More on the Samsung Q1

Michael Gartenberg | May 03, 2006, 09:28 AM

I've been a little slow getting my review of the Samsung Q1 together but but Linda Epstein has a good set of comments here.

Some of the nice points of the unit i've found? A built in VGA connector. That's really useful if you're looking to use one of these devices for business and need to present on the road. Battery life is also the best for any of theunits I've used; I'm getting a real 3.5+ hours of time. Not the best but much better than the other devices out there. The array mic also makes for a much better VOIP experience.
I also like the fact that there's a fast boot into a media player for access to music, pictures andthe like.

Some things I don't love about it? Lack of built in pointing device, you can sort of use the joystick as an eight way analog mouse but it's nowhere near as useful as the built in thumbstick on the TabletKiosk design. Also, it seems there are two different ways to drive the touchscreen. One is with software that esentially makes the screen a mouse replacement, the other a true driver for Tablet functionality. The practical difference is that unless you have a "real" tablet driver, you lose some accuracy with the pen and you also can't do things like undock the Tablet Input Panel. Samsung went with the mouse emulation and it makes the overall experience a little weaker.