I purchased my HCL Mileap V-Series UMPC/tablet laptop ar
ound Rs 38,350 which is inclusive of 4% VAT (its retail price is Rs 35,990 exclusive of tax) , actually i managed to get it for Rs.35K only .. (how... ah haa.. ma counter-marketing skills..) , this version comes with Windows Vista Home Premium preloaded, other comparable products similar to the performance of Mileap V cost almost one and a half times.
ound Rs 38,350 which is inclusive of 4% VAT (its retail price is Rs 35,990 exclusive of tax) , actually i managed to get it for Rs.35K only .. (how... ah haa.. ma counter-marketing skills..) , this version comes with Windows Vista Home Premium preloaded, other comparable products similar to the performance of Mileap V cost almost one and a half times.The laptop was preloaded with Vista Home Premium the first time you run the laptop it would complete the installation of Vista and you can assign a user name and password, the laptop was also preloaded with Microsoft Works and Bit Defender Anti-Virus (from HCL India), it detected my college Wifi network protected via WPA and I was connected to the same after entering my password, the Wifi reception of this UMPC is pretty good,albeit catching lemon tree network which is infront of ma window is across 'hypothetical'.
Before we move ahead with the review I wanted to list the hardware specs for the HCL Mileap V-Series UMPC
800 Mhz Intel A110 Ultra Mobile processor,
Before we move ahead with the review I wanted to list the hardware specs for the HCL Mileap V-Series UMPC
800 Mhz Intel A110 Ultra Mobile processor,
512 KB L2 cache – 400Mhz FSB1024 MB DDR2 SDRAM,
Single slot max of 2 GB is supported 80 GB 2.5” 5,200 rpm SATA Hard disk7”
Swivel WVGA LED touch screen supporting 1024×600 / 800×600 res with 16.7 million colors
2 USB 2.0 SlotsWireless Lan (Wifi b/g) with Bluetooth v2.01 VGA out port3
Cell Li-ion battery pack (gives a backup time of approx 2.2 hrs with Wifi on,
the battery charges in about 2.2 hrs)
4 in 1 Memory card reader1 RJ 45 100/10 Mbps
Ethernet Lan port (do note there is no RJ11 modem port)
1 CF card slot
1.3 Megapixel webcam
Built in Microphone80
Keys US English keyboard (The keys are a bit small and will take time to get used to but the feel of the keys on the keyboard is good)
1 Plastic Stylus (which is stored in the silio provided at the right hand corner of the screen)Touchpad with 2 buttons
Built in 2 stereo speakersCarry case (only with Mileap V series)
Weight: 980 grams (0.98 Kgs). now exclaim.. ohhh really!!!
Things that came with the package apart from the UMPC itself are the carrying case HCL also gave the CD’s for
Things that came with the package apart from the UMPC itself are the carrying case HCL also gave the CD’s for
Vista Home Premium,
Microsoft Works,
Warranty Card,
Bit-Defender Anti-Virus serial key,
User Manual and a driver CD,
the good thing was I did not need any of these discs, Vista was able to get all the required drivers and updates from Windows Update service also do note that in the Manual it states that this UMPC can run Windows XP tablet edition too.
The overall hardware overview of the Mileap tablet UMPC
The first thing that would amaze you is the size it’s so small you got to see it to believe it, most of the exterior body is made up on glossy plastic and it looks gorgeous, but again is a finger print magnet. I have to say the build quality is quite good and it looks and feels nice to hold, as it can also function like a normal laptop it also has a touch pad but it’s a lot smaller than what we are used to see in laptops but is quite good to use, I got used to the touchpad within 15 minutes, there is also a stick / thumb pointer on the left hand of the screen and direction pad that can be used to navigate in the tablet mode when the keyboard is folded down, on the right side to the screen we have some hotkeys, brightness controls, 2 dedicated buttons for scrolling, and the mouse left and right click to be used with the Stick thumb pointer in the tablet mode.
The screen which is a 7 inch LED type with touch support, the screen is sharp and very bright it has a native resolution of 1024×600 can also support 800×600 being such a bright screen and you can easily work even in day light with the same, indoors I had to keep the brightness to the second lowest setting also the internal speakers are pretty good for such a compact UMPC you can also plug in your standard headphones and a microphone if required, I connected my headphones and the sound is very loud and clear, there is a dedicated switch from which you can control the volume directly, also there is a small switch for Wireless which control the Bluetooth and WiFi, the 80 GB hard disk hardly makes any noise and there a led to show activity for Hard disk, battery charging, Wifi, Bluetooth and power mode overall everything that you might need in such a small form factor.
Performance of Mileap V with Windows Vista Home Premium :
I was a bit pessimistic and also worried how a 800Mhz processor would handle Vista coz we all know how Vista is and can bring down very good computers to its keens, and I was surprised with the performance of this UMPC with Vista, needless to say it’s very functional and quite snappy for its size, it does take time to boot up but after that multitasking with 3-4 applications running at the same time is no problems, the laptop is also very silent and hardly makes any noise, It ran Vista with Aero Glass graphics without any problems thanks to the Intel 900 Graphic chipset, when you run on battery the Aero graphics are disabled to conserve power, I don’t shut off the UMPC using the shutdown command but use the hibernate option as it boots back from hibernation to Vista in just 29 seconds.
The overall hardware overview of the Mileap tablet UMPC
The first thing that would amaze you is the size it’s so small you got to see it to believe it, most of the exterior body is made up on glossy plastic and it looks gorgeous, but again is a finger print magnet. I have to say the build quality is quite good and it looks and feels nice to hold, as it can also function like a normal laptop it also has a touch pad but it’s a lot smaller than what we are used to see in laptops but is quite good to use, I got used to the touchpad within 15 minutes, there is also a stick / thumb pointer on the left hand of the screen and direction pad that can be used to navigate in the tablet mode when the keyboard is folded down, on the right side to the screen we have some hotkeys, brightness controls, 2 dedicated buttons for scrolling, and the mouse left and right click to be used with the Stick thumb pointer in the tablet mode.
The screen which is a 7 inch LED type with touch support, the screen is sharp and very bright it has a native resolution of 1024×600 can also support 800×600 being such a bright screen and you can easily work even in day light with the same, indoors I had to keep the brightness to the second lowest setting also the internal speakers are pretty good for such a compact UMPC you can also plug in your standard headphones and a microphone if required, I connected my headphones and the sound is very loud and clear, there is a dedicated switch from which you can control the volume directly, also there is a small switch for Wireless which control the Bluetooth and WiFi, the 80 GB hard disk hardly makes any noise and there a led to show activity for Hard disk, battery charging, Wifi, Bluetooth and power mode overall everything that you might need in such a small form factor.
Performance of Mileap V with Windows Vista Home Premium :
I was a bit pessimistic and also worried how a 800Mhz processor would handle Vista coz we all know how Vista is and can bring down very good computers to its keens, and I was surprised with the performance of this UMPC with Vista, needless to say it’s very functional and quite snappy for its size, it does take time to boot up but after that multitasking with 3-4 applications running at the same time is no problems, the laptop is also very silent and hardly makes any noise, It ran Vista with Aero Glass graphics without any problems thanks to the Intel 900 Graphic chipset, when you run on battery the Aero graphics are disabled to conserve power, I don’t shut off the UMPC using the shutdown command but use the hibernate option as it boots back from hibernation to Vista in just 29 seconds.
This is the swiveled position of mileap,
-it swings to and fro through one direction and only to the scope of 180 degrees.
I was able to easily work with MP3 files playing in the background, running IE8 with 5 websites open in tabs, also writing a document with Microsoft Works Word processor. I also installed the MS Office 2007 and then played a Divx video via Windows Media Player and it had no problems running the same it was a pleasure to watch the movie on the crisp display, I also had no problem playing Flash video files found on various websites, I played a few videos via Youtube and it had no problems with that, the thing to note was that the CPU utilization was a bit high when playing these Youtube videos the CPU usage was between 70 – 80%.
These Mileap V series of UMPC also support input using the stylus using the touch screen in the tablet mode and this machine doesn’t disappoint you in that area. I am fairly new to tablets so I am just getting used to the stylus but the tablet thing works, you can also change the orientation of the screen from portrait to landscape etc a total of 4 modes are available to suit your needs there is a dedicated button for this on the right hand side of the screen and it works without any issues, I used it a as a slate and the handwriting recognition is surprisingly good in Vista, as it weighs just 980 grams it was nice to use it like a slate to browse the web, but if you need to type a lot of stuff I suggest going back to the laptop mode as its much more easier and faster that way at least for me, moving on the keyboard it’s the standard English US keyboard that is provided in most laptops, but the keys are a bit smaller in size so you just need to get used to the same, I was making a lot of mistakes first using the keyboard coz the shift key at the right is very tiny in size and is very near the cursors I was always hitting the top cursor button instead of the shift key, now getting used to use the left side shift key which is much wider in size!
One thing to note is that the laptop warms up after some time and if you run many applications at the same time it gets quite hot, there is a heat vent at the right hand side of the laptop and you can literary feel some hot air blowing via the same again it doesn’t make any noise.
Some simple benchmarks on the Mileap V UMPC
For benchmarking reference, I will be comparing it with primary desktop and HP 14” Core2duo Laptop.
Primary desktop Config: Intel Quad Core Q6600 processor running at 2.4 Ghz, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 320 GB 7200 rpm hard drive, Geforce 8600 GT 256MB graphic card its is running Microsoft Vista Home Premium with SP1 RC1.
HP Laptop config: Intel Core2duo dual core 1.6 Ghz processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive and a geforce 7400 graphic card, running Microsoft XP media center edition.
These Mileap V series of UMPC also support input using the stylus using the touch screen in the tablet mode and this machine doesn’t disappoint you in that area. I am fairly new to tablets so I am just getting used to the stylus but the tablet thing works, you can also change the orientation of the screen from portrait to landscape etc a total of 4 modes are available to suit your needs there is a dedicated button for this on the right hand side of the screen and it works without any issues, I used it a as a slate and the handwriting recognition is surprisingly good in Vista, as it weighs just 980 grams it was nice to use it like a slate to browse the web, but if you need to type a lot of stuff I suggest going back to the laptop mode as its much more easier and faster that way at least for me, moving on the keyboard it’s the standard English US keyboard that is provided in most laptops, but the keys are a bit smaller in size so you just need to get used to the same, I was making a lot of mistakes first using the keyboard coz the shift key at the right is very tiny in size and is very near the cursors I was always hitting the top cursor button instead of the shift key, now getting used to use the left side shift key which is much wider in size!
One thing to note is that the laptop warms up after some time and if you run many applications at the same time it gets quite hot, there is a heat vent at the right hand side of the laptop and you can literary feel some hot air blowing via the same again it doesn’t make any noise.
Some simple benchmarks on the Mileap V UMPC
For benchmarking reference, I will be comparing it with primary desktop and HP 14” Core2duo Laptop.
Primary desktop Config: Intel Quad Core Q6600 processor running at 2.4 Ghz, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 320 GB 7200 rpm hard drive, Geforce 8600 GT 256MB graphic card its is running Microsoft Vista Home Premium with SP1 RC1.
HP Laptop config: Intel Core2duo dual core 1.6 Ghz processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive and a geforce 7400 graphic card, running Microsoft XP media center edition.
On this UMPC keyboard
you can type a.f.a.p....(as fast as possible)
Boot up time to load Vista Home Premium
HCL Mileap : Time taken to boot Vista to the logon screen was 45 seconds.
to the Vista desktop 20 seconds, waiting for Vista startup modules and connected to the Wifi in about 29 seconds more, so from a cold boot its actually takes just 65 seconds to come to the Vista desktop add another half minute or so and you can start working, total time approx 94 seconds (do note that the Hard drive run for a minutes or so more).
Desktop: Time taken to boot Vista to the logon screen 38 seconds, from the user logon to Vista desktop 1 seconds, waiting for the vista modules to load another 12 seconds, so the total time approx is 51 seconds on Quad core desktop machine.
HP Laptop: Not applicable as its running XP Media center edition.
I did not have a copy of XP tablet edition to install on this UMPC, but expect a 15-20% improvement over Vista in general performance with XP tablet edition.
Copying a 700 MB file from a 2 GB Sandisk cruzer USB thumb drive.
HCL Mileap: Took 58 seconds to copy the 700 MB file to its hard-disk averaging transfer speed was 12 MB/sec.
On my desktop the transfer took 49 seconds, averaging a transfer speed of 14.2 MB/sec which is to be expected as it has a faster hard disk.
On my HP Laptop the file transfer was again in 58 seconds.
Vistas Performance Index ratings for Mileap
Some decent figures by Vista built in benchmarks it’s just due to the 800Mhz processor it got a rating of 2.1 (do note that the highest rating a component can get is 5.9)
Shutdown Hibernation and Sleep timings.
The time Mileap UMPC took to shutdown in Vista was approx 20 seconds, the stand by time is very quick and it goes to sleep by mode in 2 seconds, you can just put down the screen lid and it goes into the deep sleep mode, it also wakes from sleep mode within 2-3 seconds but it can take upto 10 seconds more to establish the Wifi connection again, it’s a good idea to use the hibernate option instead of the shutdown option as them taken to come back from Hibernation is just 29 seconds, on the other hand to go into hibernation and shutoff it takes approx 40 seconds.
Pricing for Various Models of HCL Mileap in India
Conclusion: HCL Mileap V-Series is a good UMPC / laptop which does not disappointed you under Vista, you can do a fair bit of multitasking with it and this can be your true portable second PC, you can do most of day to day activities like browsing the web, email, working with office documents, excel sheets playing music and watching movies, its weights less than a kilo so you can carry it anywhere you like but if you are a heavy user and are into Video Editing and stuff which requires a powerful processor this might not be the ideal machine for you for the rest of us, this is a great UMPC at an irresistible price!
If you would like to see my first post and unboxing of this UMPC .If you have any questions regarding this Mileap UMPC please post you questions and I would be glad to answer them.
Update 24 Feb 2008
If forgot to mention about the Laptop carry bag that is provided with this Mileap V series, it’s not a bag but a pouch to carry the UMPC it looks sleek but it’s impractical, after inserting the laptop in the bag as seen in the picture below you don’t have any space to put the power adapter & cables and you need to carry the power adapter because the battery last for just around 2 hrs, If you want to carry along this laptop on extended trips you would need to buy another laptop bag.
HCL Mileap : Time taken to boot Vista to the logon screen was 45 seconds.
to the Vista desktop 20 seconds, waiting for Vista startup modules and connected to the Wifi in about 29 seconds more, so from a cold boot its actually takes just 65 seconds to come to the Vista desktop add another half minute or so and you can start working, total time approx 94 seconds (do note that the Hard drive run for a minutes or so more).
Desktop: Time taken to boot Vista to the logon screen 38 seconds, from the user logon to Vista desktop 1 seconds, waiting for the vista modules to load another 12 seconds, so the total time approx is 51 seconds on Quad core desktop machine.
HP Laptop: Not applicable as its running XP Media center edition.
I did not have a copy of XP tablet edition to install on this UMPC, but expect a 15-20% improvement over Vista in general performance with XP tablet edition.
Copying a 700 MB file from a 2 GB Sandisk cruzer USB thumb drive.
HCL Mileap: Took 58 seconds to copy the 700 MB file to its hard-disk averaging transfer speed was 12 MB/sec.
On my desktop the transfer took 49 seconds, averaging a transfer speed of 14.2 MB/sec which is to be expected as it has a faster hard disk.
On my HP Laptop the file transfer was again in 58 seconds.
Vistas Performance Index ratings for Mileap
Some decent figures by Vista built in benchmarks it’s just due to the 800Mhz processor it got a rating of 2.1 (do note that the highest rating a component can get is 5.9)
Shutdown Hibernation and Sleep timings.
The time Mileap UMPC took to shutdown in Vista was approx 20 seconds, the stand by time is very quick and it goes to sleep by mode in 2 seconds, you can just put down the screen lid and it goes into the deep sleep mode, it also wakes from sleep mode within 2-3 seconds but it can take upto 10 seconds more to establish the Wifi connection again, it’s a good idea to use the hibernate option instead of the shutdown option as them taken to come back from Hibernation is just 29 seconds, on the other hand to go into hibernation and shutoff it takes approx 40 seconds.
Pricing for Various Models of HCL Mileap in India
Conclusion: HCL Mileap V-Series is a good UMPC / laptop which does not disappointed you under Vista, you can do a fair bit of multitasking with it and this can be your true portable second PC, you can do most of day to day activities like browsing the web, email, working with office documents, excel sheets playing music and watching movies, its weights less than a kilo so you can carry it anywhere you like but if you are a heavy user and are into Video Editing and stuff which requires a powerful processor this might not be the ideal machine for you for the rest of us, this is a great UMPC at an irresistible price!
If you would like to see my first post and unboxing of this UMPC .If you have any questions regarding this Mileap UMPC please post you questions and I would be glad to answer them.
Update 24 Feb 2008
If forgot to mention about the Laptop carry bag that is provided with this Mileap V series, it’s not a bag but a pouch to carry the UMPC it looks sleek but it’s impractical, after inserting the laptop in the bag as seen in the picture below you don’t have any space to put the power adapter & cables and you need to carry the power adapter because the battery last for just around 2 hrs, If you want to carry along this laptop on extended trips you would need to buy another laptop bag.
Bottom Line for layman .... brothers: If you gonna do ABAP or JAVA DOT
NET kinda programming by installing demonous SAP ,ORACLE or JAVA packs
this shit will taste you bitter, if not why to use core2duo or dual core when
your use is not even gonna suck its 30-50% of CPU usage..
For sapheads who Still dint understood: go for a swimsuit when u wana swim, why denim?
note: please dont click on this link... I know you will...
Hey Amol,
ReplyDeleteI agree that a real good buy for a Business Executive...
- SK