Sharp Netwalker Tablet hitting Japan next month

Japanese folks rejoice! Sharp will be bringing their new NetWalker tablet in the month of May (2010). Powered by an i.MX515 Freescale CPU, it features 5-inch display, 8GB of flash storage, 512MB RAM, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Unlike most of the MIDs in the market, this one packs a good 1024×600 pixels (others have WVGA, 800×480 display). Now, if they could priced a bit low..$660 (61,200 Yen).

Kohjinsha PM MID (UMID M1) compared to Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker

PCwatch has compared two of the recently unveiled MIDs, Kohjinsha PM MID and Sharp’s PC-Z1 NetWalker. The Sharp PC-Z1 Netwalker is longer than the Kohjinsha, but that allowed Sharp to fit in a bigger keyboard than Kohjinsha PM MID. Sharp Netwalker has slightly wider buttons and has six row of function keys.

Kohjinsha PM MID relies solely on touch screen for navigation whereas the Sharp has managed to fit in a optical mouse. Sharp Netwalker MID has better battery life which is very important for such a small on-the-go device.

Both of these are not available officially in either US or EU

One very important thing that PCwatch forgot to mention: Kohjinsha PM MID is a x86-based device, which means that it can run almost any desktop OS (limited by storage memory). It comes installed with Windows XP, whereas the Sharp Netwalker has a non x86 hardware and runs Ubuntu

Sharp PC-Z1 MID/Smartbook – Not that impressive after all – Quick Look

At the IFA, Sharp unveiled a small Smartbook that is much smaller than the regular netbooks that we usually see in the market. The Sharp PC-Z1 is very small, even more compact than the now obsolete, EEE 701. Not only its dimensions are smaller than the EEE 701, but it’s much lighter too (just 400gm).

Hardware-wise, the Sharp PC-Z1 does not has good keyboard. Well, you cannot have a compact device with touch-type-able keyboard. Can you? Moving ahead, the screen is great. It packs a lot of pixels (1024×600) into its 5-inch display, which is at par with the Fujitsu U810/U1010 that was released a couple of years back. However, unlike Fujitsu, this does not run Vista or Windows XP. In fact, it cannot even run one even if you wish to as it is not an x86 device.

Ubuntu is there to save us, but given the unpleasant fact that it took 10 seconds just to launch Firefox, it is disheartening for many of us. Openoffice writer took 40 seconds to load! So, although you will be able to enjoy great battery life (Sharp claims 10 hours), you will have to adapt yourself to slow performance.

It will be on sale in Japan later this month for the price of 350 Euros.

Commentary: From the looks of it, I’m sure, it is gratifying, but once you start using the device, it is then you realize the mistake you did when buying such a slow piece of hardware. I confess, I’ll call this device a pass