Obsession with Handheld Computers
Preserving the handheld heritage of the computer revolution.
One of the most outstanding UMPCs of the first era is the SONY VAIO UX. It is insanely technological, powerful, and comfortable. A real masterpiece of technological art.
At the same time, SONY VAIO UX is quite a reliable device. They fail noticeably less frequently than many other UMPCs of the first era. Despite this, it is useful to have a spare copy in the collection.
The P8 is a modern 8-inch UMPC from an unknown manufacturer. It has a swivel hinge display and is convertible into a tablet. The device is sold on Aliexpress under a variety of little-known brands. The device is notable for the fact that at its price of $250, it offers an interesting specification. There are no completely failed characteristics. For specifications, see the item description.
In terms of build quality, the device is, of course, inferior to the flagship devices from One-NetbooK. But in general, the quality is quite good and no worse than, for example, the Fujitsu U810. See the photos in the gallery below.
And in terms of performance, the P8 even surpasses some competitors, which are many times more expensive. For details, see Benchmarking NoName P8.
This price-performance ratio makes the NoName P8 stand out from the modern line of UMPC devices.
Not so long ago, a UMPC device called the P8 appeared on the market. The device is actively sold on Aliexpress. The manufacturer of the device is unknown, so we will call the device NoName P8. The NoName P8 is notable for the fact that, with rich functionality, it costs about $250, which is several times cheaper than competing devices such as the One-Netbook A1.
Let’s test the performance and see how the NoName P8, with its surprisingly low price, is able to compete with analogous UMPC devices in terms of CPU, SSD and GPU performance.
The following programs were used to test CPU, Memory, Disk performance:
The following programs were used to test 3D performance:
3DMark with default settings. Version details:
Unigine Heaven Benchmark at the resolution of 1280×720; version 4.0.
Processor: Intel Processor N100
SSD: Netac 1Tb N930ES NT01N930ES-001T-E2X
BIOS version: MH-ADL81 1.08 x64
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 22H2 Build 19045.4291
Intel UHD Graphics driver version: 31.0.101.5186
All the other test setups are described here: https://handheld.computer/?page_id=1009
It is worth noting the SSD performance of P8 is even faster than the premium OneGx1 Pro.
In all major aspects, the No Name P8 is significantly faster than the One-Netbook A 1 and other UMPC devices based on the m3-8100Y. Considering the price of the No Name P8 at $ 250, the device stands out from the modern UMPC line in terms of price/quality ratio.
Sony VAIO UX is one of the most outstanding, elegant, and powerful UMPC of the first epoch. Despite the quite wide range of models in the UX series and quite high prices, there were no dual-core versions of the device. However, the device itself is 100% ready to work with a dual-core processor. Therefore it’s relatively easy to make a custom upgrade.
The gallery below represents the process of CPU replacement: the original Intel® Core™ Solo U1500 is replaced by Intel® Core™2 Duo U7700 (dual-core, 64-bit). The modding was made by a professional master Sergey (aka Freeqwer). Here is a video from Sergey of a similar modding made for another item: https://youtu.be/OcuwCzd7C0I.
According to my benchmarks, Core™2 Duo U7700 is actually two times faster than Core™ Solo U1500 when the application utilizes both cores. The new CPU has increased the power consumption of the device by 25% and the cooling system is able to handle the extra power without the device overheating.
When you think of removable storage media for handheld computers, something like the items presented in the previous blog post usually comes to mind: Removable storage and RAM for handheld computers.
But there is one UMPC that is notably different in this regard – this is the Kohjinsha SR (SR8KP06A). This 7-inch handheld is equipped with a CD/DVD writer.
Specifications of the device are available here.
For the past couple of years I’ve been using 7-inch handhelds from One-Netbook as my main workstation.
The devices do their job pretty well. And from an aesthetic point of view, I find these devices quite pleasing. The only thing that bothered me was a bit boring lid with no marks what so ever. Therefore I decided to put my custom logo using a laser engraving technique. The lady in the engraving is Themis (quite unusual, without a sword and with open eyes).
"An ultra-mobile PC (ultra-mobile personal computer or UMPC) is a miniature version of a pen computer, a class of laptop whose specifications were launched by Microsoft and Intel in spring 2006." (c) Wikipedia. That was the dawn of the first UMPC epoch. This epoch did not last too long, because in the early 2010s major UMPC manufacturers ended its product lines. Few years later new manufacturers emerged and recreated UMPC market. The major one was the Chinese company GPD. GPD started the second UMPC epoch by releasing gaming handheld GPD Win in 2016 and the general purpose device GPD Pocket in 2017. Since then a whole bunch of UMPC devices were released. In this article we will compare performance of various UMPC devices from the second epoch: including the very first GPD Win and the most powerful UMPC up do the date – One-Netbook OneGx1 Pro.
Disclaimer. This article is not a comprehensive performance analysis of the 2-nd era UMPCs. All the test items are taken from my collection. Therefore the number of test items is quite limited. In case I add any new corresponding items to my collection, this benchmark survey might be extended as well.
The following programs were used to test CPU, Memory, Disk performance:
The following programs were used to test 3D performance:
3DMark with default settings. Version details:
Unigine Heaven Benchmark at the resolution of 1280×720; version 4.0.
Processor: Intel Atom x7-Z8750
BIOS version: AMI 5.11 8/7/2017
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.18363 Build 18363
Intel HD Graphics 405 driver version: 20.19.15.4444
Processor: Intel Atom x7-Z8750
BIOS version: AMI 5.11, 25.05.2017
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.18363 Build 18363
Intel HD Graphics 405 driver version: 20.19.15.4549
CPU: Intel Celeron N4100
BIOS version: AMI 02.07.2019
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.17763 Build 17763
Intel UHD Graphics 600 driver version: 26.20.100.7584
TDP: 10W
Processor: Intel Core m3-8100Y
BIOS version: AMI 5.12 12.09.2020
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.19042 Build 19042
Intel UHD Graphics 615 driver version: 27.20.100.8681
Processor: Intel Core m3-8100Y
BIOS version: AMI 5.12 04.03.2019
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.19042 Build 19042
Intel UHD Graphics 600 driver version: 26.20.100.7584
Processor: Intel Core i7-1160G7
BIOS version: AMI 5.19 17.12.2020
OS: Windows 10 Professional Version 10.0.19042 Build 19042
Intel Iris Xe Graphics driver version: 27.20.100.8680
The 11th generation Intel Core mobile processors (codename Tiger Lake) is a substantial breakthrough. It’s hard to believe that Core i7-1160G7 is faster than the high-end desktop processor Core i7-4790k, which was discontinued in 2017.
It is worth noting the variation in write speed across devices. Write speed of premium OneGx1 is significantly lower than the write speed of A1.
Few notes:
Since GPD Win performance of UMPCs has increased in many times in every single aspect.
Tiger Lake architecture is an outstanding breakthrough in both CPU and GPU performance.
One-Netbook A1 is based on 2 year old Core m3-8100Y. However, it’s still quite a remarkable device. It’s the first UMPC of the second epoch with a swivel hinge.
Comparison with Fujitsu Lifebook U820 suggests itself.
Let’s take another look at One-Netbook OneGx1 Pro. But this time in low light conditions.
Here are few benchmark results of the One-Netbook OneGx1 Pro.
I was quite surprised, that this handheld is faster than Core i7-4790k.
The graphics processing unit is almost 6 times faster than UHD 615 (Amber Lake m3).
