So, there's a UMPC called the Smart Q7 that I've recently become somewhat enamored with. It's a result of my wanting an eBook Reader, Internet Tablet, and digital photo display.


I can get one off of eBay for $229. The hitch is that it's not actually available stateside, and is only available in China. I've seen some unboxing online and the OS is about 90% English, and there are homebrew patches that can get rid of that last 10%. I was just wondering if anyone else had experience ordering foreign systems and if there's anything specific I need to look out for.

(Also, it comes with a US-standard plug, the British guy in the unboxing video was surprised by that).

http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/smart-q7-reviewed-deemed-fairly-useful-for-fairly-basic-tasks/

10/20/2009 7:59:02 PM

power supply? can you get a US plug for it or an adapter? i'm sure you can, just spitting out what first came to mind.
didn't finish reading the OP

[Edited on October 20, 2009 at 8:13 PM. Reason : duh]

10/20/2009 8:12:35 PM

It comes with a US standard plug.

I don't know WHY it comes with a US standard plug, but it does in every unboxing I've seen online.

[Edited on October 20, 2009 at 8:13 PM. Reason : quick like squirrel and failing at crazycode]

10/20/2009 8:13:11 PM

why not get a netbook?

10/20/2009 10:12:39 PM

^seriously. That thing is really underpowered and sounds like it's got pretty lackluster features.

For $229, you can get one of several netbooks with a lot more under the hood. Small tablets like that are a pain in the ass to use day to day.

10/20/2009 10:45:18 PM

^^,^

i'm assuming cause it's not a tablet

10/20/2009 10:59:27 PM

I worked with a tablet daily for over a year. It's a frustrating experience.

Convertible tablets are awesome (I've had one now for almost two years), because you have the keyboard there. I found myself using it in tablet mode maybe 5-10% of the time, if that.

10/20/2009 11:14:34 PM

yea i dont think id like it either...but i love my iphone so who knows.

10/20/2009 11:18:32 PM

the iphone fits in your pocket. And it's a PHONE.

Even then, its a pretty rough experience as an internet device. And an absolutely tiny screen.

10/20/2009 11:19:48 PM

I want this as something better than an eBook Reader, and since e-ink displays just annoy me this seems like a better alternative (although I will admit to being intrigued by the Nook). Getting a netbook wouldn't work because, honestly, I just want to be able to hold it in one hand while I'm reading something.

My other alternative is getting an old tablet PC off of ebay that I can just use as a reader. The issues there are battery life, even older technology, and it wouldn't be as easy to hold.

I've used my wife's iPhone enough to know that getting one or getting an iPod Touch wouldn't suffice

So yeah, has anyone ordered from a Chinese or other foreign country and come across any substantial issues?

[Edited on October 21, 2009 at 8:24 AM. Reason : /]

10/21/2009 8:15:22 AM

to those recommending a netbook, the OP is asking for apples and you're offering him pears...they're close, but not the same thing

he specifically mentioned using it as an "eBook Reader, Internet Tablet, and digital photo display."

a UMPC is much better suited for two of those three things than a netbook is (in terms of convenience, anyway)...the smartq 7 is smaller and lighter with better battery life (obviously you could pick up an extended-life battery if you want to spend more money and deal with the added weight, but the smartq 7 gets 8-10 hours of constant use with the stock battery)

the proc is more than sufficient for everything the OP wants...you don't need a blazing fast CPU to browse tww or watch youtube videos...he's not trying to decode HD content (which the cheap netbooks won't do, either, so it's a moot point)

it's got its issues, sure...the OS kinda sucks and there seems to be a software bug that limits video playback to ~20fps, but that's software and you can google for some possible wince ports that fix these software issues...if the OP doesn't mind fiddling with it a bit, it's much more useful than a netbook for what he wants to do

smartq 5, $152: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.26366
smartq 7, $211: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.27441
smartq 7 full review: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48934

10/21/2009 8:42:28 AM

Quote :

"watch youtube videos"

Quote :

"There is no flash support at this time"

Did you load a different OS on it or has a firmware update changed this?

10/21/2009 9:26:02 AM

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=16571 ?

10/21/2009 1:02:48 PM

there are in fact tablet netbooks...

10/21/2009 3:28:22 PM

Yes, there are.

The cheapest one I found was over 500 bucks, and it still wouldn't fit in one hand.

Would it help to establish that I am not working on a large budget here, and am trying to do things in a relatively inexpensive manner.

No, no it wouldn't help, since nobody except the first poster has actually answered the question.


[Edited on October 21, 2009 at 5:01 PM. Reason : but then, this is TWW and I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect that.]

10/21/2009 4:58:05 PM

if you want a more powerful eReader, then any UMPC will suffice.

but I still think it's going to be a disappointment. most of them only get 2-3 hours of battery life, which isn't going to give you much time to read, much less do anything else.

Unfortunately the device you're really asking for doesn't really exist yet. eReaders are getting there, but until we get full color eInk, it's not going to be quite what you want.

10/22/2009 3:33:22 PM

Quote :

"but I still think it's going to be a disappointment. most of them only get 2-3 hours of battery life, which isn't going to give you much time to read, much less do anything else."

who cares about most of them? he's picked a particular model that, had you bothered to read my post or the click the link to the review, gets 8-10 of battery life while browsing teh intarweb (of course YMMV, but that's an actual user review, not the company's horse puckey)

i hear that if you take the battery out completely, they get ZERO hours

of course, that's irrelevant, but we should definitely throw it in as a valid talking point

10/23/2009 7:53:30 AM

http://sellout.woot.com/Default.aspx?WootSaleId=10149&ts=1256302841&sig=ac100e3167d20966

10/23/2009 8:56:06 AM

A nice suggestion (small screen, 200 dollars more than I feel like parting with right now, low ram for running vista), but doesn't really get at what the question was for this thread.

10/23/2009 9:45:27 AM

yeah, I had just planned on linking more and more things that weren't what you were asking
in actuality I would order from whoever with paypal since you can dispute charges with them. I wouldn't worry about anything else. the real mess will be getting software straight

10/23/2009 9:49:17 AM

^^ it's really not a big deal...if you're finding people online that have used it in the US without any problems, you're probably fine...the biggest thing is making sure that the power supply supports 110-220v (usually ranges from 100-240v), which just about every power supply manufactured in the past decade does, even the cheap crappy ones (they suck for other reasons), BEFORE you plug it into the wall



i've seen two laptop bricks with a switch, but these were both aftermarket and not the original power supply (you almost always see a switch on desktop power supplies, however)

now let us get back to arguing about what you do and don't need/want

[Edited on October 23, 2009 at 9:54 AM. Reason : pic]

10/23/2009 9:52:23 AM

cool, thanks, now we can commence to saying while i'm obviously batshit crazy for even considering it.

although, to be honest the Nook looks mighty tempting if they can get a (wifi only, course) web browser on it.

10/23/2009 9:54:27 AM

The kindle has a web browser on it

as far as the original question, quagmire hit on the only hiccup. Make sure to check the power cable it comes with. Worst case you'll just need to buy a US equivalent one. Shipping/ordering etc shouldn't be a problem at all, especially through ebay. I've ordered stuff from all over Asia through ebay and never had an issue.

quag: yes it gets great battery life. However, his original wants (eBook reader, internet tablet, digital photo display) don't match up well. It is a decent eBook reader. However it doesn't support Flash or Java and it's slow as molasses to render web pages, which doesn't make it much of an internet tablet. No flash, quicktime, java, or silverlight cuts off the modern web. And I've yet to see any mention of it being able to display photos through anything more than a file interface. Maybe ubuntu/Mer has some great photo software, but I somehow doubt it.

10/23/2009 5:40:32 PM

Right, I forget that. But frankly my desire to look at a web browser on the Kindle is somewhere between nothing and *retch*

Quote :

"Did you load a different OS on it or has a firmware update changed this?"

I know you can put Windows CE on it, but I don't know if that supports flash. There's also a group working on putting Android on it.

[Edited on October 26, 2009 at 8:15 AM. Reason : .]

10/26/2009 8:14:21 AM

yeah, if you don't mind a little monkeying around, you can probably have it do everything you've listed so far without a lot of effort

seems like a pretty solid little device for the cash monies

10/26/2009 9:20:29 AM