Asus is no stranger to the UMPC game. The company launched its R2H
last year with a price
tag under $1,000 USD. The R2H features a 900MHz Celeron M ULV processor,
768MB of DDR2 memory, 7" (800x480) LCD, 60GB hard drive, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR,
WiFi and GPS capabilities.
But seeing as how the tech industry doesn't stand still, Asus
has seen fit to introduce a second generation UMPC to replace its R2H according to Engadget. The
T83 unfortunately doesn't offer much in the term of performance upgrades, but
does offer a few functional improvements.
The LCD is still 7” with a resolution of 800x480, HDD size
has dropped to 30GB and the memory was cut by 256MB to 512MB. On the processor
side of things, the 900MHz Celeron M ULV processor was replaced by a 1GHz Via
C7-M processor. And despite the feature cuts, the T83 has managed to jump in
weight from 1.83 pounds to 2.1 pounds.
Asus has, however, added a swiveling LCD housing to the mix
along with a traditional (albeit small) QWERTY keyboard complete with
trackpoint and two mouse buttons. Battery life has also been increased from a paltry
2 hours on the R2H to 6 hours with the T83.
The Asus T83 may be a hard sell, however, in light of the
recent reveal of the Samsung
Q1 Ultra. That 1.5 pound UMPC sports a split-QWERTY keyboard, 7"
(1024x600) display, 800MHz Core 2 processor, 1GB of memory, 60GB hard drive,
dual cameras, HSDPA and WiBRO.
The Asus T83 has a price advantage though as it is expected
to retail for $900 USD to $1,000 USD while the Samsung Q1 Ultra is expected
to come in at around $1,200 USD.