Astone UMPC review

When I read that Astone is dropping their UMPC to PHP10,000.00, I immediately scrapped all my money to get this baby. After a few days of transaction, I finally got my Astone.

Packaging

PC Corner is not only efficient in selling great computers but also great with packaging. You can practically place water inside and it will never leak. For Astone's packaging, what you'll get is a lame user's manual, CD driver, power adapter and another adapter for video out, the UMPC is securely placed in a styro but I had never have a problem taking it out.

First Impressions

Except for the battery, everything else is pieced together really tight. I don't know why but my battery is a little bit movable but this has never affected the battery's performance.

Using the UMPC

The tiny keyboard is no problem for me. It may take a day or two to get used to it but if you use this for two to three hours a day you'll get used to it. The challenge though is in the mouse pad which is really, really small that I have to constantly life my fingers to move the mouse to the other side of the monitor. By the way the monitor is just ok and didn't have any problem at all.

Software

Astone came with 30-day evaluation period for XP which was provided by the local distributor.

Speed

Start-up is really slow but once it's stable, the applications will work without any problem. What I found weird though is the inability of the UMPC to handle too many tasks at once. Multi tasking with two applications running in the background push place your UMPC into screeching halt.

Touchscreen, Bluetooth

Yep, Astone even with its price is a touchscreen UMPC with Bluetooth. The pointer goes with the pen before the command is being executed. By the way, the webcam is located on the left side of the application.

So should you buy it?

If you have an extra budget, you can get this gadget a shot. But that will only happen if you already have another laptop that will be used at home. This should be your companion on the road. With the price of 10,000, this laptop is already a steal.

UPDATE: The XP Bundled UMPC will cost you an additional 2k.