Samsung Q1 ultra-mobile PC - first impressions

Speaking of battery life, the 3.5 hours with standard usage beats many notebooks but, and it's a big but, isn't particularly good seeing as this is the kind of device that's designed to be carried around all day away from the mains.

You can upgrade to a six-cell battery, which will last around six hours, or alternatively use an external battery pack to keep it running for up to nine hours.

Pricing for these battery upgrades hasn't been released as yet.

The Q1 runs Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005 , which houses Microsoft's excellent handwriting recognition application.

You can also use the new Dialkeys tool to enter text. This involves two curved areas being superimposed on either side of the display, with the idea being you bash in individual letters using your thumbs - just like when sending a text.

We gave Dialkeys a quick trial run and, although it takes a bit of getting used to, our typing speeds did start to increase. That said, we don't see many people typing out large documents using this method.

The built-in twin microphone system means voice recognition is more accurate than with a standard microphone set up, but you need to spend a fair time training the system in order for accuracy to reach an acceptable level.

There's no doubt this a huge step in terms of mobile computing, but after spending our first day with the Q1 we're still a little unsure what sort of user would benefit most from it.

The asking price of £799 isn't bad considering what you get but if, for example, you'd plan to use it mainly as a portable media player, there are far cheaper options available.

Watch out for our full review in the coming days along with a full image gallery.

In the meantime, you can read our news story on the Q1 and leave your comments in our Test Bed blog .

Samsung Q1 picture Gallery - software
Samsung Q1 - pictures of the device