XYZ Computing takes a look at Samsung Q1 Ultra UMPC, the second generation of what is said to have been the most popular of the UMPCs. In the Q1U Samsung has taken a page from Sony's play book and included a QWERTY keyboard, though this one cleverly fits on slate-style device with no mechanical action necessary to get to it. The Q1U has also addressed other shortcomings with the first generation UMPCs as well as with the Q1 specifically.

After spending a few weeks with the Q1 Ultra I have developed mixed feelings about it. Its strengths should be really clear by now, namely that's highly portable, has multiple input methods, and has an excellent LCD. Pound for pound and inch for inch there are not that many devices that can match it in these respects. The Ultra has a number of shortcomings as well though and some of these are going to major roadblocks for interested buyers. The price is the foremost- starting at $1200 it is way above where most people wanted to see the UMPC positioned. Samsung is not the only offender here, and it not nearly the worst, but it is still a lot of money for something that does not necessarily replace a notebook. The next major issue is the new keyboard. While it can be accessed more quickly than the on-screen keyboard that the Q1 relied on, it's still not great. This might seem like less of a problem if writing with the stylus was better, but the unit is not pressure-sensitive and problem with palm smudge will prevent users from writing comfortably. The layout could definitely be improved upon and I, like most other people, was thrown by the lack of a Delete key.

As far as computing performance goes the Q1 Ultra is no champ, but it's not that bad off. There is no doubt that it is underpowered for running Vista and that it suffers noticeably when multitasking or opening/closing larger programs, but for simple tasks like note taking and emailing the A110 processor all you need. It would be great to see this system with 2GB of RAM, and supposedly some people having been opening it up and doing the upgrading themselves, but Samsung does not offer this and probably won't want to here you're warranty claims after a botched attempt.

Overall, Samsung has addressed some of the problems they had with the Q1, but they were not able to get the Q1 Ultra up to where I would want to see a second generation product. The external keyboard and new processor are both well additions but the product is not yet something I could recommend, especially factoring in the price. If it started in the $500 range and had some cool extras, like the possibility of a solid state disk and an extra gigabyte of RAM, I could see Samsung's UMPC as being much more attractive, but in its present state it is something I would hold off from buying. While some consumers will see the upgrade to the Ultra as being the right chance to buy a UMPC from Samsung, it's still too early for most people.