UMPC slowly morphing into UCPC?

Darius Chang | Apr 09, 2008

If you cannot Google a definition for UCPC... don't worry. It means Ultra-Cheap PC, a term we coined ourselves when the ASUS Eee PC was first launched at an incredible price of S$598 (US$439.71).

When Intel first envisioned the Origami project, they believed that Ultra-Mobile PCs would become laptop companions with mobility being the key factor. Yet now we are seeing a range of UMPCs, from the HP Compaq 2133 to the ASUS Eee PC 900, which seem to ignore mobility and, instead, attempt to enter a price war. Granted, HP calls its latest laptop a mini-notebook, but it is still fighting in the same space as other UMPCs. As a matter of fact, rumors of Acer's Intel Atom chipset entrant into this market may be coming in 8.9- and 12.1-inch flavors.

Yes, 8.9-inch is definitely more usable than a 5-inch or even 7-inch display. We also agree that having a keyboard which doesn't cause finger cramps is very useful, indeed. However, I believe we are not the only ones who think it's more logical to spring for a larger 12.1-inch with an even better keyboard and larger display. After all, the weight difference is less than a burger, while the additional footprint is hardly something to write home about.

So is the UMPC concept slowly morphing into UCPC? Would you rather pay more for a 12.1-inch notebook with a dual-core processor and more features, or compromise with a single-core mini-notebook? Decisions, decisions.

Filed under: Notebooks
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