all around.
miniplayer.info August 14, 2006
I have to agree, being a Q1 owner these manufacturers really need to add a keyboard.
As much as I love my Q1 a keyboard would make it even ncer. Having to toggle dial Keys On/Off is no picnic
NeutralVincent Nguyen August 14, 2006
We have the Q1 along with all the accessories; but have zero urges to use it. I’ve taken the Q1 along with me to Hawaii and a number of other locations to hand out to passengers near me to play with. Sadly, 99% of these common folks 1-have no clue what it is and 2-when I explain the Q1 to them, they simply don’t care or find it’s too complicated to use. This is very unfortunate for the UMPCs.
I was going to save this unboxing video until we run the Q1 along with all the accessories review later this week. However, in the spirit of this discussion, here it is.
Unboxing Video of the Q1 and its accessories
Neutral