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.
Hand386 is a unique handheld. It’s quite modern: the device was released in 2023. But at the same time it’s based on a rare Intel 386 compatible CPU.
From the practical standpoint, the device has a decent keyboard, genuine OPL3 sound chip and a high-quality screen, which makes Hand386 a good choice for playing non-demanding DOS games.
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.
