UMPC’s: is limited processing power an issue?
Filed under: Computers, Ultra Mobile PC | By: Peter Chubb
Posted on: November 6, 2007 | 2 Comments
Many more of us are now replacing our much loved laptops for the new UMPC’s, but what worries me is that these ultra mobile PC’s have limited processing power and that is what has held me off from purchasing one. The thing is some of these UMPC’s are now coming with solid-state disc storage which does help the computer access information faster.
It just seems that we get so far with technology in a laptop decide that they are still too big so we go smaller, so we now have the much smaller UMPC but the downside is they are slower, so the industry have to work hard at getting faster speeds out of these. But give it 6 months to a year and they will be as quick as some standard laptops.
So do you think that the limited processing power of UMPC’s is an issue?
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Yes, it’s an issue. I have been talking about it from day one. The Intel A110 was a step forward in that sense. The first generation of UMPC using Pentium M and Celeron had a better performance than the second generation using A110 and A100.
One common mistake is to think about this new UMPC as companion PCs. Once you buy and start using one of them then you will discover that you wont be able to live without it any more and there is when the UMPC became not just a companion but your main PC. And when that happens then you will find that the processor is not powerful enough for tasks like video and photo editing, to mention some.
At this moment I own two UMPC, one of them with a VIA and another with a Celeron M at 900 MHz, but I have been lucky enough to test and review many other UMPCs and so far I have not found anyone with a better performance than my old Q1 (no counting the Sony UX series).
I dont think that this is a problem to the everyday consumer, when the main thought is convenience.