H9 - The first "real" Linux UMPC?

[Bob Russell]

The Beijing Peace East Technology Development Co. seems to have a couple of Linux UMPC models, H9 model and the H10 model. Actually, while the H10 is described as a UMPC, it runs WinCE and seems to be aimed customers that require outdoor usage.

The H9 is a touch screen device with a 7" LCD display has a PRS/CDMA phone, email, pda functions, WIFI, Web browser, GPS Navigation. It runs some flavor of Linux, and includes a multimedia player, flash player, photo browsing & editing, and what is called a "recording & multimedia file manager." It seems to have a replaceable battery (called "Knock-down & rechargeable!"), but there's no indication of battery life or whether the back light is an LED (which extends the battery life significantly in some of the newer UMPC models now on the market).

The CPU, hard drive and memory specs are pretty meager, so one would expect pricing to be very reasonable.

H9 Specifications
* Intel PXA270 CPU, 520MHz
* Linux OS
* 128M Byte SDRAM, 64M Byte Nor Flash ROM,
* 7" TFT LCD Display (800*480) with back light and touch screen.
* PCMICA/SD Card socket,
* USB, Earphone Jack, Power socket
* Battery: Knock-down(!?) & rechargeable Lithium battery, 4000mah
* Power: DC 5.0V+/-10%, 2.0A
* Audio: AC97, Built-in Speakers
* GPS: Hammerhead IC adopted, from Global Locate
* Hard disk: 20 G
* Size: 205x120x19 mm
* Weight: 500g

The H10 is a WinCE device made to support outside use.

H10 Specifications
* CPU: Intel PXA270C520，OS:Windows CE 5.0，
* Outdoor 6.5" high luminance & contrast touch-sensitive TFT screen.
It can display clearly even in strong sun-light
* Built-in High Sensitivity GPS system;
* Water-proof and dustproof outer design
* Super capacity battery makes it possible to work outdoor for 8 hours;
* Supports blue-tooth, SD socket, USB

Other devices have, of course, also paved the way. For example, the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, GP2X and Pepper Pad are devices that could probably be loosely called UMPCs. One way or another, there seems little question that powerful Linux UMPCs are in our future.

Via Pocketables.

Update: Pocketables has done some follow-up research, and is now reporting the news that a sales manager gave a price of $490 for the H9 (in a wholesale quantity of 500, that is). When decent UMPCs are offered consistently for less than $500 retail, even Linux-based, we might see sales explode.

[NatCh]

When PCMCIA cars/slots first came out, I tried to get folks to call them 'Pac-Man' slots -- it seemed fitting -- but the rest of the word unwisely decided to go with 'PC slots' as a short name.

Ironic, since PCMCIA really stands for "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms."

I wonder if perhaps the H10 is using an OLED display? I've heard about them being on a commercialized on a few cameras and the like, and a few showpieces like the HDTV monitor that Sony had at CES this year. I know that increasing the sizes has been a bit of a hurdle, but 6.5" doesn't seem like it'd be that much of a stretch from the 2~3" inch screens that have already been fielded.

[rsperberg]

Well, it's UMPC-sized and it has an 800x480 screen.

But if it can be a sorta-UMPC with Linux, then is it just the hard-disk drive that makes you call this a UMPC but not the Nokia 770 or N800?

I'd say the UMPC's (and the H9) aren't as ultra-mobile as the internet tablets (though they eventually hope to get there), and since they followed the Nokia entry by a long while, shouldn't they be called web or internet tablets?