Refine search for Laptops

  Leave a comment      Email this to a friend TrustedReviews Newsletters

With all of the fuss surrounding Microsoft's Origami launch at CEBIT and Intel's more recent UMPC (ultra mobile PC) announcements you'd be forgiven for thinking that making PCs really small was a revolutionary new concept. What a great idea – cramming all of the functionality of a desktop PC into an easily portable package. Why hadn't anyone thought of that before?

Of course nothing could be further from the truth. Computer manufacturers have been striving to build the smallest machines imaginable ever since the first 'portable' home computer gave its unfortunate owner a hernia trying to lug it from desk to boot of car.

Way back in the late Nineties Toshiba with its Libretto released the tiniest laptop the industry had ever seen – and it’s still not far off being that now with the firm has reviving the range. And over a year before Microsoft and Intel started to get the mainstream press over-excited OQO was quietly developing a UMPC all of its own.

In early 2005 OQO launched its model 1 – probably the smallest (and sexiest) machine yet to run full-blown Windows. It was little larger than a standard PDA, had the sort of build quality you’d be more likely to associate with military hardware, and it had the coolest sliding screen which smoothly rolled back on a rack-and pinion-system to reveal a full blown QWERTY keyboard, complete with number pad, underneath.

Riyad first laid eyes on the diminutive OQO model 1 at CES back at the beginning of last year and reviewed the company’s groundbreaking pocket machine in the summer (you can read the full review here). He loved it and since then we at TrustedReviews have been following its fortunes closely. Just recently it has undergone some dramatic changes so we thought it was worth revisiting.

The biggest change is that the OQO 01+ Tablet Edition now comes with – you guessed it – Windows Tablet PC installed instead of plain old Windows XP Professional. This means you get extras such as handwriting recognition, e-ink and Windows Journal on top of all the features of Windows XP Professional. It seems a perfect fit. After all if you don't get on with the keyboard and stick pointer under the screen – and if you've got chunky or just plain clumsy fingers we can see how that might be the case – you've got another way of navigating and entering text.

Add your comment