OK, time to rip the Origami now that we have specs:
1. 900 MHz Celeron... what is this, the late 90's? I know Tablet PCs are generally underpowered, but couldn't Microsoft have put a processor in this thing that wouldn't make a several year old Compaq Tablet look fast by comparison? What'd Microsoft do, get a deal because it's essentially the same chip as what's in the Xbox?
2. Poor graphics... I wasn't expected a worldbeater, but it'd be nice if they stuck a low powered meaningful chipset from Nvidia or ATI in it instead of this generic garbage. Forget about gaming, even with older gamers that don't care about the processor. Seriously, this thing is shaping up to be the portable equivalent of that Walmart Lindows PC I bought a couple years ago.
3. Cost... cheaper than a tablet, more expensive than a PDA... it's not a bad price by any means, but it's not a revolutionary "sweet spot" price that makes up for 1 and 2... considering the components I'd like to think they could get these out for under $500, though I'm sure we'll start seeing closeout sales in 12-18 months that get the price closer.
4. Battery Life: Just in case you mistook cheap components for "low power consumption", think again... the battery life of the Origami is poor even for laptop standards, and downright shameful for what's really an overgrown PDA. The thing it puts me most in mind of in this regard is the PSP... sure, you can watch a full length movie, if you've got a fully charged battery or a handy outlet. Giving you 2.5 hours under a realistic workload keeps this thing from being particularly portable... and that was really all it had going for it in the first place.
If I were someone looking seriously at this, I'd look into getting a refub Compaq TC1000... it's got a comparable CPU with better power consumption, a much better battery life, a bigger screen, better graphics chip, and its liable to cost you about the same.
Topic: Microsoft Origami (Read 8478 times)
