OQO Model 02- first impression

Well the FedEx guy FINALLY appeared a few hours ago with the OQO Model 02 evaluation unit!  A big thanks to Dynamism for shooting the OQO my way for a short while so I can share my experiences with you.  You guys rock!

My first impressions aren't very clear so far because I have spent the time since I got the unit getting my stuff working so I can do a good evaluation.  The biggest impression I have so far is how good the integrated keyboard really is.  You can type very well with the keyboard and the little track stick works as advertised.  Unfortunately this one has the dreaded "cursor drift" that a lot of tracksticks have and it's driving me crazy.  Even though the OQO has an active digitizer when the cursor is drifting the digitizer does not respond to the pen.  I haven't had time to research this to see if it's a known issue yet but popping the screen up (or down depending on the state when it starts drifting) seems to halt the drifting.  I'll have to see how this affects note-taking in ink.

I hooked up an external DVD drive to get the software I need installed and that went well, albeit pretty slowly.  I have installed Microsoft Office 2007 and OneNote 2007 but I have not been able to test it yet.  I am currently migrating my settings and documents from the Fujitsu P1610 using the Belkin Easy Transfer cable and that has been going for over an hour and hasn't made very much progress.  I fear it is hung up.

The unit that Dynamism supplied is the OQO Best with Vista Ultimate, a 1.5 GHz Via processor, 1 GB of RAM, 60 GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth and integrated Sprint EV-DO.  I don't have a Sprint account so I probably can't test that module out which might be a good thing as the OQO indicates "no WWAN detected".  There is a little pull-out antenna so I think the OQO is lying to me. 

I don't have a dock and it's been a gymnastic effort with cables everywhere to get the software loaded.  If I bought one of these I would definitely get the dock too, I think the OQO experience is not very complete without it.  The unit is beautifully designed and constructed and while it does get warm it's not uncomfortable to hold, even while it's banging the hard disk a lot.  The keyboard is nice and backlit with an ambient room light sensor that controls it which is a very nice touch.  I'll have more to say after I've used it a bit but meanwhile you'll find a few photos after the jump.

OQO Model 02 & Fujitsu P1610

Size comparison with a ThinkOutside Travel Mouse

Not much bigger than the MacBook Pro trackpad!

Backlit keyboard- Left

Backlit keyboard- right

Comments

[Benz145]

Congrats, it finally arrived! I bet it was a pain to wait. I'll be sure to read anything you write up about the OQO 02 as I've never even been close to one. I'd like to know how well the touch scroll bars right next to the LCD screen work. As for the mouse drift, can you remove the mouse cap? In my experience with stickmice (on an IBM Notebook), sometimes removing the cap and putting it back on will fix the issue.

[JZ]

I get a little cursor drift once in a while when there is a background process churning away. But it's never impacted the trackstick or pen use.

[Opus]

trakstick drift can be a pain, I think a little mileage leaning on it hard minimizes the occurance but as you mentioned sliding the screen closed & open stops it best.

Waiting for my DVD-R docking station I used 1-4 gb thumbdrives, another PC to make ISO images, and a virtual DVD/CD drive (Virtual CloneDrive for Vista).

Anyway enjoy! And you might have to share with Kevin;)

[Dave Haupert]

Well, hope you like the device. I've had the mouse drift happen to me about half a dozen times in the last two months. Each time for me, closing and opening the keyboard fixed it, so it has not been any cause for concern. I'll be curious to see if you find a better fix- I think even OQO's (great) support site mentions this as the 'fix' for the problem.

Regarding the cradle or lack thereof - I had a very different experience- I expected to be wanting the cradle very badly before I bought it, but I have not found any situation where I might need it. For me, however, I've not installed one item to the OQO that required a CD or DVD. I've been experimenting with OpenOffice and open source or freeware applications as well as using things like Yahoo Mail beta instead of a dedicated mail app. So far, I have been hugely surprise at how well this experiment is going- and my device has not encountered any of that slowdown that happens when you install too many apps.

One other thing I'll add- I did bite the bullet and activate the Sprint WWAN option on mine, I didn't like the tethering experience one bit. And it makes me love the OQO even more- I find the speed difference between my DSL and it is not enough to warrant using it half the time as EVDO connects even faster than my Wifi network when coming out of sleep.

And I bought a Novatel U720 USB WWAN card with the plans to swap out the internal WWAN card and get Rev A speeds and internal GPS. But I am holding out for fear of breaking open the unit and putting my little guy in harm's way!

I'd recommend oqotalk.com as a site to go to for info on the OQO, btw. Hope this helps!

[Mark R]

I have had my 02 since the middle of April, and it is still my favorite device. I have the cradle (got it free on their loyalty program, as I had an 01+), and I hardly ever use it, but it is convenient to use as a charging cradle. It is an excellent machine, and OQO is to be commended for coming out with such a well-engineered device!

[scoobie]

The OQO 02 keyboard is great (though only suitable for a paragraph amounts of text entry).

My cursor drift problem seems to have gone away for me. I did panic at first with it , but its no longer an issue I find

What do you think of the zoom / interpolated resolution? Readable?

The worst thing about the OQO 02 I find is the rather annoying fan, that kicks in all the time.

[Addic]

What happened to the full unit review of the OQO o2?

[James Kendrick]

It's coming.