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Yet another accessory to carry -- the Willcom D4's Bluetooth handset.  (Source: Akihabara News)
Willcom's D4 WSO16SH sports a 1.33GHz Intel Atom processor

Intel's Atom processors were officially announced in March and garnered great interest from mobile professionals around the globe. Intel promises that its Silverthorne-based Atom processors -- destined for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) -- will feature TDPs ranging from 0.65 W to 2.4 W while processor speeds start at 800MHz and go on up to 1.86GHz.

Willcom isn't wasting any time getting its first Silverthorne-based MID to the market. The company over the weekend showed off its D4 WSO16SH which measures 3.3" x 7.4" x 1” and weighs one pound. Despite the relatively small dimensions, the D4 WSO16SH manages to incorporate a 5" LED-backlit display with a resolution of 1,024x600.

The D4 WSO16SH also features a slide-out, 64-key QWERTY keyboard, 2MP camera, WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. The device also supports Willcom's Personal Handyphone System (PHS) data network. Interestingly, the D4 WSO16SH will also come with a handset that connects via Bluetooth to place calls.

When it comes to horsepower, the D4 WSO16SH incorporates a 1.33GHz Z520 Atom processor, 1GB of RAM (PC2-4200), and a 40GB 4,200 RPM HDD. Unfortunately, the hardware is paired with Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and was considered "unimpressive" with regards to performance according to Akihabara News.

Willcom's D4 WSO16SH will be priced at around $1,272 USD when it launches in Japan in mid-June.

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nice, but...
By Gul Westfale on 4/14/2008 11:19:27 AM , Rating: 2
it looks very nice and has impressive specs for such a small machine but two things kill it:

1. vista- sloooow performance is virtually guaranteed by the slow CPU and the relative lack of RAM;
2. price. at well over $1k you could get a blackberry for mobile emailing, and have enough left over to get a laptop if you need to do some work or watch a movie on the plane/in the hotel.

i think what they need is either an embedded version of vista or linux, and a much lower price tag (around 300 dollars or so). otherwise it;s just not worth it when compared to your average smartphone/asus eeepc, even if the screen is nicer.




RE: nice, but...
By Gul Westfale on 4/14/2008 11:31:47 AM , Rating: 2
just re-reading my own post... if an embedded version of vista existed, it would probably still run more slowly than the "normal" version of XP...


RE: nice, but...
By Screwballl on 4/14/08, Rating: -1
RE: nice, but...
By Gul Westfale on 4/14/2008 12:45:30 PM , Rating: 5
walla?! omfg... walla... bad enough with the "should of" instead of "should've" and the "redicilous"... but walla?


RE: nice, but...
By afkrotch on 4/14/2008 1:34:09 PM , Rating: 2
Think he meant to say Viola!


RE: nice, but...
By Gul Westfale on 4/14/2008 2:48:44 PM , Rating: 2
"voilà"


RE: nice, but...
By erikejw on 4/15/2008 4:44:09 AM , Rating: 2
Why use a 1w processor together with a 4200 rpm hdd?
Why no SSD? They have 1/10 of the power requirements.
To this price it should be included.


RE: nice, but...
By darkfoon on 4/15/2008 12:41:01 AM , Rating: 2
THANK YOU!
I have seen that all over the internet and it bothers me to no end. It is so refreshing to see that somebody else noticed "should of".


RE: nice, but...
By FITCamaro on 4/14/08, Rating: 0
RE: nice, but...
By Gul Westfale on 4/14/2008 1:37:43 PM , Rating: 2
indeed, you wouldn't install desktop apps on this machine anyway, so an embedded OS is a better fit than the full-on vista. quite why they decided to go with vista is a mystery...


RE: nice, but...
By JoeBanana on 4/14/2008 4:05:46 PM , Rating: 2
Or linux because it scales really well.


RE: nice, but...
By SiliconAddict on 4/14/2008 1:42:40 PM , Rating: 1
Vista runs fine on my ULV 1.2Ghz C2D...however the key is that its a C2D....how a ULV 1.2 fares against a 1.6 Atom....who knows. Since the Atom isn't dual core that alone should be telling. But frankly CPU is much less of a factor in Vista then memory and GPU.
But haters don't know that.


the changing of the times....
By maverick85wd on 4/14/2008 11:57:43 AM , Rating: 2
It's sad to think this gadget has more transistors on die than my old palomino-based xp 1900+ and almost as many as the 2600+ Barton I upgraded to about a year ago (I'm holding out to see what Barcelona has to offer, even if it is still a ways away... plus I think I want to wait a while longer before I upgrade to Vista... which I will need a new computer to do).

This device would be screaming if the put XP pro on it. What a shame...




RE: the changing of the times....
By Gul Westfale on 4/14/2008 12:02:15 PM , Rating: 2
barcelona? isn't that the quad-core opteron that is based on K10? i think that is available, but why go with a server CPU when you can get a similar phenom for less money?


By maverick85wd on 4/14/2008 12:26:21 PM , Rating: 2
it is, I had it in my mind from seeing it in a different article I was reading just before I read this one... I meant the forecasted "stars" chips


Where have all the clever names gone?
By HaZaRd2K6 on 4/14/2008 12:12:41 PM , Rating: 4
Nobody seems to know how to name products anymore. Who decided this should be called the D4 WSO16SH? Why not give it a name more, oh, I don't know, pronounceable?!

With the exception of LG's new phones (the Shine, Muziq, Chocolate and others), it seems like there isn't a company out there who isn't sticking model numbers on products instead of actual names. I mean, even Pontiac changed the name of the Pursuit (which was at least a name, albeit not a great one) to the G5.

Just give me real names. I hate having to refer to things in random alphanumeric combinations.

</rant>




By JoshuaBuss on 4/14/2008 8:12:48 PM , Rating: 2
your'e so right.. think how successful it's made apple alone!

having memorable product names is HUGE.


Vista?? WTF were they thinking?
By DEredita on 4/14/2008 11:24:10 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Unfortunately, the hardware is paired with Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and was considered "unimpressive" with regards to performance according to Akihabara News.


I thought this is why Microsoft extended the life of Windows XP. Those specs would be sweet for XP, but for Vista, I can only imagine the horrid performance.




RE: Vista?? WTF were they thinking?
By zshift on 4/14/2008 12:19:03 PM , Rating: 2
Here's the issue with that comment: Microsoft extended XP for ULPC: ultra low cost pc's. this sucker being priced at about $1K doesn't let it fall into the ULPC category and therefore goes against the current XP licensing agreements. had this been under $400 it could have probably had xp. too bad these umpc devices are always so expensive, yet something like the eee pc falls in at ultra low prices.


By psychobriggsy on 4/14/2008 12:19:30 PM , Rating: 2
Hmm, whilst not the slimmest of portable devices, it does have a decent specifications as a mobile Windows PC. Vista is clearly overkill and will kill the device's usability, XP or custom/linux software would have been far more preferable. It is in the old Psion 5 format though...

I think I'd rather have an 8.9" EeePC + my choice of mobile phone. This device comes with a 2 year mobile contract on top of that very large price as well, so my combination should be a lot cheaper, and the Eee's keyboard far more usable.

Also, who are Willcomm? The device has the brand of the huge Sharp corporation, but I've never heard of Willcomm. Are they like Foxconn, a rarely heard of company that does design and implementation for a range of big name companies?




Vista there??
By DeepBlue1975 on 4/14/2008 12:59:12 PM , Rating: 2
Please, keep full vista installs for desktops and "full powered" notebooks, not for this kind of devices.

What good is the 40gb drive if 10 of those will end up being used by the OS?

At least I think MS should develop a Windows Vista Mobile or embedded for this kind of devices, and really strip the original down quite a bit.




The problem with these
By pauldovi on 4/14/2008 1:05:09 PM , Rating: 2
Is software.

You pack together an amazing device in terms of hardware, and then you place a desktop OS on it. This is why Apple was so successful, they developed an OS dedicated to running their mobile devices. These companies need to learn that the software that runs their device is more important than the hardware behind it.




$1200 WHAT!!!!
By bhieb on 4/14/2008 1:51:30 PM , Rating: 2
Wasn't the main goal(other than power) of Atom to reduce cost. I thought this was supposed to lower cost and help bring x86 to CE devices. How in the hell is $1200 a reduction in price? If throwning an Atom in there is going to increase the cost of basically a smartphone by 200% what is it going to do to my TV, cablebox, DVD, or other CE devices.

I really hope this is a manufacturer trying to cash in on the "cool" factor, and someone will come out with an affordable application of this tech as it was meant to be implemented.




Putting Vista on it was a......
By MFK on 4/15/2008 12:21:27 AM , Rating: 2
....good idea, if not an excellent idea.

Many places uses their own security protocols that are made to work on Vista and OSX only.

I have a PSP, but its on-the-go internet capabilities are no use to me. It does not support my universities security protocol. If it did, I'd carry it on me at all times.




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