OQO
01+
Before I begin:
My cousin said something to me the other day that made me stop and think.
~"You buy things you want but don't need, even if you kid yourself you might eventually come to feel you need it, and call such purchases 'investments'." (The beauty of the statement was obviously the "quotes" he used.)
Well, let me be clear: My purchase of a OQO 01+ was indeed an "investment".
"Ooh, wow, 'The World's Smallest Computer' (as it was then hailed), and only £349 (from eXpansys). It would be criminal not to get that!"
However, throw in a screen protector (£10) and a super-cool, red Piel Frama leather case (£50) and it started to feel like I'd been
criminalised by the
Wicked Winvestmentiser of the West (www).
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To be a bit more lucid: I bought this because I thought it would fit in my pocket (unlike my
tablet) yet it was touchscreen (like my tablet), and so could replace my tablet as my "mobile PC". However, it was just
too small.
It has a keyboard, but it's too small to touch-type. It has a screen, but the res is only 800x480. Word 2007 would laugh at that, sure, but even 2003 was a challenge. You had to try and arrange all the items you wanted on one (not very wide) toolbar. Having "Standard" and "Formatting" on screen at once would just leave you too little space for doing anything else.
So great idea in theory, but not in practice.
I still use it (infrequently) as an eBook reader or (non-hd) movie player; but the battery is appaling (<45min), so it generally needs to be plugged in during use.
To conclude: this "mobile dream machine" wasn't so "mobile" or "dream-y" after all.
A true "investment".
(I wish I'd tried it in a shop before buying it "online".) 2009.10.13 UPDATE