Viliv S5 - A pocket-sized Windows XP PC with GPS

I'll be interested to see some reviews of that. If the screen brightness is good it's something I would definitely consider buying to use in the car. It's a size that would work well for me and it would save me hauling my big laptop around.

...ken...

I agree. An interesting touch screen size and pixel rating. If the brightness is useable and it can work in portrait mode, it would be a great addition to a vehicle. The Atom processor would be a good step up from the r2h Celeron 900.

Still a little pricey though! Maybe later this year the price will drop and it will be available in Canada.

Terry

There is a YouTube video from StreetDeck of using this device for GPS.


Terry

Nice machine, and a very nice price compared to similar machines.

However, if one thing that drew you to laptop GPS is the larger screen, so that you can see more of the surrounding map context, then moving down to 4.8" might be a bit of a shock.

Note that at least two touchscreen 9-10" netbooks are getting released later this year (Asus and Gigabyte). Smaller than a 15" laptop, but much larger than 4.8", at a slightly lower price.

Tao, you are absolutely correct, but the price of this Viliv S5 ultra-mobile PC is getting to a point that it is just so difficult to resist the temptation to buy . Up until now the only two UMPCs that you could carry in your pocket were OQO and Sony UX, both of which were twice as expensive (or more?). And neither of those had a built in GPS.

I know I will not be buying one now, as I'm not in market for a new PC. But if I had to make a purchase decision now, I would very seriously consider one of these. There likely is a way to connect it to an external larger size monitor, if desired.

It is very nice to see more new UMPCs and netbooks becoming available constantly!

Maybe I am old fashion or too old.....I go with my Aspire One with a barely manageable keyboard when needed

Daniel

This looks like what I have been waiting for. I have tried or used other UMPC's and they are either way to big or screen is poor in the sunlight, they have a keyboard or the touchscreen responds poorly while moving down the road. I use nRoute (my fave), Garmin Mobile XT, DeLorme Street Atlas 2008. But with us moving down to a smaller car from a Tahoe, there just isn't enough room for my laptop and the wife has informed me no more laptop mounts in the new car

She is right, there just isn't enough room anymore, so my quest for a PND our UMPC has been a long 6 month mess. The Garmin PNP's are very nice, but they lack a good data delivery system for weather, & traffic. The MSN direct has poor coverage in most places we travel. When I had the laptop I had a couple of small one click scripts that would load the Doppler radar for the area near us while traveling and I used MSN Maps Live Traffic and MapQuest Traffic over a cellular data card in the laptop, plus I could Google search anything while we were traveling and the cellular data card had more coverage then the MSN direct coverage areas.

Sorry for the long post, but I miss a internet connected GPS and the Viliv S5 looks like it will be getting a test drive in my car when I read a few more reviews on it. Looks like I will load Garmin's mobile PC, DeLorme, my traffic and weather icon scripts and Bluetooth tether it to my Blackberry and I just might try Streetdeck 2 to see how it works for my needs

The Viliv S5 should give me what I want for a connected GPS and keep the wife happy also

Does anyone out there actually have one?

Tempted, I am...

Cute as this thing is, I don't see it as an alternative to a laptop but rather an addition to a latop (and a PC). It looks just too fiddly to serve me where my laptop does now. On the other hand, The laptop is not a great on-the-move in-car device for two-person cars as has been observed by multiple posters on this forum.

So, perhaps with this thing, we can leave the laptop in the trunk/boot and restore matrimonial harmony.

If this form format takes off, will you have to rename the Forum to "UMPC GPS World"?

I think it very much depends on the user's needs. I love the thought of being able to take it with me literally everywhere because of its very small size, but I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel with the screen size. I suspect the screen size is, for my personal needs, a bit more important than the ability to carry the UMPC in my pocket.

Many people will love this UMPC, I'm sure. I may even one day splurge on a pocket-sized ultra-mobile PC like this one, but for the time being I just love my 12" laptop.

Form factor (size and layout of things like the screen, keyboard, etc.) is the key issue for all of us. And it's totally dependent upon usage and personal expectations.

I spend most of my time in front of a 22" widescreen monitor under ideal lighting conditions and I use a Microsoft Natural keyboard to mitigate some carpel tunnel and RSI issues.

Moving to my 15" laptop makes me feel cramped, both visually (monitor) and physically (keyboard). No great surprise because I expect to be able to do all the same things on the laptop that I can do on the desktop PC.

Paradoxically, I don't feel the least bit cramped when I fire up my Palm T|X. Indeed, I experience a great sense of freedom. It takes so little space but still has wifi and Bluetooth. I can navigate, using my Bluetooth GPS receiver, and use wifi to stay connected to the extent that I wish. And do it without the full road warrior kit that I pack along in my laptop bag.

There is something of a liberating feeling with the Palm T|X because of my expectations. Specifically, I don't expect to be able to create mulitmedia Powerpoint presentations or complex Word documents or massive multidimensional spreadsheets on the Palm. So I don't even think about it. It is what it is and that's all I want when I'm packing it along.

I have not tried a netbook yet, so I don't know what my personal reaction will be. Will the screen be big enough (for me) to view standard web pages and do "normal" PC work? Will I expect it to be, and be frustrated if it's not? Or will it be so limiting that I'll have different expectations that will allow me to live with, or even be happy with, what it is?

Different form factors will strike each of us differently. It's definitely nice to have choices.

...ken...

SpadesFlush, JKKMOBILE has done a 25 minute long video review of Viliv S5 which I think is going to be much more useful to you than the above two video clips. I think at one point you asked if you could install any GPS software (e.g. S&T) on the UMPC. Yes, you are not in any way forced to use the front end software StreetDeck, and neither are you forced to use the optional Cube interface Viliv S5 comes with. I suspect most of us would just use the plain Windows XP interface.

P.S. I recently started to build a list of useful websites that may serve us as a source of information on various mobile computing topics. The new resource page is accessible by clicking "Links" in the footer of every page. There you can quickly access web sites such as JKKMOBILE and others.

Thanks, Marvin, for the link to the jjkmobile video. It was quite helpful, if a bit quirky (which is fine). While the device is intriguing, I worry if the screen might be a bit small for mobile navigating. I appreciate that one cannot have his cake and eat it, too, when it comes to size. In other words, if I want a small exterior package (I do) I have to put up with the small screen. Decisions, decisions...

The screen will be just fine for standard mobile navigation use if it's mounted in the right location. It's a little larger than the "widescreen" personal navigation devices and has far higher resolution.

The size of the unit will make it far easier to mount it in the right location.

The bigger issue with screen size will be how well it works for non-navigation PC stuff. Also of some concern would be how well most non-navigation PC apps, and Windows XP in general, lend themselves to touchscreen use.

...ken...