Before there were netbooks running Linux and Windows XP, there were handheld PCs, running EPOC or Windows CE software. They may not have been able to run full fledged desktop applications like Firefox, Office, or OpenOffice.org, but they were good enough to give you some mobile computing power on the go. But for some reason, the handheld PC fell out of fashion a few years ago. Cellphones and laptops took their place, to some degree. But laptops didn’t have the battery life or ease of use of handheld PCs and cellphones didn’t have the large screens and full keyboards.
But the rise of the netbook apparently has some manufacturers taking another look at the idea of handheld PCs running stripped down operating systems like Windows CE.
The latest netbook/handheld PC running Windows CE is the Cuol Book, available in the UK from Robert Dyas. This odd little system has no trackpad or touchscreen to speak of, but comes with a mouse. It has a 7 inch display, measures just 21cm x 15cm, or about 8.3″ x 5.9″ and weighs just 680 grams or about 1.5 pounds.
The Cuol Book runs Windows CE 5.0, which is a bit outdated. But the system includes a web browser, Skype, and some basic Office applications as well as a media player. It has a 533MHz ARM CPU, 1GB of storage, and 512MB of RAM and a 3000mAh battery which should provide 5 hours of operating time.
It also includes 2 USB ports and a mini USB port and a SD/MMC card reader. If you’re looking for a small device with long battery life and a full sized keyboard (and no trackpad), the Cuol Book actually looks kind of cool. But at £159.99, or nearly $300 US, I’m not sure why anyone would really choose this over a cheap netbook like the Asus Eee PC 2G Surf of the Acer Aspire One, both of which can run Windows XP or Linux.
thanks John!
No worries for sending you the link. Sometimes CE gets a bum wrap. I just thought I would put some of my thoughts down to offer an opinion on Windows CE from a person who uses CE. I actually use CE devices at the moment (sigmarion 3 and Smartbook G138). In some situations these have good points that make them the only viable devices or at least a lot more useful than full desktop OS’s. IMHO Journalists and college students could find instant on/off invaluable and unlike early smart phones it is a very stable OS (you would be surprised how many industrial devices use CE – if it is stable and does the job required they don’t care what OS is on it). So for writing reports and taking notes 5hrs battery life (off a std battery), not waiting to boot and not requiring to lug a full laptop… Read more »
My experiences echo John’s. The problem is, a Win CE netbook needs to be much more inexpensive than the current Linux/XP netbooks… somewhere between $100-$175 USD, IMO.
Agree.
Do think they will get there quite quickly well at least to the $140-175 (almost bubble pack price). And people do need to make a considered choice if the plus points are worth the tradeoff.
I do hope someone has the sense to develop a reasonably fast RAW photo viewer for CE. Imagine how handy a $140 unit you can just chuck in a camera bag would be to view RAW photos when out and about. Instant on and battery would again be great plus points. And they would be cheap enough not to worry to much about them getting damaged.
John
I had a Psion 5MX many years ago and was more than happy with the EPOC OS and the applications available for it. At the time I wasn’t keen on Windows CE, but it seems to have matured to the point where I would consider a CE-based device.
For word processing, email and other basic tasks, these instant-on devices can easily compete with a x86 computer running Windows/Linux. The only trouble is the price – when you can buy a much more capable EeePC 701 for the same money, buying a limited CE-based device doesn’t make sense.
I’m hoping the sub-$100 CE palmtops covered here recently (the MenQ EasyPC or HiVision NB0700) manage to make it outside China. This is almost certainly a bulk/OEM price, but if they end up with a street price of under $150/£100, that could really shake things up.
Not sure I would recommend the Menq/HiVision/razorbook CE devices. From what I could see in the youtube video of the razorbook it doesn’t have instant on. Seems to switch off and boot CE from rom each time it is turned on (and doesn’t start up all that quickly). I compared my Smartbook G138 to the razorbook CE version (it does do instant on/off) but it can hard re-set and load from rom quicker than the razorbook can turn on. I also followed the video and clicked on exactly the same websites as they did in the video. I had a flash plugin installed (so got full page) and I am sorry to say the smartbook spanked the razorbook in terms of browsing speed. You may think this is not so bad but the smartbook is over 4 years old and is running CE 4.2 off a 200Mhz Strongarm CPU. It… Read more »
There was a thread about this sort of thing a few days ago, but I am still confused about sortware compatibility between the Razorbook, Cuol Book, etc., and the current Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 (CE based) devices.
I have an HP iPAQ 2795 with Windows Mobile 5.0 and am amazed at the number and variety of sophisticated apps available for it.
Would I be unable to run any of these apps on the Razorbook, Cuol Book, etc? Sorry, but I’m not a programmer and don’t have a good grasp of the relation of MIPS vs ARM processors to software, etc, so please answer in words of one syllable or less 🙂
razorbook uses a mips processor so unless these apps have a MIPS version (not so many do these days) you will not be able to run this software. From my experience with earlier versions of CE as WM is a layer sitting on top of CE some apps will run straight out of the box. Others likely only need 1 or 2 WM dll files to make them run. Also there are a lot of suppliers who provide software that works on both WM and Core CE. Arm CPU has the most software so I guess the Jointech JL7100 or Cuol book are best candidates for WM software (though I think there are more ARM based laptops on the way some look like they will use a Qualcomm ARM CPU at 1Ghz and actually run WM as opposed to CE professional (so these may be better for you). I am… Read more »
Thanks very much, John, for the very informative response. This clarifies the current situatuion to the extent that I now think I have a pretty good grasp of it, while also pointing out that there don’t seem to be many really simple answers. Also, you’re such a good writer that I only had to move my lips once or twice while reading it 😉
Doug
Lack of bluetooth really hurts the functionality of this devise.
Hi i’m a complete noob and i was wondering, is it possible to run linux on it? has anyone tried?
thanks
Gideon
as much as i hate windows and wince at the thought, this cuol book is a little dream to use. it’s a cute lappy and a serious mobile machine. so what if it’s lacking in features (please note, steve, that bluetooth dongles are tiny and cheap) this is supposed to be a nifty lightweight reliable netbook and succeeds in this wiithout a hint of the inferiority complex that turns other laptops into techy bloated bug bears. i also own an eee 900 which is very nice but bigger, complicated, and actually quite fragile. so i think that screwing around with the eee trying to get it to run various operating systems and second life isn’t half as worth it as having a smaller more rugged and reliable answer to my everyday needs, at half the price!
btw, robert dyas in brighton has sold out, try eastbourne…
Hi,
I’ve just purchased a cuol book but am aghast at the lack of documentation…Does anyone have a manual I could download or purchase?…by the way, the cuol book is also being marketed as the TAG ELECTRONICS UMPC-7000A
REGARDS,
R PITALUGA…GIBRALTAR
i have a cuol book it’s powering up but after it reaches windows ce that’s it the screen goes blank