Asus R2H UMPC

htsource · 04-09-2007, 12:13 AM

Hi,

I'd like to know you guys opinion on the UMPC for the car? I know using a UMPC is not much of a fun if you're into modding. But given my car is a lease and I'm not good at modding stuff. So I'm better off buying stuff off the shelf

Anyway, I currently use a Fujitsu Tablet which is a P3-600MHz CPU and 256MB. I stripped down XP on it to pretty much nothing but to run iGuidance and WiFi for Internet browsing. That's about it basically and this computer boots up to iGuidance in less than 40 seconds. Shuts down in about 7 seconds to full power off. Faster than my home desktop computer!!

Anyway, the reason I was thinking upgrade to a better Tablet is for USB 2.0 support and a faster CPU could handle a more complicate front end like the Centrafuse! Then I found this:

http://www.expansys.ca/p.aspx?i=140351

It seems it has all the good toys built-in such as GPS, fingerprint reader, WiFi, bluetooth. The only thing that concerns me is the CPU, 900MHz Celeron! The reviews I have seen so far, the speed sucks. However, I'm thinking of reinstalling the OS to make it boot much quicker. Much like what I did to the current tablet.

What I like about the Asus UMPC:

a) fits nicer than my Fujitsu as the footprint is smaller
b) has USB 2, bluetooth, WiFi, fingerprint scanner, even GPS

What I'm not sure is if iGuidance will recognize the GPS from hibernate/standby with this integrated GPS. With my current setup, if iGuidance is running while I put the Tablet in standby/hibernation, I will have to unplug and re-plug the GPS cable to re-initialize. I'm currently just shut the whole thing down since it takes about the same time to wake up from hibernate and play with the GPS cable.

What do you think, anyone using a UMPC in the car?

Appreciate your inputs.

v8 scimitar · 04-09-2007, 04:20 AM

I have used the R2H at work and its a horrible piece of junk. I do this stuff for a living and it took me 3 days to get it to run stable. The drivers are a joke for a start and the GPS takes about 10 mins to get a lock. I agree on paper the R2H is the better kit but in practice it should never have been released in the state its in. If you want to go UMPC then I would look at the Samsung Q1 which is a much better bit of kit and worked out the box once all the Macaffe stuff was striped out. They aren't fast by a long road though and no amount of stripping down will sort that. Other problems are all the connections are distributed around 3 sides making it difficult to package into a car dash neatly. The screens aren't very bright either, both of them are dimmer than my K301.

DarquePervert · 04-09-2007, 05:12 AM

Personally, I think a UMPC in teh car is OK if that's what you want.
For me, having a mount with aUMPC in front of me wasn't what I wanted.

htsource · 04-09-2007, 02:45 PM

Hmm, it sounds like "SLOW" is where I see all the times on reviews of this UMPC. Hmm, I should hold off on it. I thought it would be cool to have at least USB 2 and Bluetooth built-in, but my current set up isn't too bad.

Thanks.