Sharp Willcom D4: Vista in your hand for $1,526

Those outside of Japan won't get any subsidized deal on the Sharp Willcom D4 clamshell computer. Nope, you'll have to order from an importer and add your own WWAN connectivity. Jenn at Pocketables found that Geekstuff4U is taking pre-orders for the D4: $1,526 and some spare change gets you on the list for a late June delivery if all goes well. That puts the D4 in the same price range as an OQO with a similar feature set, although the D4 is a clamshell, not a slider.

I'm still not sold on how well Vista will run on a 1.33 GHz Centrino Atom and I don't have any coin left after purchasing my Q1 Ultra Premium anyway. Does anybody else's gadget-bank have enough dough in it for the D4?

Comments

[khak]

Vista on this one ? = they do everything to kill UMPC or alike devices.

[PJ]

Hi Kevin,
Just quick question, which maybe you might have mentioned already in your old blogs.
What's the difference between 1.33 GHz Centrino Atom and 1.33 Intel Core Solo for Q1UP? I like my Q1UP but I already had to send it in for a repair due to webcam melfunction (webcam starts and takes pix on its own when I move Q1UP a little). If I get it back and have similar problem, I might actually sell it and get D4 (if it's as good as Q1UP in terms of processing power, max RAM size, and HDD size) but hopefully I don't have to because I really like my Q1UP, even though I only used it for 2 days before I sent it in for a repair.... XD

[James Kendrick]

The Atom processor is not comparable to the Core Solo processor in performance. I have seen testing that indicates this Atom processor will be similar to the 900 MHz Celeron processor in capability.

[nomo]

I'm having trouble seeing a happy union between the intended buyers and intended applications (fit-for-use). Professionals attracted by the pocketable form factor will try using it as an uber-PDA and a supplemental mobile computer. But frustration seems inevitable when the user tries to access the device and it takes too long for Vista to recover from sleep mode, the processor and hard drive chug along, and the battery is drained before noon. Device makers can design PCs to be as small and attractive as consumer devices, but have yet to achieve the combination of responsiveness, ease of use, and price necessary to attain mass adoption.

[Nate]

I think I'd have a hard time paying fifteen hundred dollars for what could only be described as a tertiary device.

It think this thing is about a thousand dollars over-priced.

Man, these mini-notebooks have ruined me.

[Ron]

Running Vista on this device insures that it will be nothing but a technology demo. The form factor is quite nice (I like clamshells) but I'm waiting for linux or XP based MIDs.

[Matthew Miller (aka palmsolo)]

Kevin, are you trying to get me to order another device on the podcast? :) It does look nice, but for a companion device, I am sticking to my $1,000 limit for now.

[Jon M]

For that price I can almost buy 2 HP Mini's ... looks like i am not gonna buy this new fangled HP Jornada 720 running life sucking Vista .....

[Ramp]

these devices will continue to fail at these prices. for what you pay they didnt even stick in the highend Atom. too bad really because this thing looks crazy cool & that KB looks awesomely tempting.

i would never expect a Core-anything in devices like these. Core Solo's are large, power hungry, outdated architectural designs.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Ramp, I agree with you on the price issue, but not so much on the Core Solo comment. The U1500 Core Solo running at 1.33GHz in my Q1UP maxes out at 5.5W. While that's just over double the power requirement for a high-end Intel Atom (2.6W), it's far less than standard notebook CPUs, many of which range in 15W to over 30W. Remember, there are ULV versions of CPUs in the Intel line.

[Fernando]

Similar form factor (size/weight) as the old beloved HP Jornada 720 series. Too bad it is not available with XP, which would make it good with the 1GB of RAM. Gotta love that form factor though...

[scoobie]

Price is because you have to buy into the Willcom airtime I suspect. It is exclusive to the telecoms operator and comes with a two year contract I believe.

[Shern]

no Kev, RAMP is correct. what you & many others always seem to forget in your speed/wattage comparisons is that the A1xx/Atom series PRIMARY feature & the whole reason for their existence is how much physically smaller they are (at a Pentium-class performance). they were created in an attempt to compete with Via in small devices like OQO & other handtops back when this market segment was predicted to take off.

he said he would not expect a CoreSolo in devices like THIS (much smaller than the Q1U) because they are to "large" which is absolutely correct.

now i know you will say you are already aware of Intel's reasoning behind making CPU's significant smaller for pocketable type devices, but the fact is i almost never ever see you, James, or anybody else acknowledge it.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Shern, I haven't forgotten about the physical size of the Atom; I simply pointed out that the wattage consumption of a ULV Core Solo isn't that much more than an Atom. I'm not debating chipset size; what you say is correct. His point was on the Core-anything chips consuming too much juice, as was my response.

[Al]

I might buy this if nothing better comes out. I have looked at every UMPC and so far they all are toys to me not very useful for real world business users. I want a simple touch type keyboard computer running a full windows OS that will fit in my pocket. This seems like the best so far but I little pricey given much of the featurs of the wirless is built for a Japan network that wont work here but the form factor alone is making me consider it.

There are no pocket full windows computers that look as good. The OQO is a joke with a thumb keyboard. The new LG, Nokia, Gigabyte are also to be a dissapointment being thumb based and also being Linux. For mainstream users we want MS and we want a touch type not a thumb keyboard.

Think about it, how does the world use a Full Windows OS and associated software? do they use a thumb keyboard or pen? no. Has any of the thumb devices or pen devices attracted many buyers other than tech geeks? no.

This is probably the best device so far? Sad the US is so far behind in mobile technology that people want to buy.