Origami just a hobby

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 02 May 2006 16:15

Your IT - Home IT

 

I could never quite figure out the fascination that some people have with tablet PCs. Screens are much better suited to looking at than writing on I would have thought. However, I certainly can't see what the fuss is about with the newly released Samsung Q1 Origami.

With this particular device, you have something that costs an arm and a leg (around $1100), has no really usable keyboard, has an underpowered processor, a tiny screen (7-inch) and is too big to fit in your pocket. Sure it has a pretty decent amount of memory (512M of RAM) and storage (40G hard drive). It also has Bluetooth, WiFi and two USB ports.

Except for the fact that Samsung Q1 doesn't have a DVD drive, a keyboard and a decent sized screen, it would make good little compact device to carry around in a briefcase or whatever it is that mobile workers carry things around in these days. However, those are pretty big exceptions.

Speaking as a mobile worker who needs to type documents, read them and maybe watch a DVD in my spare time - perhaps when I'm on a plane - the Samsung Q1 would not be worth a pinch of camel dung to me.

If that's the case, maybe I'm looking at the device from the wrong angle. Instead of viewing as an underpowered, skeletal notebook PC, maybe I should view it as a sort of souped up PDA. In that case, it's too big to fit in my pocket, it certainly can't double as a mobile phone like say a Blackberry could and it's way too expensive. Other than the fact that it has more storage and processing power than I would ever need for a PDA, I can't think of single use for it.

Oh by the way, I haven't checked the warranty on this device but, at that price, I would want three years. In fact, on any laptop these days a three-year manufacturer's warranty should be mandatory.  

If I were a gadget head hobbyist who takes delight in watching movies on a tiny monitor or typing with my thumbs on a pseudo keyboard or scribbling notes with a stylus on a monitor, I may consider shelling out $1100 for a Samsung Q1. However, as I'm not, my notebook plus my 3G phone do me just fine.