On the plus side, I've always wanted an excuse to wear a monocle. I'm sure someone can grind me up one that magnifies the tiny screen so that it's usable.

five-inch LED back-lit 1024 x 600 touchscreen

What?!!

what about the battery life?

If you build it, they Willcom?

Are there two atom CPUS, a centrino and another type? This is the first instance I have seen a reference to ATOM being a centrino as well.

that thing is going to be impossible to use, look how many apps it's got running in the sys tray alone!

@Stacky Botrus: [gizmodo.com]

You could always set this into the wall in the doll-house miniature version of Bill Gates' house.

235ppi, nice.

@Serolf Divad: Monocle? You need a microscope to see that screen!

Real men use 1920x1080 in a 3.5inch iphone screen.

Very cool even if the performance isn't the best, as it means that you can _almost_ have a desktop environment in your pocket.

PHS, huh? That's not too hard to overcome; I've seen one place in Japan that sells a gadget that plugs into a regular phone line and broadcasts a short-range PHS signal. No telling how the FCC will react, though, and you'd have to watch that phone carefully (dial-up + Windows Update = $$$ that you don't really want to pay).

I'd hate to say this but for that kind of money, you can buy 3 iphones and have a little change left over! And, don't have to install SP1.

I thought the whole point of atom was to bring the prices down on such devices. I don't see $1000+ being cheap.

@Stacky Botrus:

Centrino is the moniker Intel uses for it's unified mobile 'platform'. To be labeled as Centrino, the device needs the Intel CPU, Intel Chipset for mobile devices, and the Intel approved wireless device.

So to answer your question Centrino is not a CPU but a platform.

I think this thing is sweet, as a consumer it's hard to realize the potential but think about it... Running the exact same application for the desktop and your mobile device. Even at 1k it's a lot cheaper than purchasing additional licenses for device xyz (if your license scheme is architecture limiting) or renting a programmer to port your application!

@saych:

Well there's no one single "whole point" to Atom. It's about low power consumption, small size, low heat. It's about fast performance in a small device. It's about x86 (as opposed to ARM) in mobile devices. It's about new form factors like MID.

The pricing is an interesting thing for devices in the territory between iPhone to sub notebooks (e.g. MID devices, UMPCs etc.). On one hand they have the capability of notebooks and as such you could argue that they should be priced similar to notebooks (which is easily 1000+ USD/EUR). On the other hand at the lower range you have consumers used to subsidized phones where prices are a few hundred USD/EUR at most. IMHO $1000 for this is quite ok and I consider a non-subsidized price of an iPhone around $1000 to be ok as well. But I know I'm not main stream (after all, I'm a gadget blog reading person).

@Kim98: I dunno what planet you live on but neither scenario that you paint is reasonable. For a device whose entire point is debatable, the pricing range is something that deserves to be looked at. I doubt many people would buy that device at the current price. At least, you can justify blowing 1000 bucks on an iPhone.

I think I just found something new to obsess over. Let's give it a year and maybe we'll see this state-side with some improved specs.

A couple of notes:
1) This won't hit the shelves until mid-June.
2) They haven't announced the expected battery life yet.

I think this a very cool UMPC and the best so far. What is wrong with all of the others is they do not have a good keyboard if they even have one, they are too large to carry in a pocket, and just are not very functional for the money.

I know this is expensive but that is because we are looking at non subsidized cell price as this is not made for a US cell company. While expensive the form factor alone is so far superior than the rest of the UMPC's I just might buy it?

I'd like to see one made for a US cell company then we'd get all the features the Japanese people get along with a lower price.

Price to me is very reliant on functionality. UMPC's so far suck with only pen input or thumb keys so then price becomes a huge factor. But if you design a UMPC like this where it is small enough to carry in a coat pocket and has more of a normal keyboard then it could be a main PC on the go and worth a higher price.

Personally Sharp has never had great keyboard designs but I like the clamshell design. What I would rather see is the same size but with a Psion keyboard or something close where not one milimeter is wasted.