Sharp RD-PM1 MID – nothing great about this MID

Sharp has rolled out another great looking MID: RD-PM1. This design employs use of slider mechanism.

It comes with a 4.3-inch touch-screen and a rather shabby resolution of 480×272. It has a sliding keyboard which it cleverly hides itself beneath its screen when not in use. It is powered by Windows CE 5.0 operating system. It has 8GB flash-storage, micro-SD slot (upto 16GB supported), built-in Bluetooth and WiFi. It is set to carry a price-tag of $290.

To be honest, we were more impressed by the two other MIDs that the Sharp rolled out (Sharp PM-MID and Sharp PC-Z1). At least, they sported better resolution. Whats up with the pathetic resolution in RD-PM1? Heck, even iPhone has better resolution than that!

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