Like with all qwerty keyboards, people who need accentuated characters might choose alternative accentuated drivers (such as qwerty Canadian French) or re-program a driver via a shareware like KLM.

No need to press two keys at once. The special keys (SHIFT, FN, CTL, ALT) once touched stay in an "on" position until you press a second key. A LED next to these keys blinks as long as they're selected.

The sequence for ALT+F4 would be: push ALT, push FN, push 4.

Click here for a video footage of this detail (2MB .wmv file)

Using the digital pen is the other way to interact with the OQO and the only way when the Model 01's screen covers the keyboard.

Handwriting recognition softwares like Ritepen can be used.

There's some originality in the way the pen works:while all PDA's use conventional touch-sensitive screens, there's a Wacom tablet in this computer. A magnetic field generator behind the screen detects the position of the coil inside the pen. With the following consequences:

-the screen isn't touch-sensitive:only the special pen can be used
-no sensitive layer on top of the screen: preserves brightness
-it works even if the pen doesn't touch the surface of the screen
-the sample rate of the system is higher than conventional sensitive layers an advantage for characters recognition.
-the stylus being active, it is fitted with a configurable button (left or right click)

Click here for a video demo of the digital pen system

By far, using the keyboard is the best solution. With both hands holding it and accessing the keyboard with the thumbs, it's handled like a Sony U1, its 3x the size ancestor.

Originally, OQO had planned a docking station with a newly designed "soft eject" feature to which the docking cable would stay connected.

OQO probably ran into unforeseen troubles as the only "station" available is a 100% inert metal stand. Only the docking cable survived.

The trouble with this is that the OQO isn't secured on its base. You must first hold the machine in hand then plug the cable on its bottom left in three connectors at once.

There's also a problem here: as any engineer will tell, connectors can only be plugged and un-plugged a fixed number of times. Sometimes connectors are only certified for 50 plugging cycles in industrial environments. It puts a strain on the soldering of the internal plugs that can lead to tearing them apart.

The cable is also quite thick, so if you move it roughly you might even dislodge the OQO from its stand.


Once that's connected, the rest is a really good idea: you get an extra Firewire and USB1.1 port, audio out, external monitor out, wired ethernet, and power in. Each conveniently spaced out from each other. That turns this mini PC into a real office machine.

4: Networking and expansion ports

Plenty of choices here:

-USB 1.1 :one on the OQO (green plug above), one on the dock. cable
-Firewire 400: one on the left of the OQO, one on the docking cable
-ethernet 10/100 on the docking cable
-wireless ethernet (WiFi) built-in
-Bluetooth built-in

With the following restrictions:

-USB is not version 2 (40x times faster) because the design phase of the OQO took so long, it was impossible to integrate USB2 in time for production

-Firewire is not bootable. You must use the slow USB1.1 to re-install Windows

-the human body is not transparent at the frequency used by WiFi (2.4GHz), it simply absorbs the energy and blocks transmission. The WiFi antennas of the OQO are placed at both sides of the unit where they can easily be hidden by a finger. Apparently, one antenna is used by Bluetooth while the other is used by WiFi.

It's possible to change that setting in the BIOS as shown below:








5: the screen



OQO in natural light condition

the TFT 5" screen has brightness and contrast comparable to the average PocketPC. Dimmer than the Sony VGN-U70P but still bright enough.

Brightness can be adjusted via a function key. 
 
The screen resolution is a bit odd at 800x480. Giving full-width text pages but not their full lenght. Here the scrolling wheel at the bottom side prooves useful.

800x480 on such a screen means a very high density picture, ideal as video walkman. You might store video DVD's on the 20GB HD and watch them on-the-go at their (nearly) full resolution. See the "multimedia walkman" paragraph for more.

Switching to an external monitor, the resolution can be extended up to 1280x1024.



icon size enlarged from 30 to 48 pixels


Some people might have trouble with normal fonts on a very small screen. That's why the default appearance straight out of the box uses enlarged icons and fonts. This isn't a special features, it only uses Windows XP's desktop appearance sub-menu for that. So anyone might change it according to its own needs.




Outlook XP's calendar module


With this eventual tweaking, productivity softwares such as Outlook or Word are really usable in a nearly pocketable format.

6: Speed

Ths Crusoe 5800 CPU adapts its clock speed between 300 and 1000MHz all the time



Here's the biggest compromise. In order to shrink a PC to that size, you need a very low voltage processor that can stay very cool and allows a good battery autonomy.

While today's designs like the Sony U71P prefer the new Pentium-M 1.1GHz with 2MB cache, performing like a Pentium4/1800MHz, the OQO is based on Transmeta's Crusoe 5800 1GHz processor which performs at best like a Pentium 3/667MHz . Furthermore, the OQO has only 256MB of non-upgradable RAM.

what can you do with a P3/667? Well, mostly everything needed: web, office work, DVD playback but some desktop smoothness is sacrified.

The Crusoe is a very special processor. Partly based on a software loaded in RAM at boot time, it has a 128 bit architecture that emulates a Pentium on-the-fly and optimize in real-time the most wanted instructions. It is faster at opening a Word document the second time that the first time. And it starts screaming when decoding DVD or DIVX videos with the cooling fan running at full speed.

At least this has a positive impact on autonomy: as long as you do light work on the machine, the processor stays at 300MHz and spares batteries, progressively reaching 533, 800 or 1000MHz as you begin to load it. At 1000MHz, it still only needs 1 volt. The battery offers 4000mAh at 3.7v (1800mAh at 11.1v in the Sony) reaching up to 3-3.5 hours of autonomy.

Click here for a video demo of the Crusoe's behaviour (2MB .wmv file)


Click here for a full-length video of the OQO boot sequence (3MB .wmv file)

The video card only has 8MB of RAM and reduced 3D support while Sony's machine have 64MB of shared video RAM with smooth 3D in not-too-demanding softwares.

A good test is Celestia, a 3D freeware real-time Solar System simulator. It runs smoothly on a Sony U50. As you can see, the OQO just can't keep up with the 3D needs of this fairly light software.


Click here for a video demo of Celestia running on the OQO (2MB .wmv file)


If 3D is not an option, how far can we push it then?



OQO grabbing video from a DV camcorder into Windows Movie Maker2

Recording DV video is one of the most demanding task for a computer. It represents a sustained 3.5MB/s data stream and previous generations of Crusoe-based computers, like the Sony PCG-U1 and PCG-U3 were unable to perform this.  

Intel-based notebooks have no problem with it: even the 600MHz Celeron Banias of the Sony PCG-U101 can do it well.

The surprise is that the OQO is able to do it too.

Click here for a video footage of the OQO playing back an .AVI DV file (2MB .wmv file)

7: a multimedia walkman

Full screen DVD playback from a DVD image stored on the hard drive


The OQO has no internal speaker but its stereo phones output is very loud. Louder than most notebook so even a heavy Hi-Fi headphones set will deliver a correct level.

Being a standard PC, any media player will run fine. Only WinDVD is not supported but DVD play back works with Windows Media Player or VLC.



Firewire DVD player hooked to the OQO

How to play DVD when the computer is smaller than the disc itself?
Simply copy the DVD to the internal hard drive. DVD hardware emulators like Alcohol 120% or a freeware like DVDShrink 3.2 can do it for you.

Click here for a video footage of the OQO playing back a video DVD (2MB .wmv file)


DVD being heavier than most other video formats, less challenging ones like DIVX or MPEG1 work as well.



8: conclusions






Pros:


-extreme portability, the smallest Windows XP notebook, 400 grams
-practical keyboard and ergonomics
-good battery autonomy
-Bluetooth, WiFi built-in
-Firewire and USB integrated in the main unit
-scrolling wheel
-Crusoe adaptative mode: spares energy as best as possible
-very good audio quality
-a detection system protects the hard drive's heads in case of free fall
-hype factor: 110%


Cons:

-slowish Crusoe processor
-maximum 256MB RAM available
-only 8MB video card, ok for DV and DVD but no 3D
-USB is only v 1.1 , not 2.0
-Firewire is not bootable
-USB floppy not bootable
-noisy cooling system
-gets warm easily
-no built-in speaker
-WiFi network too easily blocked by a finger on the transmitters
-no real docking station
-very basic transport sleeve
-no memory card slot MS, SD or CF for direct import from a camera