The iPhone 3G won’t be the only device being manhandled in Japan next Friday. The Atom-based Willcom D4, which is still on track to be my next UMPC, will begin shipping on July 11th as well. Sadly, included in the box with the Vista-running slider will be a standard battery that has an estimated runtime of . . . *wipes tears away* . . . 1.5 hours. Not exactly in keeping with those previously reported 5- to 6-hour estimates!
A high-capacity battery with a runtime of about 4.5 hours is available as an optional accessory, but it costs 14,800 yen (about $138), adds 0.4 inches to the thickness of the unit, and increases the D4′s weight by a quarter-pound.
Excuse me while I pick up the pieces of my broken heart.
Here’s a screenshot of the translated power specs listed near the bottom of the official product page.
[Engadget Japanese (translated)]
Aww Jenn don’t cry, it’s a big world out there, you are bound to meet the perfect UMPC some day!
you should have seen it coming. no way can a vista running device manage to get 5-6 hours…
if it was not using atom i would worry that it would not go over the 1 hour mark at all…
also, vista on atom? forget about anything other then basic…
Maybe they should rename it to the “Can’t-ComD4″. I know it’s whay you do but I for one believe that any UMPC device that does not get a minimum of 2.5 hours on standard battery should not even be given any press. Let them go back to the drwaing board and figure out how to release a useful device before wasting our time.
What an absolute tragedy. Well that’s one unit firmly crossed off my list.
And it bodes extremely badly for the battery life of Atom (Silverthorne) devices. The D4 is about the same size as an Everun, but has a rubbish battery life in comparison. I know the slider mechanism is taking up some space that the Everun can devote to battery, but still. I’m wondering if Atom won’t deliver a pocket-sized computer with more than say 3-4 hours battery life, and for me that’s just not good enough.
I wouldn’t mind getting the D4 to replace my Nokia N800 for when I just want to travel light but still be able to get some Word,Excel,Schedule in Outlook, and web browse. But at that price and battery life, I will just keep on using my N800 and my U810.
Bigger than the Everun, with worse battery life? I think I’ll have to pass. Not that I think much of the Everun keyboard, CPU, or screen, but Sharp’s asking for too many tradeoffs just to get Vista in there.
I think the early specs called for it being 1.4″ in height which according to your pictures looks like what the extended battery would have.
I would still consider this but definately with the longer battery option. The picture you show says 35.3 millimeters for the increased battery which is 1.389 inches and the other picture is 25.9 milimeters or 1.019 inches. Both of those dimensions are jacket pocket heights as the HP Jornada was 1.3 inches and it had no problems at all; increasing to 1.4 or 1.5 would still work.
Increasing the thickness should still make it small enough to store in a jacket pocket as the depth is the real limiting dimension. To me the problem with all the other UMPC’s is that the input lacks a keyboard and they are all much too large to ever fit in coat pocket ever.